HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 1538 
some cases all that is necessary to do is to send to the writers of these 
letters ope of those bulletins. We are now preparing another bul- 
letin on the alfalfa particularly, which we hope ill anawor practically 
all of this correspondence. 
Now, there is something peculiar in the history of this crop. It was 
introduced into this country on the Pacific coast when the pioneers 
crossed the mountains in 1849 and 1850. They found the monks in 
the convents out there growing alfalfa for the donkeys and mules. As 
irrigation developed in the West, alfalfa developed with it, so that it 
has always been the hay crop of the irrigated West. Now, in Onondaga 
County, N. Y., alfalfa has been grown as a hay crop ever since the 
year 1754, or for one hundred and fifty years. Over in Madison 
County, N. Y., alfalfa is practically the only hay they grow, and that 
has been the case for generations. In Hamilton County, Ohio, 2,000 
acres of alfalfa are grown. In Lake County, Ill., just north of Chicago, 
there were 8,000 acres of alfalfa last year. In Arkansas a large amount 
was grown, and that is substantially all that was grown east of the 
west line of Missouri. 
Mr. Lever. What is the average production per acre ? 
Mr. Sprttman. The average is between 24 and 3 tons throughout 
the whole United States. 
Mr. Lever. What is the average price per ton? 
Mr. Spriman. The price of hay is governed so much by distance to 
market that it is difficult to say. I know that in certain places in the 
United States the price is $3.50, but in the places where the hay is 
grown near to market the usual price is all the way from $10 to $18 
er ton. 
: The Cuarrman. I have paid $6 for it up in my country last fall. 
Mr. Srrrtman. That is good cheap hay. The Eastern farmers have 
become more interested in alfalfa than in any other forage plant. I 
took occasion some time ago to look over the leading agricultural 
papers of the country, and to my surprise I found that all the agri- 
cultural papers within the past year have devoted more space to 
alfalfa than to all other crops of any kind put together. 
Mr. Brooxs. Where it has been grown for a long time, as in Onon- 
daga County, N. Y., does it lose any of its essential characteristics? 
Mr. Srittmayn. No; it is just as good in Georgia and Louisiana 
and Ohio and Arkansas as any clover is. 
Mr. Brooks. It will last, will it? 
Mr. Spruuman. I know of one field in New York which the owner 
claims was sown forty years ago. It is but a little patch, but it still 
yields good crops of hay. 
Mr. Henry. What are you doing in New England? ; 
Mr. Srirtman. We are carrying on some experiments in connection 
with the Connecticut Experiment Station, and Professor Clinton says 
there are a number of soils there in which it is doing very nicely on a 
number of farms. 
Mr. Henry. There isan area in South Windsor known as the Podunk 
section, and Professor Whitney thinks it is adapted to alfalfa. 
Mr. Sprutman. In fact I think any eastern soil not underlaid by rock 
and not of-a wet nature will grow alfalfa. Itis the most delicate of all 
hay plants in its early life, and the most tenacious of life when once 
started. 
Mr. Scorr. It thrives best in loose sandy soil? 
