TEXAS
Prof. B. C. Pittuck, Agriculturist of the Texas experiment station.—Alfalfa should receive the attention of farmers in every section of Texas where conditions are in any way favorable to its growth. At present prices, after it is once established, a yield of one ton of hay per acre will afford a good profit, while yields of four and six tons, which are not unusual on favorable soils, make the investment exceedingly profitable. The present demand is much greater than the supply and bids fair to increase in greater proportion during the coming year. Its increasing popularity with the farmer is based upon sound business principles, as its value does not consist solely in its market price, but in its value as food for his stock and food for his soil. It will furnish green pasturage and hay of the best quality without materially impoverishing the soil. Many farmers refrain from planting alfalfa because some neighbor, far or near, planted on land apparently similar to theirs, and it died of the disease commonly known as cotton root rot. It would be far better for each farmer to test his own land, for alfalfa may be affected by this fungus at one place and entirely unaffected on ground only a few rods away. The value of an alfalfa meadow is such as to warrant a farmer in giving considerable time, labor and study to the plant, before deciding that natural conditions prohibit him from successfully growing it.