Alfalfa. 
11 
views entertained at the time they were made, but are very conserva¬ 
tive in the light of the facts obtained since that time. The alfalfa 
seed in the highest state of perfection that I have seen it grown in 
Colorado, is of a greenish yellow color which it retains with but little 
change for years. I have some which I gathered 12 years ago and 
it is but little less bright, if any, than it was when I gathered it. I 
recently showed this seed to an expert in these matters who scarcely 
believed that it was not fresh seed and who, furthermore, declared 
that he had never before seen such alfalfa seed. I believe that we 
seldom obtain alfalfa seed which has attained its highest state of per¬ 
fection. I quite recently purchased a sample of the best alfalfa seed 
obtainable in the open market and by actual count there is only 10 
per cent of this sample nearly equal to the run of the 12 year old sam¬ 
ple referred to above. The sample was purchased as choice seed at 
15 cents per pound but the individual seeds were actually smaller 
than those in two samples of first quality screenings obtained ten years 
ago and grown at Rockyford, Colorado. The first quality seed pur¬ 
chased last season, 1905, run 288,267 seeds to the pound, while the 
samples of screenings run 259,340 and 266,233 to the pound respec¬ 
tively. The screenings are shriveled, probably because these seeds 
were immature when the plants were cut, and the plump, mature 
seeds have been separated by screening and winnowing. 
The Average Yield of Alfalfa Seed.—This is not above five bushels 
per acre. A yield of 9 or 10 bushels is a big one and above this is excep¬ 
tional. I have heard of as much as 14 bushels having been gathered, 
but a gentleman of large experience in growing alfalfa seed informs 
me that such a yield is very exceptional. 
The Vitality of Alfalfa Seed.—Sometimes we fail to obtain a good 
stand of alfalfa, even though we use the amount of seed per acre 
which experience has shown to be sufficient, say 20 pounds to the 
acre. Such failures, a few years ago, were usually attributed to the 
lack of vitality in the alfalfa seed,especially if the seed were a little 
old. It _was claimed that seed two or more years old had already so 
far lost its vitality as 'to be so good as worthless. This notion has 
prevailed a long while. Loudon says on this subject: “Great care 
should be had to procure it (Lucern seed) plump and perfectly new, 
as two year old seed does not come up freely.” The following"state¬ 
ment is made in North Carolina Bulletin No. 60: “The vitality of 
Lucern seed is so low that seed over one year old is scarcely worth 
sowing.” This statement is supported by two sprouting experi¬ 
ments .made with two year old seed, in one of which 6 per cent and in 
the other 12 per cent germinated. 
. * 1 showed in Bui. No. 35 of this station, pages 41-44, that this is a 
mistake. I recorded on page 43 of Bui. No. 35 the result of 22 ex¬ 
periments in which I used 11 samples of seed ranging in age from one 
to six years. The 11 samples have been preserved and two series of 
experiments have been made with them since that time at intervals 
of four and six years—giving me a range in the age of the seed from 
11 to 16 years. 
