242 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
to be fed, or dairy cows kept, one can hardly have 
too much alfalfa. 
The cash value of these crops would be about as 
follows: The farmer could not sell all of the 7,000 
bushels of corn since his horses must be fed. He 
could sell 6,000 bushels, for say 50 cents per bushel or 
$3,000, or he could sell of his hay, 400 tons, by feea- 
ing his corn stover to his cows and work teams; the 
hay would be worth about $8 per ton as an average 
low price, or $3,200 or more. The 1,000 bushels of 
barley would be worth say 60 cents, or $600. The 
gross returns then from the 300 acre farm devoted 
to corn and alfalfa would be around $6,800. And if 
one bought what phosphorus his crops took out of 
his soil it is probable that he could keep on selling 
off these crops for some years. It would certainly 
be far better to feed the crops, and the profits ought 
to be larger in proportion. 
Crop Failures—‘‘*Hold on!’’? I hear the reader 
say, ‘‘do you not allow for crop failures in this esti- 
mate of yours?’’ 
One has occasionally a poor year in corn growing. 
A crop failure in corn grown on well drained, well 
enriched land, on alfalfa sod, has yet to be recorded. 
A crop failure with alfalfa has not yet been recorded. 
Certainly some years produce more than other years. 
Alfalfa is the safest and surest of all crops when 
established on kindly soil. The risk is very slight, 
only one has always the labor of harvest, not the 
labor of preparing the land each year, of eternally 
seeding. 
