— 59 — 
MANURIAL VALUE OF THE STUBBLE. 
Others have shown the fertilizing value of alfalfa hay 
as grown in the east without fertilizers,to be $9 per ton, and 
ReobmT ,T th n rt ‘ F ers ’ ?la8 4 P er ton.—Mass. State 
-1 rL nfoU if 65 ' ° Ur farnlers can not afford to turn under 
tonnlhr.f>= a p ?" e P arator y to seeding to wheat orplanting 
ton for rlf ’l 611 lf r th a e y get u° nly fr ° m two to six dollars per 
ton for the hay as fodder, but they can afford (and P it 
would be good practice) to break up their alfalfa, say every 
IX years, for at this age the average field has passed its 
a fielTofT. y f ie / f d > . and P}' 1 111 so nie other crop. To break up 
a field of alfalfa is a different task from breaking up one of 
clover or a timothy sod. In the case of clover it may be al- 
owe to make a considerable growth in the spring before 
being turned under This is not the case with alfalfa, for if 
the plant is allowed to stand late enough to make a growth 
*7 £0 be of value as a green manure, or in fact any 
d?ffir ld U? b e gr , 0Wth ’ d , le toughness of the roots makes it 
! : °h reak up ;• therefore, any attempt to estimate 
-hfnH "T 3 - value ° f a ' falfa in a field from a practical 
standpoint ougnt to be made on the basis of the stubble and 
roots taken while the plant is dormant. Our stubble was 
.asen wren the plant was active, and perhaos at the height 
ot its activity and our results are correct only for this 
oeriod. We find the amount of stubble taken to a depth of 
about six and one-half inches to be 11,812 pounds per acre, 
tnd the moisture which this gives up in drying in the air to 
56 5 1 ’57 Pei cent. This moisture is undoubtedly rather low 
ind consequently, the air-dried material too high, due to 
he tact that our sample had lost water before it was possi¬ 
ble for us to begin the determination. According to the 
ireceding we obtain 5,720.8 pounds, or 2.86 tons air-dried 
na ei per acre. Each ton of 2,000 pounds contains 8.51 
.ounds of phosphoric acid, 15.52 pounds of potash, and 
6 .j 7 pounds of nitrogen which, at fifteen cents per pound 
or the nitrogen, five and one-fourth cents per pound for the 
'Otash, and five cents per pound for the phosphoric 
■Cid.give the total value of the stubble at $19.28 per acre 
• t0 i n ^° r ^ le stu kbl e - . The three substances men- 
l °ned are the ones to which it is customary to assign a 
loney value. These are not the only elements which are 
eturned or added to the soil by this manner of o-reen 
aanurmg nor have we in the preceding estimate the 
hole of these. We have stated that we included only 
ie first six and one-half inches of the roots, the rest of th 
X)ts corresponding to 5.14 tons of air-dried matter per 
