— 4 i ~ 
tings. I sought out twenty plants growing singly, which 
had received no care whatever. They were in catches of 
volunteer plants The weights were taken immediately 
hav^thenl ai J d averaged 14.4 ounces or 3.8 ounces of 
hay to the plant I he average number of stems was 30 
to the plant; the highest number was 38. The lowest 
weight was about 1-3 of a pound, the highest 2 1-3 pounds! 
A113 one familiar with alfalfa will recognize that these 
piants can be duplicated easily and are by no means un- 
the field a of e f 1 f °wi d j K plant r standin g quite by itself in 
e held of James Whedbee, the space in which the plant 
fouare Tft iT an £ d possibl y as much as four 
square feet. T here arose from the crown of this plant 
161 stems. _ I dug up one other plant, which had 360 
stems on it ; the space covered by this crown was 
about three square feet. The weight of these I regret 
7 S , n0t detfrmmed. Others have Observed even lame! 
plants. Miller says that he had a plant whose crown was 
eighteen inches in diameter, and from which he cut nearly 
four hundred stems at one time. M. Duhamel states that 
flourishing plant will produce a pound of well dried hav. 
I hese facts seem to me very suggestive. I have noticed" 
with some degree of attention the size of the stems on 
these large plants and I do not find them of noticeable 
' obtMned^’ 1 be !? ve tbat , ever y advantage supposed to be 
obtained by crowding the plants, whether the claim be well 
ounided or not, will be produced with an even stand of not 
moie than four plants to the square foot, and of two or 
fJvnrakf un< 7 favorable conditions. The importance of 
favorable conditions ,s admirably shown by the yields of 
the plat giving 526,793 plants per acre. In 1895 it yielded 
22-5 tons at the first cutting; this year about one ton. 
T rpffrpMi! 5 necessary to the production of a crop of alfalfa. 
o7 g r et that have no analyses of hays cut from crowded 
st a nrl^ m . Sn l g , y r gr0 -Tr ng P ! ants - Gr anting, however, that a 
stand of a half million plants to the acre is desirable, is so 
large a quantity of seed as twenty pounds, about 4,200,000 
seeds, necessary to produce it ? This will depend first of 
all upon the germinating power of the seed, and also upon 
the vitality of the plants produced. 
VITALITY OF ALFALFA SEED. 
It is claimed that alfalfa seed soon looses its germinat- 
tb?„ P 7 er ’i and tba f t! l e yoang plants are very tender, 
though hardy enough when established and older. Con- 
the fort n_er Loudon says : “Great care should be 
nad to procure it (Lucern seed) plump and perfectly new 
