514 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
sowed alfalfa on a field that had by overflow been 
covered deep with mud, which on drying had cracked 
open to a depth of 4 inches to 6 inches. His seed 
falling on the hard surface rolled into the cracks, 
germinated there and after a while the leaves 
emerged, followed by the stems leaving the crowns 
buried several inches. Later he harrowed the land, 
filling the cracks, but not of course before the plants 
had become strong enough to withstand treatment. 
The results were most promising, the alfalfa stand- 
ing the winter perfectly and also resisting drouth 
well. He could cultivate without injury to the buried 
crowns. This led him to experiment to see how he 
could bury crowns on land that did not crack open to 
give him any natural opportunity to do this. I quote 
his words: 
“Having arrived at these conclusions, I was so thoroughly 
convinced that this is the proper method of alfalfa culture 
that I risked a large amount of Turkestan seed on a field 
which had been overflowed and had received a deposit of 
mud, which after being dried, was from 4” to 6” in depth. 
This mud, in the drying process, cracked, leaving openings 
from 2” to 3” wide and as deep as the thickness of the mud. 
This field least appeared to be in shape for a coming alfalfa 
field of any field I ever saw, that is looking at it from a 
standpoint of common alfalfa philosophy. But believing in 
my discovery, I proceeded, without any further preparation 
of the ground, to sow this land to alfalfa, trusting that most 
of the seeds would roll into the cracks. I seeded it broadcast 
“at the rate of from 5 to 7 pounds per acre. After seeding, 
I ran a common harrow, with teeth slanted back, over it 
once. This served to make enough loose mulch on top of 
the crusted mud so the first rains could cover the seeds 
sufficiently to germinate. Then I left matters to nature. 
“The first result was that by this act I fully established 
the correctness of my philosophy concerning the nature of 
