— 5i — 
dying out is not confined to certain spots. There are two 
ways in which these plants perish : one is, that for some 
reason or other, the root just below the crown rots off, leav¬ 
ing the lower portion of the root perfect in every respect, 
so far as is evident to the naked eye. This is not appar¬ 
ently due to age or exhaustion of the vitality of the plant. 
The second manner in which they perish is due to age and 
other causes. If the stubble of the second year be examined 
by splitting it open down to the crown, there will be ob¬ 
served at the node above the crown a blackening of the tis¬ 
sue and also that it gradually extends downward into the 
root itself. It begins in this manner and continues until 
the whole center of the crown has been destroyed. The 
new shoots come out from the outside of the crown under 
the old growth and are in communication with the outer 
portion of the root and not with the interior vascular 
bundle. The central portion of the crown and interior of 
the root may be entirely destroyed to a depth of eighteen 
inches or more. This cavity serves as a nesting place for a 
variety of larvae, but they have no direct part in causing it. 
The decay finally extends to such an extent that it involves 
the whole neck of the root and the plant perishes. This 
condition can be found in alfalfa of different ages. I have 
in mind one field,about seven years old, where the roots are 
large and nearly all of them are more or less affected in this 
way. I know of another six years old where the stand is 
extraordinarily thick and the roots small, and so few of 
them show this that one may say the roots are perfectly 
healthy. The former piece is on land which is rather low, 
with the water table about seven feet from the surface ; the 
latter is on high land. The distance of the water table 
from the surface does not seem to be the sole cause of this 
dying, for I have observed it in plants growing in ground 
where the water table was probably not less than twelve 
feet from the surface, as- this was its depth on a neighboring- 
farm. ^ This condition of the roots is illustrated in plates 
XV, XVI and XVII. Thecrowndoes not generally perish all 
at once, but is broken up into parts which die successively. 
The field from which the plants represented were taken yield¬ 
ed aboutthree tons to the acre last year,and is, according to 
the best information I could obtain, over ten years old. The 
stand in this field is not much over one crown to the square 
foot,, and the remains of many plants which have died 
within the past few years are still easily recognized. 
The alfalfa root when destroyed below the crown does 
not throw out new buds and re-establish the plant, as many 
other plants do, and its ability to repair an injury to its 
