16 
Bulletin 110. 
with very few small side roots. Nothing in connection with this 
plant seems more marvelous to me than the fact that the simp e, 
root system of this plant can produce such a luxuriant growth of top. 
The average root, even at the crown, is less than 1-2 inch in diameter 
but I believe that the shortest normal root that I have dug up was 
about 6 feet long and the longest one 12 1-4 feet. Their ability to 
penetrate hard soil is very great, but of course there are instances m 
which some of the roots fail to penetrate hard layers. The average 
reader will understand that by hard soil I do not mean rock, still 1 
have followed roots through layers of such tenacity that a pick was 
indispensible in removing the earth—and while the root was some¬ 
times twisted and crooked it was usually of good size and always 
healthy. , _ . ,, 
Anyone desiring a fuller discussion of these and many other 
points relative to alfalfa will find it in Bulletin No. 35, to which I 
have had occasion to refer repeatedly. 
