170 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
selling adulterated alfalfa seed. Nearly all western 
seed will contain a little sweet clover seed and no 
seedsman probably can detect it or clean it out. It 
is not a serious injury to the alfalfa and disappears 
completely the third year when the alfalfa is mown 
off in regular rotation. There is never any difficulty 
in getting rid of melilotus when one gets ready to 
dispose of it. It is very much hardier than alfalfa 
and probably a better forager for plant food; cer- 
tainly it thrives on poorer soil than alfalfa does and 
it does very much to make the land ready for alfalfa 
wherever it grows. It does not ask for as deeply 
drained land as does alfalfa. On the other hand 
animals usually scorn to eat it, though I have seen 
it eaten with relish by sheep, pigs and cows in 
Alabama, and the animals throve. 
The seed usually sells a little cheaper than alfalfa. 
Should there develop much demand for it there 
would be large profit in producing seed on suitable 
soil, since it seeds very freely almost anywhere, 
while alfalfa does not. 
Melilotus in Kentucky—As indicative of what 
melilotus is doing in Kentucky we quote the follow- 
ing extracts from letters written by J. T. Mardis, 
from Pendleton County: 
As an illustration of its value, I will explain that seventeen 
years ago I bought one hundred acres of as badly worn and 
washed land as could be found anywhere. My first resolve and 
constant efforts following was to improve and get in grass, and 
to obtain these results I worked all my spare time, year 
after year, filling washes with any material to be had, plowing, 
harrowing and sowing grass seeds and seeds of many different 
plants advertised and recommended for improving land, for which 
