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 corn 
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 corn belt. Very 
certainly these two crops, corn 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. 
