SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 527 
“The drouth resistance would be increased by giving the 
plants more room. 
“The growing of plants on well-inoculated soil would pro- 
vide perfect inoculation. 
“A very important reason is that it would avoid injury 
from disking. Splitting the alfalfa crowns by the usual discs, 
harrows and spike-toothed renovators affords easy access to 
the soil fungi and the plants soon become black-hearted and 
decayed at the heart. This may have some bearing on the 
root rot, which is reported to be quite destructive in Arizona, 
and the Texas root rot, which has been very destructive in 
Texas since 1892. 
“T am fully aware that this is contrary to all the present 
teachings of the experiment stations, farm papers and farm- 
ers’ institute lectures, but why should we mutilate or maim 
a plant that should last several centuries? Alfalfa fields in 
the orient are shown 400 years old, but the orientals do not 
mutilate their plants as we do. The heart of an alfalfa plant 
should be held as sacred as the heart of an oak tree. 
“Alfalfa is a poor fighter the first year, as the strength 
goes below the ground, hence it is often choked out by weeds, 
which make more top than root. But by setting out a good- 
sized alfalfa plant, often as big as one’s middle finger, they 
ean hold their own better against the weeds. 
“All this has come from studying the individuality of the 
alfalfa plant. I think it will be the best method for growing 
pure seed, and that it will work out from the forage stand- 
point also. If transplanting proves to be a good thing no 
doubt men of mechanical genius will soon invent machines 
with mechanical feeds and using four horses instead of two, 
so as to do the work more cheaply. But even at this present 
preliminary stage I believe that the method will greatly hasten 
the spread of the hardy Russian and Siberian alfalfas through- 
out the prairie Northwest. The plants are grown the first 
year in drills much like carrots and beets, and are dug with 
a tree digger. 
“Finally, so many new questions are raised by this new 
departure that they cannot all be discussed in a brief article. 
But remember that the method promises improvement in the 
