154 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Spruuman. Yes; in a deep porous soil with a deep porous sub- 
soil. 
Mr. Grarr. How many years will it stand well before it runs out? 
Mr. Sprttman. That depends altogether upon its treatment and upon 
the presence of weeds. If nothing is done to it except to cut it three or 
four times a year for hay, and the weeds are kept out of it, it is good 
for three generations, say seventy-five years. 
The Cuarrman. You said that up in Onondaga County, N. Y., there 
was a little patch. Has it grown patchy with age? 
Mr. Srrutman. Yes; I think it has, but I think cattle have been 
turned in on it, and that accounts for that. If it had been handled, 
properly and had no stock upon it, and kept for hay, and the weeds 
kept out of it carefully, we do not know the limit of life of it. 
The Cuarrman. You do not advise the pasturing of it? 
Mr. Spirtman. No. If I had an alfalfa field I would fence off part 
of it and pasture it with hogs, and keep the other part separate, and 
on can make more money out of it in that way than by selling hay at 
8 a ton. ' 
Mr. Scorr. Did you mean, in answering Mr. Grafi’s question a 
moment ago, that it would last three generations? 
Mr. Sprititman. Yes; three generations, or seventy-five years. There 
are well authenticated cases of fields in Europe, where they have been 
handled with care, where the tields are at least seventy-five years old. 
Mr. Grarr. What are the advantages of alfalfa over clover? 
Mr. Sritiman. Its principal advantage is in greater yield. You 
know the great value of red clover lies in the fact that it is rich in 
nitrogen. Alfalfa is 50 per cent richer in nitrogen than red clover. 
Mr. Grarr. Does it grow in Illinois? 
Mr. Sprutman. Yes; just as finely as 1 have seen anywhere. I have 
seen it at Urbana, IIl., on that typical black soil of Illinois. 
a Burson. It requires a subsoil base, does it not? It has a tap 
root 
Mr. Sriutman. No, it does not grow to the water. It can use a 
great deal of water, but it wants that water in homeopathic doses. If 
the roots should grow down to the water they will rot wherever they 
touch the water. 
Mr. Scorr. Do the plants send down the deep tap roots in the Illi- 
nois soil that they do in the loose Kansas soil ? 
Mr. Srrutman. It sends it down, but not so deep. Instead of 15 
feet deep, as in Kansas, in a more compact soil it will send it down 
only 6 or 7 feet deep. 
The Cuatrman. And be just as good? 
Mr. Sprutman. Yes; if the other conditions are all right. 
The Cuarrmay. I have seen it growing in very hard clay, Professor. 
Mr. Srmuman. Yes, sir; I was talking alfalfa over in Canada 
recently, and I made the statement that alfalfa was not adapted to 
hard clay soil, and there was an immediate uproar about that, and there 
were 50 men there who said they were growing it on hard clay soil. 
The Cuarrman, I am going to try it. I am afraid, though, of the 
slate. The rock is a little too close to the surface. 
Mr. Sprttman. The one essential thing is that the soil must not be 
full of standing water at any time of the year. If you can avoid that 
it will grow upon almost any type of soil. But hard clay soil here 
and hard soil or clay with 10 inches of rainfall are different things. 
