ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 239 
year after being sown it will make a half more hay 
than will red clover and the hay is of better quality. 
It may then be plowed under as red clover would be, 
or it may continue another year with mote profit, 
while red clover can not, since that plant is almost 
biennial in its nature. So it is certainly not true 
that alfalfa can not fit into a rotation, no matter how 
short it is. 
Even as a catch crop in corn I found when I 
mixed red clover, alfalfa and crimson clover to- 
gether and sowed at last cultivation that I got more 
plants through the winter of alfalfa than of either 
of the other clovers. Doubtless on good lands, filled 
with lime, alfalfa as a manuring crop to be sown in 
corn would be more profitable than almost anything 
that could be sown. The difficulty: in the way of 
this use is that usually the seed is too dear and when 
one gets a stand of alfalfa he sees too much profit 
in leaving it to let him desire to plow it under. 
How Long Should Alfalfa Stand?—This is very 
much a local question. We have instances of alfalfa 
fields 10, 20 even 40 years old that have never been 
re-seeded. I have walked over fields that were said 
to be 40 years old and they were yet in vigorous pro- 
duction. This was in Texas, near San Antonio. 
This book is not written for men who can grow al- 
falfa in that way; they need no books save pocket- 
books. The fact that alfalfa is such a long-lived 
plant in dry regions with well drained soils and dry, 
warm winters has worked to mislead men living far- 
ther east or north. If they could forget that alfalfa 
