One by one the oracular statements of so-called experts have been shown at fault. One said, “it will grow wherever corn will grow;” and as promptly men from New York and Louisiana rise and say that they are growing it where corn will not grow. Another declares, “it will not grow over a hardpan or gumbo subsoil;” at once a New York man reports a good field of alfalfa with roots fifteen feet long that pass through six inches of hardpan which was so hard that it had to be broken with a pick axe in following the root. A Kansas man writes that he has eighty acres that has stood five years and promises to continue indefinitely, yielding 4¹⁄₂ tons from three cuttings a year, and the whole of it on gumbo soil where corn raising was a failure. Another declares, “it must have a rich, sandy loam,” and forthwith from the deserts of Nevada, the sand hills of Nebraska and the thin, worn, clay soils of the South come reports of satisfactory yields. Such results are significant, indicating better returns than any other crop brings from these varied soils, and that few farmers are justified in postponing the addition of alfalfa to their agriculture because of supposed hindrance of soil and climate. A NEW YORK EXAMPLE As citing an example, and suggestive of the fact that alfalfa not only grows but flourishes in the eastern states where the claim has been made that it would not grow, the following by the editor of the _Rural New-Yorker_, in his journal of September 3, 1904, is forcibly to the point: “A farmer visiting the New York state fair this year will do well to take time to look at some of the alfalfa fields near Syracuse. Whether it means that the soil in this locality is well suited to alfalfa, or that farmers have learned how to grow it, it is a fact that the crop makes a wonderful showing there. You find it everywhere--in great billowy fields of green, along the roadsides--even in vacant city lots. The crop crowds in whether the seed is sown by hand, dropped from a passing load or scattered by the wind. The majority of the farms show great fields of it, and the character of farming is slowly changing as more and more alfalfa is cut. On fruit farms or small private places the crop is changing methods and habits. A few acres in alfalfa provides all the roughness needed for stock on these small places, and gives extra room for fruit or similar crops. In fact, the most interesting thing about these alfalfa fields is the way they are changing the entire conditions of the country. It is similar to what happens when a new industry is established in a town or city.