48 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



the 8 pounds potassium.' You ought to be able to utiHze rhc 

 nitrogen to better advantage than feeding it to alfalfa. 



You can maintain the soil fertility if you will put on the 

 limestone and phosphorus and then turn under vegetable mat- 

 ter; whether in manure or clover. If you put alfalfa in the 

 rotation you can sell alfalfa hay, if you are not live stock farm- 

 ers. The grain farmer may also grow alfalfa, and most of 

 your hill land here will, if you fix the soil for it; but to sow 

 alfalfa without soil treatment is just like wasting about $3.00 an 

 acre for seed, because you will lose the seed. If you will put 

 on four to six tons of limestone and turn in some legumx crop, 

 then you can start alfalfa with the proper inoculation. Vou 

 probably cannot grow it successfully on the so-called hard])an 

 prairie land, or on similar types of timber soil. I would not 

 advise anybody to sow alfalfa unless the soil is properly pre- 

 pared. You must have the limestone. 



O. What do you think — would it be any benefit to the 

 land to turn under the third crop of Sudan grass ? 



A. It would not add any fertility to it. You cannot build 

 up the land by growing Sudan grass ; all the plant food it gets 

 it gets from the soil. It does not add any fertility and it ought 

 not to be used for that purpose. 



O. Would it do to put limestone on growing wheat at 

 this season of the year? 



A. If you want to grow clover you can apply limestone 

 any time before, or soon after the clover is seeded. It is not 

 the ideal way, but is better than not at all. 



I would like to make a suggestion to all of you : When vou 

 begin to use limestone that you save a strip across every field 

 a rod or two in width as a check strip. You need that some- 

 times for your own knowledge, and the demonstration upon 

 your own farm is worth leaving the limestone off that strip. 

 It is not an experiment, but a demonstration. You may also 

 get good returns by having the satisfaction of lettln.g your 



