44 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



ways on the next day, but as soon as it is dried it is 

 placed on broad, low-platform wagons, each bed 16' 

 long and 7' wide, with tight board floors ; and taken 

 to the barn where it is unloaded by horse forks. The 

 farm possesses 7 of these wagons, so that each even- 

 ing it is the daily duty to load up the 7 wagons with 

 from 10 to 14 tons of hay, which are then drawn un- 

 der shed ready to be unloaded in the morning. Not 

 much is doing in the alfalfa meadows in the fore- 

 noon; then is the time chosen for work in the com 

 fields, and cultivators are pushed steadily. These 

 two crops, corn and alfalfa, constitute almost all that 

 is grown on Woodland Farm, excepting a few acres 

 of soy beans and the blue grass pastures, but as the 

 alfalfa is cut three times during the season, and the 

 corn cultivated at least five times, there is no dif- 

 ficulty in keeping everyone busy. 



The writer makes no apology for having devoted 

 so much time to the operations on "Woodland Farm, 

 since he feels that in a sense this is a pioneer farm, 

 and fairly prophetic only, of what will be very com- 

 mon throughout all the region of the com belt. Very 

 certainly these two crops, com and alfalfa, are by 

 far the most profitable of any, and do most conserve 

 the fertility of the soil, do best nourish all manner of 

 farm animals, do most surely build the fortunes of 

 the farmer. Deeply buried in the soil of the fields, 

 the alfalfa roots know nothing of the vicissitudes of 

 winter ; as certainly they put out green as leaves up- 

 on the oaks in spring, and drouths that wither up 

 ordinary meadows have little effect upon them. 



