VABIETIES 

 OF AI.TAX,TA 



AEID AGEICULTUEE. 127 



dry, these bundles should be put in the stack. 

 Alfalfa for seed should be stacked several weeks, 

 or long enough to get through the sweat before 

 threshing. Never put alfalfa in the stack when 

 there is moisture on the outside of the leaves oi 

 steins. Much alfalfa seed is destroyed by heat- 

 ing in the stack. If the stacks are large, some 

 form of stack ventilator should be used. There 

 should be a stack bottom of poles or other mate- 

 rial to keep the alfalfa off the ground, and open 

 barrels or other frames may be put inside the 

 stack to serve as ventilators. This applies to al- 

 falfa for hay as well as for seed. 



The author is now growing a total of forty- 

 two varieties and strains of alfalfa. Many of 

 these are more properly varietal strains from 

 different parts of the world. While there are 

 few varieties of alfalfa on the market, the seed 

 buyer has some choice, and it is important that 

 he make his own decision rather than let the 

 seeds^man choose for him. The varieties offered 

 by seedsmen are: common alfalfa, which covers 

 a multitude of forms; Turkestan alfalfa, the 

 seed of which has a brown or reddish tinge ; Ger- 

 man alfalfa,, often, identical with' the seedsman's 

 Turkestan, and Grimm's alfalfa, which is said 

 to be an American strain of-sandjucern. Plants 

 of Turkestan alfalfa are so much like our com- 

 mon form that they are indistinguishable. The 

 value of this strain is not that it is a different 



