_Prof. C. D. Smith, Director Michigan experiment station._--Alfalfa has had and is having a checkered career. Under favorable conditions it makes a good stand. Some fields have produced crops for many years, the ground being occasionally fertilized by manurial salts. The difficulties that environ the crop are: (1) The severe winters, which sometimes kill off whole fields, leaving scarcely a root alive; this has happened to fields two, three, or four years old. (2) The Blue grass crowds it out badly; (3) the ignorance of the farmers in regard to the requirements of the crop and the consequent imperfect preparation of the soil in the matter of tillage or fertilization, has made it difficult to introduce it in a broad way. Notwithstanding these difficulties and the farther consideration that alfalfa does not easily lend itself to a short rotation, the crop is advancing in the state by leaps and bounds. Hundreds of farmers are experimenting with it and are learning how to prepare the ground, sow it and care for the crop afterwards. Statistics are not at hand to show how many acres of alfalfa there are in the state, nor can definite figures be given as to the growth of interest in the crop and its actual acreage. When proper strains have been developed, it seems fair to presume that alfalfa will be one of the staple crops in Michigan. On the station grounds at the agricultural college fields of alfalfa have been continuously maintained from 1897 to 1904. There are fields here sown in 1903 bearing their three crops each year, yielding from 5 to 7 tons of dry hay annually per acre. There has been some difficulty in getting pure and vigorous seed. MINNESOTA