EFFECTS ON SUCCEEDING CROPS
The Wyoming station, at Laramie, under direction of Prof. B. C. Buffum (Bul. No. 44) made some tests that proved the market fertilizing value of alfalfa. A plot of ground that had been in alfalfa for five years adjoined a plot of the same size that had been in varied crops, wheat, oats, potatoes, etc. After the alfalfa sod was broken the two plots were prepared together and planted crosswise to wheat, oats and potatoes, with half of each on the broken sod and half on the other plot with the following yields and gains:
| After Alfalfa | After Other Crops | Money Gain | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat | 30 bu. | 18 bu. | $8 to $12 |
| Oats | 78 bu. | 37 bu. | 16 |
| Potatoes | 81 bu. | 52 bu. | 16 |
Stating the results in another way, Prof. Buffum says: “The value of alfalfa harvested from one-half acre of land for five years was about $50 more than the cost of producing it.
“The value of potatoes and grain from an adjoining half-acre for five years was about $44 more than the cost of producing, at local prices.
“When the alfalfa half-acre was plowed and planted to wheat it produced $8 to $12 more value in wheat per acre than the land which had grown potatoes and grain before.
“When the alfalfa half-acre was plowed and planted to oats it produced $16 worth of grain more than land which had grown potatoes and grain before.
“When the alfalfa half-acre was plowed and planted to potatoes it gave $16 worth more of potatoes per acre than was obtained from land which had grown potatoes and grain before.
“By growing alfalfa the increase of yields and values were produced with absolutely no cost for fertilizing the land.”
This gain, it will be noted, cost nothing in the way of fertilization, as the alfalfa had every year been more profitable than the other crops. A Marion county, Kansas, manager of large estates reports that a field of wheat after alfalfa averaged forty bushels per acre while an adjoining field of equal original fertility averaged but fifteen bushels. These results have been duplicated in innumerable instances where alfalfa fields have been plowed and planted to other crops. A Colorado man who farms 1000 acres, with 200 acres of it in alfalfa, says he cannot afford not to plow his alfalfa after he has had from it four years’ crops; that it is necessary to maintain the general farm fertility and obtain big crops of corn, oats and potatoes. In the potato districts of Colorado alfalfa is used systematically as a rotation to maintain the yields and quality of their potatoes, both of which are so famous.
In the corn belt, which may be said to extend from the central meridian of Kansas to Pennsylvania, alfalfa used in rotation will do much to prevent the disgrace of raising an average of but twenty or twenty-five bushels of corn to the acre. And so in what were once famous wheat belts, alfalfa will restore the crop records, if properly used in a rotation.