492 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
of course. The result has been splendid. We have 
used 500 pounds of acid phosphate to the acre and 
80 pounds of nitrate of soda at the time of growing, 
and each year afterward about 400 pounds of acid 
phosphate, sometimes in early spring, sometimes 
after taking off the first cutting. 
Nevertheless, we have made partial failures. 
Certain galled, washed and eroded hillsides that had 
grown nothing for decades we sowed to alfalfa. On 
some of these hillsides we had glorious success, bet- 
ter when they faced the south. To conquer a red 
gall in that Southland is a difficult thing. We did it 
by extra amounts of limestone, extra amounts of 
manure and fertilization as well. On certain galled 
hillsides that faced the north we did not succeed so 
well because the frosts of winter lifted out our 
young plants. There we think August seeding, or 
else spring seeding, would be better. On some of 
the most stubbornly barren spots we are sowing 
melilotus, which seems to thrive. Red galls are a 
soil mystery, not yet fully solved, their barrenness 
being due perhaps to the union of their phosphorus 
with iron. However, we have some of the worst 
scarred hillsides carpeted with luxuriant alfalfa, 
erosion absolutely stopped and the land, once worse 
than worthless, a goo! source of profit. 
Of the behavior of alfalfa at Kensington Mr. 
Huffman remarked: 
“T know two things: first, that in establishing 
alfalfa here one one must do well each and every 
part of the werk; he cannot leave one thing undone. 
