240 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
in some countries lives ten or a dozen years or more 
the men of Iowa, Illinois, Ohio or New York would 
be better off. The simple truth is that after the first 
year alfalfa is in its prime. It may yield as much 
the third year or may not. It will often begin to de- 
cline somewhat on the fourth year and may be not- 
ably less productive on the fifth year. By the sixth 
year the owner begins to wonder whether, after all, 
alfalfa is as valuable a crop as he had supposed and 
his neighbors begin to say ‘‘I told you so!’’ 
Now ‘had this man turned under his alfalfa after 
it had given him 3 or 4 years of cuttings he would 
have had some twinges of conscience and pangs of 
remorse at what he was doing, and his neighbors 
would have called him a fool for ‘‘killing the golden 
goose,’’ but he would have in the long run made more 
money and alfalfa would never have gone into dis- 
repute. 
Suggested Rotations—In Ohio, Indiana and IIli- 
nois maize (corn) i8 king. Nothing else pays so 
well as corn and alfalfa, with animals to eat the stuff 
they pile up. Hence the most profitable rotation 
here will likely be, corn two years, alfalfa with bar- 
ley one year, alfalfa alone three or four years, ac- 
cording to soil, then corn again, two years, and thus 
on around in regular rotation. 
Rotation for a 300 Acre Farm.—Corn two years, 
barley and alfalfa one year, alfalfa three years, 
means a 6-year rotation. Let us see what one would 
get in that rotation each year. Say the fields are of 
40 acres each; then he has 80 acres in corn on alfalfa 
