OHIO
Prof. Charles E. Thorne, Director Ohio experiment station.—Numerous attempts were made during the latter half of the nineteenth century to grow alfalfa in Ohio, but so far as the knowledge of the writer goes, that of Joseph E. Wing of Mechanicsburg was the first that could be pronounced a decided success. Mr. Wing had seen the plant growing in the arid region of the West, and was fortunately able to make his initial experiments on the soil formed from the decomposing limestone gravels of Champaign county, a soil possessing three of the indispensable requisites for alfalfa culture. Plenty of lime, plenty of humus and good drainage. Other farmers during recent years have attempted the culture of this plant, and where experiments have been conducted upon suitable soils and carried out with sufficient care and persistence, they have been successful. Thus far the most promising alfalfa fields in the state are to be found either in such localities as those of Mr. Wing, namely upon the soils underlaid with limestone gravel which are found over the western half of the state, or upon such of the river bottom lands of the state as are above overflow and are underlaid with gravel, giving natural drainage. The experience of Ohio growers of alfalfa has demonstrated the following points: (1) Alfalfa must have lime. If the soil is naturally deficient in this substance it must be added artificially. (2) Alfalfa must have humus. It is idle to attempt to grow it upon a soil which has been worn so thin that it will not grow a good crop of corn. Such soils must be manured before they will successfully produce alfalfa. In this respect it is very different from the plant which it so closely resembles in habit of growth, Sweet clover. (3) Alfalfa will not grow with wet feet, yet it is a great consumer of water, and the soil must be of such a character as to hold large stores of water without being water logged. Hence the value of bottom lands naturally underdrained by strata of gravel a few feet below the surface. (4) When lime, humus and drainage are supplied, the bacterial organisms through which atmospheric nitrogen is assimilated will gradually appear upon the alfalfa roots, but their growth may be hastened by inoculating the land with soil from a field in which alfalfa or Sweet clover has previously grown. The experiment station has been most successful in getting a stand of alfalfa where the land was thoroughly prepared in the spring and then harrowed every week or ten days until July or August. The seed was then sown and harrowed in. By this means the weed seeds were germinated and destroyed before the alfalfa was sown.