240 ALPALJ'A FARMING IN AMERICA. 



in some coimtries lives ten or a dozen years or more 

 the men of Iowa, Illinois, Ohio or Xew York would 

 be better off. The simple truth is that after the first 

 year alfalfa is in its prime. It may yield as much 

 the third year or may not. It will often begin to de- 

 cline somewhat on the fourth year and may be not- 

 ably less productive on the fifth year. By the sixth 

 year the owner begins to wonder wheither, after all, 

 alfalfa is as valuable a crop as he had supposed and 

 his neighbors begin to say ' ' I told you so ! " 



Xow had this man turned under his alfalfa after 

 it had given him 3 or 4 years of cuttings he would 

 have had some twinges of conscience and pangs of 

 remorse at w'hat he was doing, and his neighbors 

 would have called him a fool for "killing the golden 

 goose, ' ' but he would have in the long run made more 

 money and alfalfa would never have gone into dis- 

 repute. 



Suggested Rotations. — In Ohio, Indiana and Illi- 

 nois maize (corn) is king. Xothing else pays so 

 well as com and alfalfa, with animals to eat the stuff 

 they pile up. Hence the most profitable rotation 

 here will likely be, com two years, alfalfa with bar- 

 ley one year, alfalfa alone three or four years, ac- 

 cording to soil, then com again, two years, and thus 

 on around in regular rotation. 



Rotation for a 300 Acre Farm. — Corn two years, 

 barley and alfalfa one year, alfalfa three years, 

 means a 6-year rotation. Let us see what one would 

 get in that rotation eac'h year. Say the fields are of 

 40 acres each ; then he has 80 acres in com on alfalfa 



