IN THB DIFFERENT STATES 1 45 



cerning his alfalfa when he said that ' it neither lived 

 nor died'— that is, it lives in little patches and 

 bunches, and never makes a stand and never all kills 

 out." 



OHIO 



Prof. Charles E. Thorne, diredlor of the station at 

 Wooster, writes: "The results of experiments at this 

 station with alfalfa have been chiefly negative. When 

 we sowed it on the rich bottom-lands of the farm we 

 occupied at Columbus the weeds choked it out, and 

 what has been sown here was on thin soil, with rock 

 but a few feet from the surface, and the growth has 

 been slow and unsatisfadlory. I apprehend, however, 

 that the difficulty has been rather in our management 

 than in the nature of the plant, for it has been very 

 successfully grown by Mr. J. E. Wing, of Mechanics- 

 burg, Champaign County, this state, on the deep, grav- 

 elly loams of the glacial drift on which he is situated." 



Mr. Wing says : "I take pleasure in answering 

 your questions regarding alfalfa, and assure you that 

 it holds its own here as elsewhere as the most valuable 

 crop that can be grown. As to its comparative 

 adaptability, I will say that last season, one of great 

 drouth, we secured a fair stand of alfalfa, while so far 

 as I know not one field of clover made a stand in my 

 neighborhood. Our alfalfa has stood all inclemencies 

 of season, while the meadows of timothy and clover 

 have so deteriorated about me that we have been able 

 to sell alfalfa hay to neighboring farmers at $12 per 

 ton. That would seem a good method of teaching 

 them the value of the plant, but the faA is that very 

 little is being sown, and we stand pradlically alone in 

 growing it in this part of Ohio. 



