FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 77 



ing to grow alfalfa, and we are not going to give up if we fail 

 the first time. How many times have you failed in your crop of 

 wheat in the last ten years? Four? Stick to it, you can grow 

 alfalfa and I believe the time will come when I can truthfully 

 say that it is or has been grown on every farm in the State of 

 Illinois. 



Alfalfa is certainly a wonderful crop. First of all because 

 of its high yield. In the county of DuPage, near the town of 

 Naperville, in 19 14, a man grew 21 tons of alfalfa on tw^o meas- 

 ured acres. In Mattoon, in I9T5« Mr. Rudy had an average of 

 61-2 tons to the acre on fourteen acres. The University of 

 Illinois has cut more than two tons to the acre in the first cut- 

 ting after seeding. A Mr. Simmons of Ashley, on land valued 

 at $100 per acre, grew enough alfalfa so that he sold it for 

 $141.00. I could go on and give you a large number of in- 

 stances where large yields have been produced. 



I have counted as high as 199 shoots growing from a single 

 stem. It is a perennial. It is more or less permanent after once 

 it is seeded. It generally gets better and better up to the age 

 of 3, 4 and 5 years. A man in Virginia grew it for 18 succes- 

 sive years. 



Not only does it yield well, but it has a high money value, 

 and that is based upon its feeding value. Today in the city of 

 Danville you wall have to pay for alfalfa hay no less than $24.00 

 a ton. There are but eight bales of alfalfa in the town for sale, 

 as far as I could find out. At Jacksonville, less than five weeks 

 ago, we learned of a man who shipped a carload of alfalfa hay 

 10 Kansas City and he received %2y a ton for it. A ton of al- 

 falfa hay is equal to a ton of bran; yes, it is worth more than 

 that if the experiments of the State University are true, and 

 they are, because they are backed up with long years of experi- 

 mental work, and they know definitely that the results are true. 

 At the Ohio Experiment Station they have found that you can 

 produce a pound of butter at i cent less with alfalfa than with 

 bran. 



You probably won't buy alfalfa hay at $24, when as a mat- 

 ter of fact you can better afford to pay $37 and $38 a ton for 

 alfalfa hay to feed than you can to pay $34 a ton for bran, — the 

 present market price. 



