LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Class

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

OF

JOSEPH E. WING.

Alfalfa Farming
In America

By JOSEPH E. WING

Staff Correspondent of The Breeder's Gazette

CHICAGO, ILL.:

Sanders Publishing Company

1909

Copyrighted, 1909,

BY SANDERS PUBLISHING CO.

All rights reserved.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION 3_ 45

HISTORY 46_ 77

VARIETIES OF ALFALFA 78- 83

HABIT OF GROWTH 84- 96

SEED BEARING HABIT, THE 97-100

GETTING A STAND OF ALFALFA 101-106

CARBONATE OF LIME 107-149

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL 150-175

PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS 176-188

POTASH AS A FERTILIZER 189-190

PLOWING THE SOIL 191-198

SEEDING AND CUTTING 199-222

INOCULATION AND NITROGEN 223-236

ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION 237-248

YIELD OF ALFALFA 249-253

DISKING AND CULTIVATING 254-257

WEEDS AND GRASSES 258-265

ALFALFA DISEASES 266-267

SEEDING GRASSES 268-276

GROWING BY IRRIGATION — 277-292

TIME OF CUTTING 293-298

HARVESTING HAY IN THE WEST 299-301

HAYING TOOLS 302-308

HAY-MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES 309-322

SOILING AND PASTURE 323-335

As A PASTURE PLANT 336-347

ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA 348-353

ALFALFA FOR THE SILO 354-355

BALING ALFALFA HAY 356-357

SEEDING VALUE OF HAY 358-862

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION 363-372

ALFALFA FOR HORSES 373-379

ALFALFA FOB CATTLE FEEDING .380-385

ALFALFA FOR DAIRY Cows 386-391

ALFALFA FOR SHEEP 392-395

HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING 396-401

ALFALFA FOR SWINE 402-414

ALFALFA FOR POULTRY 415-416

MAKING ALFALFA MEAL 417-418

PLOWING ALFALFA SOD 419-423

ANIMAL PESTS AND DISEASES 424-429

GROWING ALFALFA SEED 430-405

BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STORING HAY 466-469

ALFALFA IN TEXAS 470-472

ALFALFA IN HAWAII 473

ALFALFA IN ALGERIA 474

VITALITY OF SEED' . . 475

195110

INTRODUCTION.

In March, 1886, the writer, a tall awkward young
man fresh from the fields of Ohio, was traveling by
rail through Utah. Near Provo he began to see
snug farms with trees, meadows, orchards, granaries
and haystacks. Some of these stacks had been cut
in two with the hay knife, and he noticed with won-
der the beautiful green color of the fresh cut sur-
face. Calling the attention of the conductor to this
phenomenon, so strange to him, he 'asked, "What
sort of hay is in those stacks ! " ' i Lucern, ' ' prompt-
ly replied the conductor. "And what makes it so
green ? ' ' " It 7s green because that 's the color of it, ' '
sagely replied the smiling conductor, as he pocketed
a cash fare and moved on about his business. At
that date lucern, or alfalfa, had not spread much
east of the valleys of Utah; some was grown in Col-
orado, but it was a new thing there. The Utah
farmers were many of them English and Danish,
hence their choice of the old name lucern, while the
Spanish term alfalfa had come in from Chili by way
of California.

Late that night the writer reached Salt Lake City
and early next morning he was up ready to explore.
In his rambles about the quaint old city (more old-
world than American at that time with its houses
of adobe, its walled gardens and orchards, its rows
of towering Lombardy poplars) he came across a

(3)

4 AFLALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

square devoted to the hay market. There stood
awaiting purchasers dozens of loads of this curious
green-looking hay. He went to a load of it and drew
out a stem and chewed it to see what it tasted like.
To his astonishment it tasted good, much as wheat
tastes when chewed. It dissolved in his mouth and
tasted as though it would nourish him. "The best
country I have struck yet," remarked the "boy to
himself. "If ever I get hard up here I can at least
go to a haystack and eat lucern hay. I won't
starve. " Curiously enough it later came to his
knowledge that this first impression was true, that
alfalfa hay has really in it nearly the same amount
of nutrition, pound for pound, as has oats, and from
oatmeal have come mighty good men.

Next the boy lived for a time in Salt Lake City
and cared for his uncle's cow. She was a fine
motherly cow, very wide where width did the most
good, low down and gentle, with a big mouth
and an appetite to match it. He fed her on alfalfa
hay without grain. What milk she gave ! That cow
must have been a freak, for she gave some 5 or 6
gallons a day of rich creamy milk with no other
food than alfalfa hay and hydrant water. Steadily
as he milked the cow the respect of the boy for
alfalfa hay grew.

Next the boy went down into the deep mountain
canyons along Green Eiver and worked there on a
cattle ranch. It was a great ranch in dimension,
full 40 miles in extreme length, extending from the
horrid cliffs along Price Eiver to the cool heights

INTRODUCTION. 5

of the Big Mesa, sloping down to the Nine Mile.
Through this ranch ran a little creek called Range
Creek. The soil was sandy and gravelly along the
creek, not very fertile. The climate was intensely
hot; often the thermometer would climb to 110° and
S'tay there day after day. Cattle and horses were
kept on the ranch, some 2,000 cattle at times. In
the narrow sandy valley little ditches were made to
lead the water from the bubbling creek, idle fox ages
though once Cliff Dwellers had farmed along its
banks and grown corn, which they had stored in
adobe 'and stone treasure houses high up under the
cliffs. Now little fields were cleared from their en-
cumbering sagebrush and grease wood, the water
turned on, and they were planted to corn and al-
falfa. It was called lucern then; later the name
alfalfa overpowered and became almost universal.
At first the alfalfa did not thrive along Eange
Creek. It made a small feeble growth, but it stuck.
In one field especially, down close to the headquar-
ters cabin, alfalfa grew the first year no more than
about 6 inches high. The boy, who already had
charge of the farm and general charge of all the
ranch, was disgusted with it and wished to plow it
up and try something else. The soil there was
sandy, gravelly, open and rather coarse. An old-
timer happening in at the right time counseled
against plowing it. "Let it be; you may have good
alfalfa there another year, ' ' he said. This advice was
heeded ; the next year the alfalfa there grew so high
that when the burros would walk out into it only

6 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

their heads would be visible. It produced four crops
of hay and easily 8 tons to the acre. Water for
irrigation was very abundant at that time in Eange
Valley. It was the custom to flood the land over just
before cutting off the hay and once afterward.

At that time no one knew anything about soil inoc-
ulation and the behavior of alfalfa was a profound
mystery. It now occurs to the writer to explain the
curious behavior of the alfalfa in this manner: up
the canyon a mile or two was an established alfalfa
field, not a good stand, but thrifty. When this field
was irrigated the surplus water flowed on down to
the lower field and went over that. It seems clear
now that in this manner the bacteria were intro-
duced from the established field to the new one. As
long as the writer had connection with this ranch,
some twelve years, this field continued to produce
heavy crops of alfalfa, though not so wonderfully
rank as the earlier growths. Doubtless the excessive
irrigation leached away .some fertility, and the con-
tinual removal of hay without returning any manure
or fertilizer told, even on that very deep and per-
vious soil. However, the last crops that the writer
remembers growing on this field could hardly have
been less than 5 tons to the acre.

It used to be a great joy to grow alfalfa on this
old ranch. Before the alfalfa came there was noth-
ing in the valley to relieve the monotony of brown,
drouth-stricken nature. The alfalfa fields were
vividly green squares and patches, relieving the
monotony of brown sage brush and bare earth. The

INTRODUCTION. 7

advent of the alfalfa changed the animal life too of
the canyon. Before alfalfa came there used to be little
animal life save the chipmunks and lizards ; all had
fled that could flee to the green mountain tops.
After alfalfa deer came to stay down in the meadows
all summer long ; some of them had their little fawns
down there. The boy foreman used to see the old
does standing deep in alfalfa nibbling daintily very
early in the morning as he went up to change the
water. He would not shoot them; they were his
companions. Humming birds too came in great num-
bers to sip the sweet nectar of alfalfa bloom. They
would sit in quaint rows along the wire fence, peer-
ing curiously at the boy as he passed by smiling,
shovel on his shoulder. Bees he had none, else there
would have been great stores of honey made there.
It was joy to grow the alfalfa, because the grow-
ing of it was so very easy. The method of sowing
was very simple. The fields were first made fairly
level. There was a strong slope so that it was easy
to get water to any part of them. Then furrows
were made with a common turning plow run shallow,
or else with a furrow marker that made a number
of shallower furrows parallel with each other. Then
the alfalfa seed was sown, sometimes brushed in
with a brush drag, and then a tiny stream of water
turned in each furrow and kept running there for
days and days, since under that burning sun one
could not. count on sandy land holding moisture at
the surface very long. Sometimes the alfalfa was
sown in March, oftener in April. It did not make

8 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

much hay the first season, hardly any in fact; the
second year was when it began to hump itself. By
the second year all furrows were pretty well leveled
down or washed away; then the land was irrigated
by flooding. Large ditches were placed across the
heads of the fields, with lesser ones transversely
lower down. The head ditches were provided with
dams hastily thrown up across them from the sand
of the ditch bottom. Then as big a head as could
be mustered was turned in and all of it turned out
in one place. The irrigator got out with his shovel,
often in bare feet, and helped it flow this way and
that, spreading it so that it covered that part of the
field with an even-flowing sheet of water a few inches
deep. When it had flowed a few hours the dam was
broken, 'the stream carried further along to another
turnout. By this simple plan of irrigation the writer
unaided one summer watered about 90 acres of land.
That was a happy summer. He had a big white
burro, "Old Nig," which he kept saddled most of
the time. Nig knew the work about as well as the
boy knew it, and he would gallop merrily up the
road to the top of the field in the morning, about
two miles from the cabin, stand patiently under a
cottonwood tree till the work was done there; then
with his master on deck gallop cheerily down to the
next field, and so 'on till all the water had been given
attention. There is a great fascination in working
with water and the writer yet thinks irrigation
farming one of the finest schemes in the world.
The making of 'the hay was hard work, but not

INTRODUCTION. 9

accompanied with worry, because usually no rain
fell between April and September. We used to mow
down the alfalfa and rake it while quite green and
as soon as possible pile it up in big cocks and leave
it there to dry out a while. In that hot sun and
baking air the moisture disappeared very rapidly
indeed, so that by the time we could get to hauling,
the hay would be dry enough, and thus it retained
perfectly its color, leaves and delicious aroma. Very
joyous times we had at this haying, a lot of harum-
scarum cowboys and ranch hands, strong as wild
colts and rejoicing to see which of us could lift the
largest forkful of hay.

At first we simply hauled the hay on wagons and
stacked it by hand. Later an ingenious Mormon
boy showed us how to rig a pole stacker, and then
we let the horse do the pitching. We accumulated
great ricks of hay, hundreds of tons, against pos-
sible severe winters.

Meanwhile we were feeding alfalfa to our saddle
and work horses, to poor cows and calves that would
have died before green grass came had they not had
this Kelp, and occasionally fattening a bunch of beef
steers on it for the spring market, when fat beef
brings a premium in Denver and Salt Lake City.
We had no grain at all and fed only alfalfa hay,
making with it very good beef indeed, though doubt-
less we would have made much fatter cattle had we
had corn to feed along with it.

We had a few old sows on the ranch and must
make provision for feeding them and their pigs.

10 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

They were astonishingly prolific sows and gave us
great litters of healthy pigs, so many sometimes
that we did no-t know what to do with them. The
sows were kept penned up nearly the year through
and during summer we simply cut alfalfa with a
scythe and threw it over 'to them. This kept them
in fine thrifty condition and their pigs grew but kept
rather lanky on the diet. When fall came we would
fatten them off with pumpkins and squashes and
alfalfa. In winter time we would vary the diet by
giving them dry alfalfa hay and alfalfa leaves.
They throve well and it was at first very amusing
to see hogs eat alfalfa hay, putting their feet on it
to hold it down while they tore it apart with their
teeth and chewed it as best they could. It was won-
derful to us also to see what fine full udders our
milk cows had. Old-fashioned milking Shorthorns
they were, of the type that the fathers had. The
Mormon settlers had brought with them their best
family cows when they came across the range, and
we had some of their descendants. We fed these
cows only alfalfa hay in winter, and mostly soiled
them on green alfalfa in summer, and what splendid
foaming pails we carried down from the corral ! We
half lived on milk and cream those days, being too
busy to make butter. Sometimes we had trouble
from alfalfa bloat. That came in the fall, after we
had turned -the cows on the meadows and they
grazed the alfalfa that had come up since the last
mowing and gotten badly frosted. We used to have
strenuous times with these old cows, tying sticks in

INTRODUCTION. 11

their mouths like bridle bits, making them stand
with their heads up a steep bank and putting cakes
of ice on their distended sides. We never had one
die, but learned then that frosted alfalfa is never
a safe feed for a cow.

Over on the Castle Valley desert were Mormon
settlements, Castle Dale, Ferron, Price and other
villages. They were on adobe soil mostly, a sad
sort of alkaline clay, full enough of minerals but
lacking in humus and life-giving properties. The
first attempts of these settlers to grow grain were
mostly unsuccessful; it would not -thrive, and the
people were incredibly poor. Little by little they
got alfalfa to growing on this alkaline soil and then
with cows and pigs and poultry they managed to
live quite well. t Finally one of them let the water
run over his alfalfa in the winter so that it froze
into solid ice over his field. This is sure death to
alfalfa, unless there is air under the ice, and in the
spring he had lost his meadow; nearly every plant
of alfalfa was dead. He grieved over this, but set
to work to see what he could get from the land and
planted a part of it to spring wheat, though it had
previously refused to grow wheat, and a part to
potatoes, also a very uncertain crop at that time in
Castle Valley. The result was a crop of wheat that
made 60 bushels to the acre, a marvel to the whole
valley. The potatoes made some unheard of yield,
about 900 bushels to the acre, I think, and the for-
tunes of Castle Valley with its sun and brilliant skies
and wildly desolate plains and crags was assured.

12 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

These valleys were fertile, they would yield food for
man and beast, and alfalfa was the magic sesame
that made open the door to the riches of the valley.

All this time the writer was becoming more and
more enthusiastic over the wonderful value of the
alfalfa plant. Back in Ohio was the old home farm
where he had spent his boyhood. It was a little
farm of less than 200 acres, charmingly diversified
by little hills, rich flat meadow lands, wet and half
wild, in which grew wild lilies and pink fragrant
spireas. There was woodland and pasture, a run-
ning stream, the Darby creek, with swimming holes
in it, a big pond where he had sailed his tiny ships
not so very many years before, a corn field, usually
of about 15 acres, meadows in irregular patches,
and an. old apple orchard that bore famously iof big
red apples. On that farm too was an old man once
tall but now bent and gray, weatherbeaten, seamed
and furrowed from exposure, with a kindly serious
face and a twinkling blue eye. That was the father.
And a mother, small and agile and energetic, rather
frail yet sunny and happy, ever singing at her work.
That was mother. And two younger brothers did
the work about the barns and went to school. These
younger brothers, men now, are yet on Woodland
Farm and are the writer's partners.

The writer had been a very close friend of his
father, and together they had planned the work on
Woodland Farm before he had gone west, and now
the old man remembered his boy and knew of his
interest in the old place, so he used to write now

INTRODUCTION. 13

and then long and careful letters telling of what he
was doing, of the drains that he was laying, or the
good corn that he grew. And the boy in his very
first enthusiasm for the alfalfa plant sent home a
package of seed by mail (that was in 1886) and
asked the father to give it space and soil and care.
And often in his daydreams he would ponder the
question of returning some day to the old farm. He
would dream idle dreams of what he might do there,
how he might enrich it and plant it and maybe buy
neighboring acres to add to it.

Somewhat more than two years rolled away and
the boy took a vacation and went back to the old
home, to see the home folks, and a sweetheart he
had there. It is a very joyful and rather a wonder-
ful thing to come home after having been exiled to
a strange land. The deserts of Utah were like an-
other world, so that when the boy came to Ohio it
was as though he had come to a dream world, so
beautiful, and so natural and so lovely it all seemed.
How eagerly he explored his old haunts, one by one !
What old memories were stirred into life as he saw
the meadows, the woodland, the hill planted to corn
and kept immaculately clean of weeds, the orchard,
the garden; the dear old father, stooped and aged
more than the boy remembered him, went right to
his heart ; the mother, silvery haired now ; the sister
and young brothers ! The sweetheart was of course
unspeakably marvelous and wonderful, and it all
was as though the boy had been born again into a
new world. Soon after his arrival, as he explored

14 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

with diligence, lie asked the old man: "Father,
where is my alfalfa! Did you plant that seed that
I sent you?" "Why, yes, I planted it, but it did not
amount to anything. This is no country for alfalfa.
It may do for you in the West, but it is of no use
here ; but come and see it, what there is of it." Back
of the garden the old man had spaded a square rod
of good clay soil and sowed his seed. He led the
way and pointed accusingly to the stunted little
plants scattered thinly over the ground: " There,
don't you see that this thing is no good for Ohio!"

The boy stood in amazement looking at it, so dif-
ferent from what he had fondly hoped it might be.
His father turned away and left him, but still he
stood studying the situation. Soon happened along
a flock of his mother's fowls; they came to the
alfalfa patch and began an eager search for leaves ;
one by one they plucked them off till nearly every
plant was stripped bare, then walked away. " Aha !"
cried the boy ; ' ' I see a light now, ' ' and he went to
the well ^nd pumped a tub full of water, which he
carried and emptied carefully down by the strongest
root that he could find. It was early August and
the land was dry. To keep away the chickens he
took an old barrel, knocked the heads out of it and
put it over his alfalfa plant. In a little more than
three weeks he was ready to go back to his work on
the ranch and he went to say good bye to his alfalfa
patch. To his delight the stalk of alfalfa had
thrived for its wetting and its protection and had
grown out through the top of the barrel ! Joyfully

INTRODUCTION, 15

the boy called his father, ' i Come here ; see what my
alfalfa has done!" And the sire, amazed and be-
wildered at first, stood there scratching his old gray
head and smiling an amused, puzzled smile. Finally
he turned and said: "Son, do you suppose that I
want to grow a crop that won't grow till you put a
barrel over it ? " The lad laughed and said no more,
but went back to his mountains >and the alfalfa
fields, remembering the one stalk of alfalfa that had
succeeded and saying, "I know that alfalfa can be
grown in Ohio. If one stalk will grow as that one
grew, why can't a man grow a thousand? If he can
grow a thousand, why can't he grow a million, why
can't he cover his farm with alfalfa?"

The ranch was not just the same to the boy when
he came back to it, not just the same because he had
ever before him the image of the sweetheart left be-
hind. Yet it was a happy place, and he went tumul-
tuously into the work again, strong as a young giant,
eager to do, finding no day long enough for him.
Now was time of happy dreams, and after a time
the dreams began to materialize as he mixed mud
and made "adobes," or "dobies," as the boys called
them, and hauled down logs from far up the canyon,
for She was coming and a house must be made ready
for her.

There were wonderful letters coming, too, and
often the boy would be seen on Sundays sitting far
up on the rocky hillside, away from the confusion and
talk of the cowboys, reading the last letter that She
had written, or writing one in reply to it. The work

16 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

of the ranch was much the same as it had been save
that the ricks of alfalfa grew larger and larger each
year and the problem of making and using the hay
grew to be portentous. The mountains remained
the same always, and the boy loved them deeply and
climbed them eagerly, going up where never white
man had been before, just to gaze off afar to other
snowy ranges, and across sunny yellow valleys in
the desert, beautiful from afar. All the cowboys
loved him and worked faithfully for him ; every one
worked as hard as he could and the cattle waxed fat
on a thousand hills.

In November it was that the letter came, the letter
written in that familiar crabbed yet plain handwrit-
ing that the father used. Nearly always the father's
letters gave the boy much pleasure. He opened this
one expecting it to be like the others that had come,
but it was a shock to find in it a totally different
note. It read like this: "My boy, I wish you to
come home. Times are hard back here; hired men
are no good any more. I am getting old and infirm.
I need you very much. Come home and help me
with the farm. I do not see how I can get along
without you longer."

The letter gave the boy a rude shock. All at once
he realized how he loved the wild ranch with its free-
dom, its responsibility, its opportunities for doing
things. He loved every hill and every mesa and
every canyon. Half of the canyons he had named,
some of them he only had ridden through. He
loved the sun and air, the yellow bunchgrass, the

INTRODUCTION. 17

solemn pines. He loved the horses that he rode and
the great herd of cattle in his charge, and his com-
rades, rough as bears and loving as brothers. So
he carried the letter in his pocket with a sad heart
for a day or two, when little Billie Barnson, who
was riding beside him, turned to him and said:
"Joe, what in thunder is the matter with you! Has
your girl gone back on you?" "No, Billie, that is
not what is the matter, " and in a few words he laid
bare his heart; he ought to leave the mountains,
perhaps forever, and he dreaded to go. "Why, Joe,
I 'm ashamed of you. ' ' "Ashamed, Billie ! Why are
you ashamed of me!" "Well, Joe, if I had had a
father as good as yours has been [Billie had never
known his father] and in his old age he asked me to
come home and help him, I'd go." That decided it.
i ' I think you are right, Billie. I >m going. " " Well,
I want to see you smile then." "All right, Billie,
I'll go, and I'll smile too," replied the boy, and his
heart grew light again as he began to turn his
thoughts toward home once more, and the simple
but satisfying joys of the homeland.

The homecoming occurred just before Christmas
time of the year 1889. It was a very joyous home-
coming. The kind and rejoiced old father, the old
mother happy to see her son, and the things made
dear by old association, all these conspired to make
full the cup of joy; and beside near by lived the
sweetheart. So the boy was very happy for some
days. After that he began to explore again the old
farm. It was a good farm, of 196 acres, mostly

18 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

meadow and pasture land, with a fine bit of wood-
land, and about 50 acres part of the time under the
plow. It was farmed in the old-fashioned way —
corn followed by wheat and wheat by clover and
timothy. Hogs were kept and cattle; timothy hay
was sold with wheat, pigs, fat steers, potatoes,
parsnips, pears, grapes and a few minor items. The
father was a careful man, economical to a degree,
hard working and patient. He loved his land and
cared for it as best he could, saving every scrap of
manure and tilling the soil with diligence. He loved
his animals and fed them well. His driving mare
was almost too wide to get between the shafts; his
cattle knew him and would stand to be rubbed and
petted. It was through no lack of industry or in-
telligence that the father had not of late years made
the farm pay ; it was due mainly to his following an
unprofitable system of farming.

When the boy came home there was an old lame
negro man helping do the farm work, old " Uncle
Sam" they called him, a faithful old soul but slow
and feeble. In the feedlot were about eight steers,
maybe twenty pigs were being fattened, in the crib
probably 500 bushels of corn, in the mows maybe 50
tons of hay. The boy took it all in very rapidly
and a great hunger for the old ranch came over him,
a hunger and a longing for its wide free life and
its endless range of activities. To add to his unrest
a letter followed him, a letter from the manager. It
read like this: "Come back, Joe, as soon as you
can. Your place is awaiting you, and more wages if

INTRODUCTION. 19

you think best, and we will build the house for your
sweetheart, and you shall be your own boss. Come
back as soon as you have your visit out. ' '

Small wonder then that the boy soon began seek-
ing to frame some explanation or excuse to offer the
father, some way to tell him that he could not stay
to care for the little farm, with the great ranch
calling him. And the father could read the boy's
mind like an open book, so one morning after family
prayers he said : ' t My boy, I wish to talk business
with you. I suppose you did great things in the
West. You probably had 2,000 cattle there, if you
say you did. I don't know, as I never saw that many
cattle together and never expect to; but I wish to
show you that this old farm is not played out either.
Now see here, here is what we have done this year. ' '
Then he took down from the shelf his old account
book and read off the items, all duly set down in
black and white, the wheat that he had sold, and the
hay, the pigs and the potatoes and the cattle. And
together they carefully footed it all up. It amounted
altogether to -a little less than $800. Eight hun-
dred dollars ! It came over the boy the good salary
that he had forsaken in the West and all the bright
hopes of that golden land and his heart went down
like lead. "What," he said to himself, "have I
given up all my bright prospects, all my plans and
aspirations to come back and manage a farm that
does not produce more than $800 a year? Why,
with such an income as that, with taxes to be paid
and repairs to 'be made and all expenses to be met,

20 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

I can not so muck as keep old Uncle Sam. I must
myself get out with the lantern before breakfast and
feed and curry the horses and begin over again to
do all that drudgery that I had only lately escaped. ' '
It was not a very worthy thought, but it added to his
perplexity.

The old father waited anxiously for the boy's de-
cision. Very gently he said: "My boy, when you
were with me we made more money than this. The
farm then was in better condition and times were
not so hard. I am too old now to develop it as it
should be developed and I am tired. My happiest
memories are of the time when I was strong enough
to be called a man, and you were my boy, helping
me. Now I am tired of being the man; I wish you
to be the man. Won't you be the man, let me be the
boy and help you?" There was silence for a little
time while many thoughts passed rapidly through
the boy's mind, then he came to decision. "Yes,
father, I'll stay. I'll take hold of the old farm and
do what I can with it. I think we can make it profit-
able after a time, and you may help me."

"G-ood," the old man exclaimed. "Now you go
ahead and do whatever you wish to do. I'll give you
chance to do it, for I'll feed the cattle and the pigs.
I can feed them better than any man you can hire,
and you know it." "Of course you can," replied
the boy. Then : < < Father, let 's go and take a walk. ' '
"All right; where shall we go?" "Oh, anywhere;
just out to look at the farm again." Together they
sallied out, the father happy as a child, the son glad

INTRODUCTION. 21

that it was settled, the uncertainty over, yet uneasy,
feeling within him a rising tide of restlessness, an
aching to get to work somewhere.

They did not walk very far. Just beyond the
barn was a field of flat clay land, wet, mostly poor
and unprofitable. All over the field rose little clay
chimneys, the work of crayfish. The boy stopped
here. "Father, may I drain this field?" "Yes; it
ought to have been done years ago," was the reply
full of hearty encouragement. The boy went to* the
village and came home with a ditching spade with a
blade 18 inches long. He stretched a line where the
first ditch was to be laid and began digging a long
narrow ditch in which to lay tiles. How happy he
was all at once! Those ranch muscles of his were
in good training; mightily he dug. And as he be-
gan pushing his muscles against that soil he began
to believe in it, to have faith in it. And after he
got down in the ditch and had rubbed the mud on
him well he forgot the old ranch. When at last the
ditch was dug and the tiles laid and covered there
was one strip of land dry, only a beginning, true,
but it was a beginning. The boy stood there that
afternoon as he finished covering the tile and leaned
on his spade and dreamed, and talked aloud to the
old field. "Old field," he said, "some day I will
make you all dry. Some day, old field, I will make
your soil rich. Some day I will cover you over with
clover, and with corn, and with alfalfa too. Some
day, old field, out of you shall sprout and grow a
home, a home for that sweetheart of mine." And

22 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

he looked at his watch; it was past 5 o'clock, so he
went home and shed off his muddy overalls and went
across the fields to see the sweetheart, happier than
any king.

Spring came in all its maze of bewildering hope
and promise and beauty, as it comes in central Ohio,
and the boy was supremely happy. There was just
the joy of seeing God's miracles all around him, the
bursting buds, the unfolding leaves, the blossoms on
every twig, the tender grass hiding the dull, ugly
earth, the dewdrops sparkling in the morning light
and all the little birds singing cheerily their songs
of gratitude and joy. There seemed something
prophetic in it all, and something very wonderful,
Grod's forgiveness-, G-od's fulfillment of His gra-
cious promises. In a dim way the boy understood
and believed, and realized his own duty in the mat-
ter and bent eagerly to the task, seeking in a way to
make himself partner with the Almighty to cover
over the few acres entrusted to his charge with grow-
ing things, with bloom and with beauty.

Yes, it was the joyous seedtime when all one's
hopes spring up anew and he has prophetic insight
into what may be and what should be, not only of
the good green earth, but of one's own soul as well.
Every morning bright and early the boy was astir in
the fields, with a faithful colored man, Frank, to
help him. He had brought with him from Utah two
bags of alfalfa seed and this he wished to sow. But
the father was much alarmed. "No, my boy, we
cannot afford to sow so much as that at one time. It

INTRODUCTION. 23

has not been tried yet. You may have that potato
patch down by the old orchard; that is good soil.
Begin there and if that succeeds we will sow more
later on." The potato patch had in it one-third of
an acre. That was quite a coming down from his
expectations, but he acquiesced and sowed the little
field. Fortunately it was a good place to begin. The
land was a strong clay loam, fairly well drained. It
was full of carbonate of lime, for all through it were
little pebbles of limestone. It was rich, for the cattle
had stood there much when it was a part of the
orchard. In some way or another it had become
inoculated with alfalfa bacteria, perhaps because the
father had grown sweet clover on the farm for years
in odd corners and in his dooryard. So this alfalfa
started out vigorously and grew well. The boy was
delighted. He had a path well trodden where he
had walked to see his first field. It settled in his
mind the question of whether alfalfa would grow;
he had no doubt whatever now that it would grow.
Eapidly his mind went on ahead to the time when
he would have 40, maybe 100 acres in alfalfa. The
farm at that time had in it only about 50 or 60 acres
of land that could be plowed. The rest was wet or
poor or covered with trees.

That summer came another boy from the old
ranch, Willis. He was a wiry, slender lad, just out
of his high school, and had spent about a year at
ranching, getting health and strength there prepara-
tory to going further with his education. He did
not then dream of becoming a farmer, yet he was

24 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

as enthusiastic as the older brother over the beauty
and promise of the little alfalfa field. He took off
his coat and helped with the farm work and enjoyed
it hugely till September came, when he went away to
school again. It happened that he never finished
his education in school; the confinement of the
schoolroom was too much for his health, so fortu-
nately for the farm he came back a few years later
to be a partner, and later to have almost entire man-
agement of the farm. Willis dreams dreams of his
own and makes them come true, and he loyally car-
ries out the plans of the writer. Woodland Farm
owes its final development very largely to the en-
ergy and executive ability of this younger brother
Willis. And there was another brother yet, a sturdy
lad, Charles, growing up at home; he grew to be
the largest and strongest of them all and mightily
he bent his muscle to help with the work. Later he
too spent years in the West, ranching with sheep
and cattle, and harvesting alfalfa hay there. Then
he also came home and found on Woodland Farm
ample scope for all his energies. It is true, is it not,
that any work is as big as the man who undertakes
that work?

That first summer was uneventful save in the fact
that the alfalfa grew so well on the trial patch. It
was a year of drouth and the corn crop was nearly
ruined, only about 500 bushels in all being harvested.
The chief events were the long and delightful drives
that the boy took with his sweetheart and the fre-
quent walks he took to watch his alfalfa. When

INTRODUCTION. 25

fall came the sweetheart and the boy drove out one
day along quiet byways and gathered a buggy load
of wild flowers and vines and with these decorated
the sweetheart's home, and that night they were
married. Next day they went on a honeymoon jour-
ney, with the same old horse and buggy, out again
into the country, driving slow beneath the old oaks
that overarched the road, and more than ever the
boy resolved that his life should not be a failure;
that in some way he would strive mightily to be
worthy of her, who had been an inspiration to him
since she was a merry child of eleven, with sunny
curls hanging down on her shoulders. And as soon
as they were married he began digging for the foun-
dations of a little cottage in the corner of the wood-
land, a cottage where she might be mistress. All
winter whenever it was warm enough he worked on
the cottage, so that it was done nearly altogether
by the labor of his own hands saving that the sweet-
heart 's father came to help now and then. In June
they moved in. All was fresh and new and clean,
the whole air was full of hope and life was very
joyous then.

That spring they sowed another field to alfalfa,
this time a little field of about 3 acres. And this
field taught a much needed lesson. It began down
by the creek where the land was low and wet, ran
on up over a little hill where the land was dry and
filled with limestone gravel, extended on back over
some flat cold poor clay. And on only one acre of
the three did the alfalfa thrive; that acre lay on

Zb ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

the rich dry hill, full of limestone pebbles. Down
by the stream the alfalfa was weak, sickly, soon
taken by the crowding grasses and weeds. Back on
the flat wet poor clay it amounted to very little. On
the dry rich soil full of carbonate of lime it thrived
beautifully. So there the boy stood and pondered;
the lesson was plain, though unwlecome. "It is evi-
dent that this farm is not ready for alfalfa," he
said. "I'll make it ready. I'll drain the wet land.
I'll enrich the poor land. I'll grow alfalfa; some
day I'll have 40 acres of it, but not so soon as I
thought I would." So then began the work of lay-
ing tile underdrains in earnest. The father had laid
many in his day, but not nearly enough, judging by
the new standard that alfalfa set up.

And that fall the kind old father died, died in a
peaceful and happy sort of way, as almost anyone
would be glad to die. He had been fairly well that
summer, and had insisted in helping in the hay field,
raking with the horse rake and cheerily, almost glee-
fully, showing the men that he was by no means
worn out. One morning he arose early, as was his
habit, and went out to work in his garden before
the breakfast time, and there the boy had his last
talk with the old man, and arranged with him about
going to the fair soon to come off. After breakfast
the father went to the barn and hitched his gentle
mare Daisy to a spring wagon and got ready to go
to the village on some errand, probably to take some
vegetables to market. When the horse stopped at
the front gate, coming from the barn, no one seemed

INTRODUCTION. 27

with her, and when the women of the house went out
to see they found the old man lying in the wagon
as though peacefully sleeping, with a half smile on
his lips, dead. It was a fitting end. He had lived a
strenuous life, he had been good, he had been kind ;
he had been builder not destroyer, and wherever his
foot had been put down there rich grasses and
clovers had sprung up.

The writer makes no pretense of being as good or
careful a farmer as his father was. We try to fol-
low in his footsteps, that is all, and we do things in
a larger way than he in his old age cared to do them.
Yes, the father was gone, and with him the safe
counselor, and the boy all at once realized how much
he had depended upon this counsel. He could do
as he pleased now, but he was not glad of the chance.
He would have been very glad indeed if he could
have had the continued company of the old father.

He took account of stock. The farm was not pay-
ing ; the crops that grew upon it when all sold could
not possibly bring money enough to make it a busi-
ness worth while. Much of the land was too poor
to be profitable. The little alfalfa fields paid well,
but they were but small spaces after all ; the rest of
the farm was mostly unfit for alfalfa. The farm
needed enriching, needed further drainage. If ever
it paid it must be made rich. How! Well, there
was stable manure. The boy knew about that; the
old father had been a most careful user of manure ;
he saved all that he could, but he fed his cattle out
in the woods where the manure was largely wasted.

28 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

The boy reasoned : ' i Our practices are wrong. We
sell off timothy hay and wheat, and thus load by
load we sell away the fertility of the farm, and what
we do feed is largely wasted, as we do not get the
manure. Now if ever we build this farm up we
must feed on the land the crops that we grow upon
the land. And if we make any money in feeding
animals we must feed younger animals than we
have been feeding. We must feed some sort of
babies. Now what shall it be?/'

Then he thought of the lamb. "Why, here is the
lamb," he said. "He is a baby, a gentle little fellow.
One can put him in the barn, can feed him there in-
shelter. His manure will all be saved in good order
and can go direct to the fields with no wastage, and
from the feed given him one ought to make good
gain and thus make money. ' ' He had already a little
flock of ewes which were his pets and his darlings.
To them he added now a little bunch of 200 feeding
lambs, building a shed to hold them. As he had no
money only what he borrowed, he bought the small-
est and cheapest lambs that he could find. They
were natives, fairly healthy, and weighed 55 Ibs.
when he put them in the sheds in November. He
had carefully dipped them in a half barrel, and had
himself as thoroughly dipped as the lambs, so they
werje free from ticks. All winter he fed them care-
fully, every feed with his own hands. Not knowing
anything about feeding lambs, he had written to
Prof. E. W. Stewart to get his advice as to how
they ought to be fed, and he had told him how to

INTRODUCTION. 29

compound a ration with wheat bran, oilmeal, corn
and mixed timothy and clover hay. He had too little
alfalfa hay yet to make much show in the feeding
barn. The lambs throve; they became very fat in-
deed and in May weighed 108y2 Ibs. In fact in all
the years that lambs have been fed on Woodland
Farm no such gain has since been secured, which
simply shows that a greenhorn may do as well as
an expert, if he has his heart in it and is earnest
and careful. The boy had kept careful account of
what the lambs had eaten so he knew what the gain
had cost him. When he had figured it all up he
found that he had made a clear profit from feeding
these lambs of $115, the first real profit from
Woodland Farm since his new venture in manage-
ment. It was a small sum, yet mightily it encour-
aged him. And then he dreamed another dream, out
there on the sunny side of the barn. Thinking it
over, he said: "Some day we'll feed a thousand
lambs on this farm." But he told no one that, not
even his wife, for all would have smiled in derision,
for had he not bought part of the hay that he had
fed this first 200?

But there was more manure to haul out than ever
before, and it was put where corn would be grown
and where alfalfa might be expected to succeed,
and more alfalfa was sown. Wherever the manure
had been put out and the drains laid the alfalfa suc-
ceeded. Inoculation took care of itself on Woodland
Farm after the first start, because of the use of
manure made from alfalfa hay perhaps, and every

30 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

little field added to those first started succeeded in
almost direct proportion to the amount of manure
used and the thoroughness of the underdrainage.

The next winter 300 lambs were fed, then 350, then
350 again, and then a larger barn was built and 700
were fed. The work grew easier and easier; wheat
was dropped from the rotation, and no more timothy
seed was sown. Lamb feeding promised profit, so
finally it was resolved that lambs would be fed and
crops grown that lambs liked, and nothing else.
Meanwhile Willis and the writer bent their backs
energetically in the ditches, draining more and more
land, and hiring men to dig what they could not.
Charlie, too, growing up a stalwart boy, helped
cheerfully, and the three brothers were full of faith.
And yet neighbors smiled, and some there were to
sneer. It is true that when the new barn was built
with a mow that could hold 100 tons of hay men
asked smilingly if we thought we could borrow
money enough to buy hay enough to fill it, and went
off laughing when we declared that we would fill it
from our own alfalfa meadows some day. No one
else in the country was trying to grow alfalfa, so
far as we knew, no one else in Ohio, though there
was some grown in Onondaga Co., New York. Well,
we filled the barn at last, and had an overflow. We
fed a thousand lambs as we had dreamed, and we
fed 1,200. We had learned how at last. Lamb feed-
ing is an art, a science ; it is not yet all learned.

It had not all been smooth sailing, this lamb feed-
ing. More than one disaster had overtaken us.

INTRODUCTION. 31

There had been bad years, low prices, diseased
lambs, all sorts of troubles. Grimly we had held on.
1 ' We can ?t afford to change now, ' ' we declared. * l We
have made too many mistakes in what we are doing.
To change now would be to lose all we have gained
by making these mistakes; we don't have to make
the same mistakes the second time." So we held
on, confident that our scheme was a safe and reason-
able one, based on alfalfa growing, the alfalfa fed to
lambs, the manure put out for corn, the well en-
riched corn stubble sown to alfalfa, often with addi-
tional phosphorus and as much as possible of the
corn and alfalfa fed 'back to lambs again.

But during these years we were in debt, a little at
first, but steadily the debt grew. We owed for labor
to dig drains, we owed for labor and materials to
build fences and barns. We did all the labor that
we could do with our own hands, but we were too im-
patient to wait to develop the place ourselves.
"Farming either is or is not a business proposi-
tion, " we declared. "If it is a safe business propo-
sition this thing will pay some day, and if it is no<t
we will break and be done with it. If we can't farm
as a business proposition we prefer to break up
trying it." And ever and often the writer, the
older of the brothers, declared to Willis, his willing
lieutenant: "It is only a question of one good year,
just one good year, and the lambs will pay every
dollar that we owe and we will have the ditches laid,
the buildings built, the fields made fertile, and it
will all be ours."

32 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

That year came when we had 1,200 lambs. We
had learned how to feed them by this time, and
they were as alike as peas, and ripe and fine as they
could be. The commission merchants down in Buf-
falo had learned to watch for our lambs and to prize
them. They had an alfalfa quality about them that
no one could attain except he had alfalfa. We had
fed them this winter altogether on alfalfa hay and
ear corn, all grown at home, and we had hay left
over enough to sell to our neighbors ; some of whom
needed hay with which to do their spring plowing.
Well, we sold the lambs, one load at a time, and the
checks "came back and we laid them down on the
bankers ' counter. Now we owed no one in the world
but this bank, but we owed it a lot of money. Stead-
ily despite the fact that we had economized, had rid-
den in our old buggies and worn our old clothes,
this debt had grown, and at last it had become a
serious burden on our minds ; it seemed incredible
that it would ever be paid.

At last the last check had come. With a fast beat-
ing heart the writer laid it down on the bankers'
counter. "Here it is. The lambs are all sold; is
it enough to pay that note?" The banker smiled;
he was a good fellow. "Yes, plenty to pay it, and
some over," and he handed the note through the
window, cancelled. The writer looked at it; how
huge then the amount of it seemed ! He tore off the
signature and turned anxiously again. "Tell me,"
he asked, "how much is there left!" The banker
figured for a moment and presented with a smiling

INTRODUCTION. 33

face the bank book, where on the right side of the
page was a credit balance of $800. The debt was paid.
The tiles were laid, or a lot of them were laid at any
rate, the barns were built, the home was paid for
and there was actually money in the bank! The
writer feels that there are many happy days ahead
of him, but never again expects to experience the
relief, the thankfulness, the joy that came to him
when his first victory was won for Woodland Farm,
and the brothers fully shared the feeling.

The writer jumped into his old buggy and drove
home, his face wreathed in smiles and his heart
singing a joyous song. As he neared his home the
thought came: "Why, I will have some fun with
the sweetheart. I will make believe the thing has
ended badly. I will tell her some sort of story to
deceive her, just at first ; afterward I will undeceive
her." But when he drew near the little cottage she
stood there in the open door waiting for him to come,
looking mit at him, all unconscious, yet on her face
was revealed all that the thing meant to her, and his
heart became suddenly very tender and it came over
him with a shock of understanding. "Why, I never
dreamed that the girl cared like this. Did she per-
haps wonder whether the home would be sold, the
place where she had planted flowers and vines, the
place where her babies were born? Where she had
been so brave, so strong, so patient and helpful all
these years, and yet cared so much as this?" So
all his foolish, stories were put aside and he told her
the glad truth.

34 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

And what had the farm done that year ? After all
the items of sales and expenditure were footed up it
was found that the same land that had yielded our
father less than $800 had yielded us a net profit of
more than $2,500. Alfalfa had worked this miracle.
It had given us the hay with which to feed the larger
number of lambs, and through the soil enrichment
that it had given the fields it had made possible the
heavy crop of corn that we had fed to the lambs, so
really to alfalfa should be credited both corn and
hay. Further, alfalfa had made it possible to con-
tinue feeding lambs. When we were beginning, and
were almost without alfalfa hay, we had fed largely
of oilmeal and wheat bran to balance up the ration.
This was necessary; experiment proved that. With-
out plenty of digestible protein in the ration the
lamb does not gain much. We made good lambs
through the aid of the bran and oilmeal, but it cost
us too much. When finally we had our own alfalfa
hay to furnish protein we made two lots of lambs.
They had equal merit in the beginning as near as
we could tell, for they were of the same bunch, se-
lected to get two like lots. The one pen was fed with
timothy hay, with some clover, shredded corn fod-
der, corn, wheat bran and a little oilmeal. They
grew well, but each pound of gain made cost us 6y2c.
The second lot was fed with good alfalfa hay and
corn only. With them the cost of gain was only
31/20. As the price of lambs declined during the
nineties we would have had to give up had not al-
falfa come to our rescue.

INTRODUCTION. 35

At tlie present writing (1909) we are feeding some
1,450 lambs, with, about 150 ewes and lambs, and We
could as readily feed 2,000 or more if we had more
shelter for them.

Woodland Farm is larger now; the alfalfa has
crowded the line fences back a little. It contains
320 acres and is devoted mainly to the growing of
corn and alfalfa. During the summer of 1908 corn
was grown on 90 acres of alfalfa sod. This field had
been twice sown to alfalfa, with intervals
when it was planted in corn. The last pe-
riod of alfalfa was a 6 year period for part
of the land and a longer period for the remain-
der. During the 6 years there were taken off at least
20 crops of hay, certainly 20 tons of hay to each acre.
During this time no manure was put on the field, but
on parts of it phosphorus was applied in the shape of
acid phosphate, about 300 Ibs. per acre or maybe a
little more. The great crops of hay taken continually
off of this field disturbed our mother, who finally
spoke in sorrowing tones to the writer, thus: " Joey,
I am worrying about that alfalfa field. " "Why,
mother ?" "Because you do not manure it. You
haul off hay and haul off more hay and it seems to
me you actually have hollowed the land out so that
it is lower than it used to be. I think of what your
father would say if he could see it. Why don't you
put some manure on it, boy?"

I assured her that I could not believe that the land
was really getting poor, and that we were putting
the manure out carefully on land that we knew was

36 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

poor, and she said no more. When we plowed the
land in the winter of 1908-09 it seemed more mellow
and friable than usual, so we plowed it deeper than
it had usually been plowed. And when we disked it
up in the spring it was most evident that the field
had changed its character somewhat, so loose, mellow
and friable it seemed. We resolved to make an ef-
fort to beat our record for corn raising, so we
planted with care. The seed was good and had been
tested. We got nearly a perfect stand over much
of the field and all summer gave it good culture.
There was a most serious drouth late in the summer,
which doubtless cut down our yield somewhat. Yet
50 acres of that field made for us a little more than
100 bushels of shelled corn per acre and the entire
90 acres only fell a little short of making 9,000
bushels. This result astonished us, as the field had
in olden times yielded only about half that amount.
In truth the alfalfa had built it up far beyond the
fertility that it had had when a "virgin soil."

Let us briefly examine this miracle and see how it
was accomplished. In the first place it is probable
that this especial field has in it already about as
much potash as it needs for large crop production,
since it is a glaciated soil. Most of the field is well
supplied with lime ; in truth one can find small peb-
bles of limestone sticking all through the soil. Thus
it was sweet, and the alfalfa revels in sweet soil, al-
kaline, not acid. So the alfalfa was at home there.
Then the land had been thoroughly well under-
drained; thus it was full of air. Alfalfa bacteria

INTRODUCTION. . 37

thrive in soils rich in lime and full of air ; they perish
in a wet sour soil. Thus the alfalfa filled all the soil
with its rootlets, going down often as far as 6 feet,
no doubt, and numberless millions of bacteria work-
ing there were storing the soil with nitrogen drawn
from the air. The phosphorus supply may have
been somewhat deficient; we bought phosphorus for
part of the land and added that. Then the land was
plowed; the plow cut off millions of those big roots
and left the top soil one mass of roots, with also
many little rootlets and many leaves and stems that
had fallen down. And the subsoil was made porous
by being honeycombed by millions of the tap roots,
so the air penetrated all the more easily. Thus it is
seen that conditions for a big corn crop were almost
ideal.

It would be an interesting thing to know just how
much richer Woodland Farm is than it was before
alfalfa began to grow upon it. It is safe to say that
the alfalfa, yielding on the average 30 tons of hay
per year for the past ten years, has added to -the soil
plant food worth at least $3,000 each year, count-
ing the manure that has 'been returned and the work
of the roots; probably this is an underestimate, in
fact. Once we racked our brains to find manure
enough, and never did find enough. Now we rack
our brains again to find time to haul out the manure
that is made upon the farm. Gathering fertility by
the use of alfalfa is like rolling a snowball — the
farther you roll it the faster it gathers. This would
not be true if the hay was sold off of the farm, but

38 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

it is certainly true when the hay is fed and the
manure carefully saved and returned, to make an-
other spot rich for alfalfa to grow upon.

The story of Woodland Farm is 'only half told;
the rest lies in the future. We have some acres that
yield as much as 6 tons of hay each year, yet the
average of the whole farm is less than 4 tons. Thus
we are not yet inclined to boast of our success with
alfalfa. We now are proceeding to try to spread
these good yielding areas. What is the secret of the
lands yielding alfalfa so well? Perhaps we do not
know the whole story, but here is what we can readily
observe. One of these spots is a round hillock. It
is a strong, tough, tenacious limestone clay. Stick-
ing all through that clay are bits of limestone peb-
bles, as large as grains of corn, as large as a man's
foot, and of all sizes. These pebbles are of soft mag-
nesian limestone. They readily decay and keep the
land very sweet. Alfalfa roots seem to like actually
to touch carbonate of lime. On that hillock the al-
falfa never gets old. It is one of the most productive
spots on the farm. On it our father put much ma-
nure, for it was, when he bought the farm, extremely
unproductive. We have not manured here for many
years.

On other lands we find the limestone pebbles all
dissolved away in the surface soil. When we dig
down two feet we find them in abundance, but on
the surface there are none. Here we are assuming
that lime is needed, and are putting on more car-
bonate of lime, buying ground and unburned lime-

INTRODUCTION. 39

stone and applying it at the rate of about 5 tons to
the acre. Probably that is too little; it is yet too
early to know. We feel sure that when we have
made the drainage right and the lime content right
we will grow as much alfalfa over all the farm as
we now grow on those favored spots. Then we can
proudly boast, sure enough! Then we can say:
"From 100 acres of land we harvested 500 tons of
alfalfa hay." It may take time to reach this con-
dition. It may not even come in my day. But we
have boys and to these boys we bequeath the ideal,
the task, and to them will fall the pleasant duty of
spreading these spots of gloriously beautiful alfalfa,
rich and productive beyond anything else that could
be sown.

It may be of interest to know something of
the present system of farming on Woodland Farm.
Let us begin with the alfalfa sod that is to die that
corn may live. It is plowed usually in November
and during the winter. Perhaps the field was mown
off late, four cuttings being taken from it, in antici-
pation of its impending destruction. We find that
late cutting is bad for the alfalfa and do not usually
cut it later than early in September. This field to
be devoted to corn then will be mown off late, as it
does not matter how much the roots are weakened.
Usually we plow with very strongly built walking
plows. We put two wheels on the beam, well in
front ; one wheel runs in the furrow, the other on the
unplowed land. These wheels hold the beam rigidly
in place, and thus the plow runs well ; a boy can man-

40 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

age it if the thing is set right. We keep the plows
sharp. The plowman carries a file and often lifts
the plow out of the ground and sharpens it well.
The land is plowed deep, from 7 to 10", and we hope
ultimately to plow much deeper than that. We aim
to get the land all broken before mid-winter, so that
the frosts may work on it. No manure is used on
alfalfa sod. It is disked and fitted for corn which is
planted usually about May 5 in checks. This corn is
as well cultivated as we know. Often in the early
part of the season the alfalfa roots will grow, espe-
cially if the season is wet, and the field will look
not a little green. This does not disturb us in the
least, for after the corn cultivation begins the alfalfa
soon weakens and mostly disappears. Some stray
plants will escape destruction and will live over,
even for two* or three years of corn. This is all the
better, since thus the inoculation is safely carried
over. The corn has as clean cultivation as we can
give. We discourage weed seeding as much as pos-
sible. We have learned that that enemy of alfalfa,
fox-tail or pigeon grass, can be surely eradicated in
one year by not letting a stalk of it make seed.

The corn is cut and shocked. Before winter it is
husked and the folder set up, two shocks in a place.
We cut our corn 12 hills square ; at present our hills
are 42" apart. We find corn to thrive wonderfully
on alfalfa sod. The second year will usually find this
land yet in corn. This time as much manure from
the stables and sheep barns as can be found
will be put on. Even with this manuring

INTRODUCTION. 41

we do not expect quite so good corn as
we had when we grew it on alfalfa sod. As
before, clean cultivation is given. We are especially
careful to destroy all fox-tail grass before it seeds.

This land is now to be sown to alfalfa. If it needs
lime that is applied as convenience suggests, when-
ever the teams are idle and the land is hard enough
to drive on. We use finely ground raw limestone
rock, not burned. We use about 4 tons to the acre
of this. It cost us only $1.25 per ton on cars. The
land is plowed as deep as the plows will run, making
the furrows narrow. We would plow 24" deep if we
could do so. Some day no doubt we will begin sub-
soil work, and expect that to pay well. We like to
do this plowing a month or more before time to seed
alfalfa, so that the earth may settle well together
again. In April we disk and prepare the land with
some care, but not attempting to make any "ash
heap" or "onion bed," as some advise, only a little
better seedbed than one would make for corn.
About April 10 we begin drilling. We use a fertil-
izer drill that sows fertilizer, beardless spring
barley and alfalfa seed. Of barley we sow 2 bushels
to the acre; of alfalfa seed, 15 to 20 Ibs.; of fertilizer
(usually plain acid phosphate, sometimes bone meal)
we use 300 to 500 Ibs. per acre. We think it prob-
able that the more we enrich the land the greater our
profit is. We let the alfalfa seed fall in front of the
drill sometimes, at other times behind the drill, ac-
cording to the condition of the soil. If moist we do
not roll but follow the drill with a plank drag. If

42 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

the land is dry and cloddy we use a roller to com-
pact it and to leave the surface smooth so that the
mower may run over it readily. We do not inocu-
late, since all the farm is now filled with alfalfa bac-
teria. The alfalfa comes up with the barley and all
grow together till the barley has come into head;
before grain has formed in the heads it is mown off
and all made into hay. Barley hay is exceedingly
good hay, though not so good as alfalfa hay, of
course. After this cutting the alfalfa comes on rap-
idly and in about 45 days, or a little less, it also is
cut and a crop of hay taken off .

We judge of the time to cut this young alfalfa al-
together by the condition of the growth, not by the
bloom. When small shoots appear at the base of the
stems, down by the ground, as though it was ready
to make a new growth, then it is to be cut, and not
before that time. If cut before these shoots or buds
appear, the alfalfa is very greatly weakened and
sometimes is destroyed. After this cutting the alfal-
fa is left religiously alone; it is never pastured nor
mown nor tramped in any way during the fall or win-
ter. The fall growth of about a foot or a little more
is worth a very great deal to the plant, in some way
or another ; it helps hold the snow and makes it win-
ter better. Tne next year the alfalfa shoots out as
soon as the frost is out of the earth.

Alfalfa fields are sacred ground on Woodland
Farm, and never unless by accident is an animal per-
mitted to tread upon them. It is especially im-
portant that no stock go upon them in the spring

INTRODUCTION. 43

when the young alfalfa is pushing up ; even though
the alfalfa might be destined for pasture everything
is kept off until it has made good growth, and is
nearly knee high and almost come into bloom before
stock is turned in. Gloriously beautiful the fields be-
come in May, and as June draws near we watch them
to see how nearly they are approaching harvest.
We have long ago learned not to regard the bloom-
ing of the alfalfa as -being an essential indication of
maturity, but only we suspect that it is ready for
cutting. We get down upon our knees in the field,
and parting the stems look to see whether small buds
have appeared at the surface of the ground. If
these buds or shoots are pushing out, showing that
the plant is ready to make new growth, then the
mowers come out, three of them, each cutting swaths
6' wide, and with merry rattle the beautiful green
forage is laid low.

Not much use is made of the tedder on Woodland
Farm, since it shatters off the leaves too much, al-
though sometimes it is employed when the crop is
very succulent and heavy. Before the alfalfa is dry
enough for the leaves to shed off, the rake is started
and the hay gathered into small windrows, which
are then piled into slender but fairly tall cocks by
the use of the hand fork in the old-fashioned way.
Rather a jolly time haymaking is, with all the men
and boys on the place busy in the field, with merry
callings to and fro and sometimes the note of a song,
yet it is a busy place too. Seldom can the hay be
drawn in the same day as it is cut down, and not al-

44 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

ways on the next day, but as soon as it is dried it is
placed on broad, low-platform wagons, each bed 16'
long and 7' wide, with tight board floors ; and taken
to the barn where it is unloaded by horse forks. The
farm possesses 7 of these wagons, so that each even-
ing it is the daily duty to load up the 7 wagons with
from 10 to 14 tons of hay, which are then drawn un-
der shed ready to be unloaded in the morning. Not
much is doing in "the alfalfa meadows in the fore-
noon; then is the time chosen for work in the corn
fields, and cultivators are pushed steadily. These
two crops, corn and alfalfa, constitute almost all that
is grown on Woodland Farm, excepting a few acres
of soy beans and the blue grass pastures, but as the
alfalfa is cut three times during the season, and the
corn cultivated at least five times, there is no dif-
ficulty in keeping everyone busy.

The writer makes no apology for having devoted
so much time to the operations on Woodland Farm,
since he feels that in a sense this is a pioneer farm,
and fairly prophetic only, of what will be very com-
mon throughout all the region of the corn belt. Very
certainly these two crops, corn and alfalfa, are by
far the most profitable of any, and do most conserve
the fertility of the soil, do best nourish all manner of
farm animals, do most surely build the fortunes of
the farmer. Deeply buried in the soil of the fields,
the alfalfa roots know nothing of the vicissitudes of
winter; as certainly they put out green as leaves up-
on the oaks in spring, and drouths that wither up
ordinary meadows have little effect upon them.

INTRODUCTION. 45

Wheat, oats, potatoes, timothy grass and a hundred
other things are uncertain, affected vastly by the
vicissitudes of the weather. Alfalfa once rooted in
dry rich soil has the permanence of the wild native
things. Corn also planted upon alfalfa sod well cul-
tivated mocks at seasons, for floods affect it not,
since the land must perforce be well drained, and
drouths and heats that sear other vegetation pass it
by, leaving it fresh, green and undismayed. These
two crops then are destined not to free the farmer
from labor, for they bring abundant labor to him,
but to take away from him the cares and perplexi-
ties incident to the growing of uncertain things.

HISTORY.

The world is very old. For more ages than we
dream men have lived and loved, toiled, sown and
reaped. The history of the race is written in the
form, variation and characteristics of animals and
plants much more than in tablets of stone or pieces
of clay. Would you ask how long men have lived
on earth? Ask when first hornless cattle were kept.
Records in Egypt show them to have been common
thousands of years before the time of Christ.
Ask when sheep were first tamed and their fleeces
developed. The very race of wild sheep has per-
ished from the face of the earth and the sheep of
Abraham's day were highly developed. Ask when
wheat was taken from being a wild grass and made
a cultivated plant; when the banana ceased to have
seeds; the apple gathered sweetness and the vine
began to hang down with luscious clusters of pur-
pling grapes. Ask, too, when it was that animals
became the subjects and friends of men; when men
began to feed them, to gather forage for them, to
cultivate plants for them, to perceive which plants
were the best plants and which best fed the animals.
Ask, too, when men first saw that soils grew worn,
that certain plants fed soils, that other plants caused
them to become infertile.

(46)

HISTORY. 47

All these things happened many thousands of
years ago. The best things done by men are older
than recorded history. The taming of the ass, the
taming of the horse, the taming of the cow, the devel-
opment of the milk-giving powers of the cow, the
caring for sheep and goats, the breeding of sheep for
wool, the spinning of wool and flax, the melting of
ores — all these primal things happened long
centuries ago. Since historic times man has
learned very little indeed that 'he needed to
know; the important, primal, essential things were
all worked out before men began to write upon stone
and upon parchment.

It is not certain that there exists today any wild al-
falfa. There are places where some has escaped from
cultivation and gone wild, but all alfalfa, so far as
known, has so changed its form from 'what it would
be in the wild state that it is doubtless bearing in its
nature the very marked signs of the moulding hand
of man. For example, all alfalfa so far as known
today needs to be cut off from time to 4ime to keep
it in thrift. No wild plant requires that. Alfalfa
that we know reflects a long line of civilizations, re-
flects the habits of people who have kept cows and
donkeys and sheep and horses, kept these and fed
them, carrying their forage to them on men's backs
for ages untold. It requires no effort of the imag-
ination when looking out upon an alfalfa field to
picture the fields from which it sprung through the
ages past. The little fields fair and green and fertile
under hot glowing desert skies mostly. Little fields

48 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

for the most part walled often with walls of stone
or of sun-dried bricks, lined with little canals of
cool water with overhanging trees, fig trees or al-
monds or palms, and brown men and women, lithe
and strong, coming to cut the green meadow with
curved sickles and scythes, gathering it in sheaves
and carrying it on their backs through gates in the
walls to the animals eagerly awaiting it in the en-
closed corrals or stables. Alfalfa was developed in
dry regions. It came, very likely, from southwest-
ern Asia through Persia to Arabia, whence it got its
name alfalfa, which simply means the best forage.
The Persians grew it finely. Down along the rivers
of Babylon in ancient Babylonia alfalfa was a stand-
ard crop, most likely. Tho-se river valleys are rich
in lime and alkaline in their reaction, admirably
suited to alfalfa culture, and there under irrigation
alfalfa undoubtedly throve. The one reference to
alfalfa in the Bible is found in the fourth chapter
of the book of Daniel where in the thirty-third verse
it is related of the king :

"The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar:
and he was driven from men, and did eat grass [alfalfa] as
oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his
hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's
claws. And at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up
mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned to me,
and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that
liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
His kingdom is from generation to generation."

The truth probably was that old Nebuchadnezzar,
rich, spoiled, feasted and wined till he became in-
sane, was turned out to graze in an alfalfa field till
on this simple and nutritious diet his body was re-

HISTORY. 49

newed, filled with health and vigor, when his reason
returned and of course he did what any healthy man
will do daily, blessed the Most High and praised
Him and was humbled and glad once more.

It is related that in the old kingdom of Babylonia
wheat would yield 200 fold and sometimes 300 fold,
which plainly indicates that it must have been sown
thinly in drills upon alfalfa sod, irrigated from the
canals with which that country abounded, and prob-
ably weeded and cultivated by slave labor.

About 500 years before Christ the Persians invad-
ed Greece. Now, Greeks are stubborn folks, or were
in those days, and many were the battles before the
Greeks were even in part conquered. The Persians,
aided by Greek factions and tribes, doggedly toiled
steadily onward, taking city after city. Wherever
they went they had chariot horses to feed and cattle
— bulls, so legend says — for fighting, and cows no
doubt for helping feed the army. With curious mix-
ture of martial and agricultural zeal they brought
with them alfalfa seed and wherever they conquered
foothold they sowed alfalfa. An army travels, and
fights, on its belly, so it was a mighty help to the
Greeks to have the aid of the alfalfa. And without
doubt it was eaten by the soldiers as well, since green
succulent alfalfa has always been boiled and eaten
as greens or pottage. Unhappily the Persians
§ent away hosts of the Greek subjects as slaves to
Asia, else when they had gone on the people might
have been almost benefited by the war, since alfalfa
fields were left in the wake of the army. It must be

50 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

remembered that much of the land of Greece is
formed from the decay of limestone and marble.
Thus filled with carbonate of lime it is naturally
fitted for alfalfa culture as well as for the production
of such magnificent men as the Greeks undoubtedly
were.

From Greece alfalfa spread into Borne, just when
we do not know. The first real farm books were
written in the first century after Christ. One L,
Junius Moderatus Columella, born in Spain but liv-
ing most of his life in Italy, wrote twelve books
which he called "De Ee Kustica." These books
were written about the year 56 A. D. It would seem
from dipping into the pages of Columella that about
as much was known then of agriculture as is known
today. Indeed, they knew then many things that
we do not know today, and agriculture has lost many
picturesque details by the pruning away little by
little of agricultural fancies, by the accumulations of
stern facts.

But however much we may smile at some of Col-
umella 's account of ancient Eoman agriculture, we
will respect him for his account of alfalfa and the
way to grow it. Many forage crops are mentioned
by Columella — medic (alfalfa), vetches, bitter vetch,
chick pea, barley, oats and wheat.

Speaking of the various sorts of fodders he says
the herb medic (alfalfa) is the choicest, because
when it is sown it lasts ten years. He continues :

It can bear to be cut down four times, sometimes also six times
in a year, because it dungs the laaa, AH emaciated cattle what-

HISTORY. 51

soever grow fat with it because it is a remedy for sick cattle,
and a jugerum of it is abundantly sufficient for three horses the
whole year. It is sown as we shall hereafter direct. About the
beginning of October cut up the field wherein you design to sow
medic next spring and let it lie all winter to rot and grow crum-
bly. Then about the first of February plow it carefully a second
time and carry all the stones out of it, and break all clods. After
about the month of March plow it the third time and harrow it.
When you have thus manured the ground, make it in the manner
of a garden, into beds and divisions ten feet broad and fifty feet
long, so that it may be supplied by water with paths and there
may be an open access for weeders on both sides. Then throw
old dung upon it and sow in the latter end of April. Sow it in
such a proportion that a cyathus of seed may take up a place 10
feet long and 5 feet bread. After you have done this, let the
seeds that are thrown into the ground be presently covered with
earth with wooden rakes. This is a very great advantage to them
because they are very quickly burnt up with the sun. After
sowing, the place ought not to be touched with an iron tool, but
as I said it must be raked with wooden rakes, and weeded from
time to time lest any other kind of herb destroy the f3eble medic.
You must cut the first crop of it somewhat later, after it has put
forth some of its seeds. Afterwards you are at liberty to cut it
down as tender and as young as you please after it has sprung up
and to give it to horses, but at first you must give it to them
more sparingly until they be accustomed to it, lest the novelty
of the fodder be hurtful to them, for it blows them and creates
much blood. Water it very often after you have cut it. Then
after a few days when it shall begin to sprout weed out of it all
plants of a different kind. When cultivated in this manner it
may be cut down six times in a year and it will last ten years.

That instruction bears evidence of much famil-
iarity with the alfalfa plant. It must not be cut too
soon the first time, not till some seeds have formed.
It is true here that young alfalfa is destroyed often-
times if cut before the young shoots have put out
at the base of the stems. Not having observed this
perhaps the old alfalfa growers judged by the state
of bloom or seeding when it should be cut. Note that
Columella says "it dungs the land." Thus early
they knew the practice of farming with legumes,

52 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

and that alfalfa was the best of the legumes for this
purpose of enriching soils.

Note too that he found it a good food for horses.
It is said that the chariot horses were fed on alfalfa
hay, and the colts destined to become war horses
were raised largely on it because it made them
larger, heavier and more impetuous.

From Italy alfalfa naturally spread wherever the
Roman farmer colonist penetrated, through France,
Spain, England and doubtless Germany. It may be
that Spain also received alfalfa from Africa through
the Moors. The name alfalfa comes from the Ara-
bic and means the best forage, and this name the
Spanish people adopted. Through the introduction
of the plant in America by the Spanish colonists
and our taking it from them on our Pacific coast we
get the name alfalfa. In France, England and most
other European countries, and in Utah and formerly
through all our eastern states, the name lucerne is
in common use. This name comes from a river val-
ley in northern Italy.

Alfalfa throve in Italy, in much of Spain and in
parts of France. Where it throve no other forage
plant could compete with it. It was introduced long
ago into England and there it throve in spots. It
was much extolled by some, its planting advised,
yet it never became common and today is seldom
seen in extensive use on the British Isles. It was
brought to America in two ways, from Spain to
Mexico, Peru, Chili, Argentina, from Mexico to
Texas, New Mexico and California ; later from Chili

HISTORY. 53

to California in 1851, which marked the really im-
portant step in alfalfa growing in America.

The other source was the bringing of lucerne seed
to the eastern states of America from England,
France and Germany early in the history of Ameri-
can colonization. In the eighteenth century many
men were experimenting with lucerne in Virginia,
New York, North Carolina and doubtless other
states. Some of them succeeded quite well and
many of them doubtless failed. We know now the
reason why many failed. Then the behavior of lu-
cerne was a mystery to the farmer. We had not
learned then the intimate connection between alka-
linity of soil and presence of abundant carbonate of
lime and alfalfa culture. It is all very easy to ex-
plain this now — how alfalfa came from alkaline soils
rich in lime down in Persia, into the alkaline plains
of Babylonia, to the limestone soils of Eoman lands,
to the soils of Greece built on marble decay, to the
limestones of southern France, to the alkaline soils
of semi-arid north Africa, to the soils rich in lime
and alkalies in Spain, thence to similar soils, yet
richer in lime, in Mexico, Chili, New Mexico and Cal-
ifornia. In England soils vary immensely as regard
their lime content. Some are very rich in lime ; on
these lucerne throve : in others lime is very deficient ;
here it failed. In France there is found a similar
variability, so also there were found areas that grew
good lucerne, and others that grew none at all. In
eastern America, on the other hand, nearly all soils
were from the first settling of the country deficient

54 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

in lime and thus unfitted for alfalfa. Yet the soils
as our fathers found them were sweeter than they
are today, and thus we often hear old men relate
that in their boyhood their fathers grew lucerne and
that their daily task was to cut it and feed it to the
cows ; this on land that will not today unaided grow
alfalfa at all.

In reading over the written accounts of how to
grow lucerne published in the last century one is
amazed to find how much the authors knew of the
habits of the plants, and as much astonished to per-
ceive that few if any of them understood the vital
connection between alfalfa and a large percentage
of carbonate of lime in the soil. One of the good old
books on agriculture is "The Dictionary of the
Farm," by the Eev. W. L. Kham, Vicar of Wink-
field, Berkshire, who died in 1843. The article on
lucerne is strikingly good, so good, indeed, that had
the author known two facts of which he seems to
have been unaware there would have been left little
to add. He evidently had not traced the relationship
between thrifty lucerne and a strong lime content in
the soil, nor had he seen the harm that comes to
lucerne when it is mown off too early, before it has
made sufficient growth to start the little shoots at
the base of the stems. Ignorance of the latter fact
is very universal in England at the present time and
leads to much lack of thrift and falling away of the
alfalfa plants that are usually cut with the scythe
bit by bit, and fed to horses green, just as Kham
advised, The writer has indeed pointed out to Eng-

HISTORY. 55

lish farmers that the lower sides of their lucerne
fields remained thrifty after the upper ends were
half destroyed, just because of the fact that the man
with the scythe commenced on the upper end before
it was time to cut the immature plants, and by the
time he had reached the bottom of the field it was
sufficiently mature, so remained in vigorous condi-
tion.

The article follows from "Bham's Dictionary of
the Farm," published in 1853:

Loicerne is a plant which will not bear extreme frost nor super
abundant moisture, and its cultivation is therefore restricted to
mild climates and dry soils; but where it thrives its growth is so
rapid and luxuriant that no other known plant can be compared to
it. In good deep loams lucerne is the most profitable of all green
crops; when properly managed the quantity of cattle which can
be kept in good condition on an acre of lucerne during the whole
season exceeds belief. It is no sooner mown than it pushes out
fresh shoots, and wonderful as the growth of clover sometimes
is in a field which has been lately mown, that of lucerne is far
more rapid. Where a few tufts of lucerne happen to be, they
will rise a foot above the surface, while the grass and clover
which were mown at the same time are only a very few inches
high.

Lucerne, sown in a soil suited to it, will last for many years,
shooting its roots downwards for nourishment till they are alto-
gether out of the reach of drouth. In the driest and most sultry
weather, when every blade of grass droops for want of moisture,
lucerne holds up its stem, fresh and green as in a genial spring
The only enemies of this plant are a wet subsoil and a foul sui
face. The first is often incurable; the latter can be avoided by
good cultivation.

It is useless to sow lucerne on very poor sands or gravel or on
wet clays. The best and deepest loam must be chosen, rather
light than heavy but with a good portion of vegetable earth or
humus equally dispersed through it. If the ground has been
trenched, so much the better; and if the surface is covered with
some inferior earth from the subsoil it will be no detriment to
the crop, for it will prevent grass and weeds from springing up
ami gaye, much weeding, The lucerne will sopn strike, down bfr

56 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

low it. It is not a bad practice to cover the lucerne field witn a
coat of coal ashes or poor sand, merely to keep down the weeds,
where this can easily be done.

The soil in which it is intended to sow lucerne seed should be
well prepared. It should be highly manured for the two or three
preceding crops and deeply ploughed, if not trenched. It should
be perfectly clean, and for this purpose two successive crops of
turnips are most effectual. The turnips should be fed off with
sheep. In the month of K&rch, the land having been ploughed
flat and well harrowed, a very small quantity of barley, not above
a bushel to the acre, may be sown, or rather drilled on the
ground, and at the same time from 30 to 40 Ibs. of lucerne seed
sown broadcast and both harrowed in and lightly rolled. If
the land will not bear to be laid flat without water-furrows, it
will be useless to sow lucerne in it.

As the crop comes up it must be carefully weeded: no expense
must be spared to do this effectually, for success depends upon
it. When the barley is reaped, the stubble, which will probably
be strong, should be pulled up by tne hand hoe, or by harrowing,
if the plants of lucerne be strong, and at all events the ground
must be cleared of weeds. It must not be fed off with sheep;
they would bite too near the crown. Lucerne should always be
cut as soon as the flower is formed. If it is kept clear of weeds
the first year, there will be little difficulty with it afterwards,
when the roots have become strong. The second year the lucerne
will be fit to cut very early, and in a favorable season it may be
cut four or five times. After each cutting it is useful to draw heavy
harrows over the land, or an instrument made on purpose resem-
bling harrow teeth, the teeth of which are flat, and cutting the
soil like coulters. It will not injure the plants, even if it divide
the crown of the root, but it will destroy grass and weeds. Liquid
manure, which consists of the urine of cattle and drainings of
dunghills, is often spread over the lucerne immediately after
it has been mown, and much invigorates the next growth; but if
the land is rich to a good depth this is scarcely necessary. The
lucerne will grow and thrive from seven to twelve years, when
it will begin to wear out, and, in spite of weeding, the grass will
get the upper hand of it. It should then be plowed up, all the
roots carefully collected and laid in a heap with dung and lime
to rot, and a course of regular tillage should succeed. The same
land should not be sown with lucerne' again in less than ten or
twelve years, after a regular course of cropping and manuring.

Cattle fed upon lucerne thrive better than on any other green
food. Horses in particular can work hard upon it without any
corn, provided it be slow work. Cows give plenty of good milk

HISTORY. 57

when fed with it. In spring it is apt to purge cattle, which with
a little attention is conducive to their health. If it is given to
them in too great quantities, or moist with dew, they run the risk
of being hoven. These inconveniences are avoided by giving it
sparingly at first, and always keeping it twenty-four hours after
it is cut, during which time it undergoes an incipient fermenta-
tion, and the juice is partially evaporated: instead of being less
nutritive in this state, it is rather more so.

An acre of good lucerne will keep four or five horses from
May to October, when cut just as the flower opens. If it should
get too forward, and there be more than the horses can consume,
it should be made into hay; but this is not the most profitable
way of using it, and the plant being very succulent, takes a long
time in drying. The rain also is very injurious to it in a half
dry state; for the stem is readily soaked with moisture, which
is slow in evaporating. The produce in hay, when well made, is
very considerable, being often double the weight of a good crop
of hay.

Many authors recommend drilling the seed of lucerne in wide
rows, and hoeing the intervals after each cutting. This is the
best way with a small patch in a garden, and when only a little
is cut every day; but in a field of some extent, the lucerne, when
once well established and preserved free from weeds by hand
weeding the first year, will keep all weeds down afterwards, and
the heavy harrows with sharp tines, used immediately after mow-
ing, will pull up all the grass which may spring up. No farmer
ought to neglect having a few acres in lucerne on his best land.

Note carefully that Rham says, "If the ground is
trenched so much the better, and if the surface is
covered with 'some inferior earth from the subsoil it
will be no detriment to the crop." The fact is that
earth from the subsoil often, in fact usually, has in
it much more lime than surface soil, so that bringing
it up is sometimes equivalent to a fairly good liming.

It is a little difficult to explain the general neglect
of alfalfa in England, since there are many soils
there admirably suited to it and almost any of the
well-drained English soils would now grow it well if
they were well limed and enriched with even bare

58 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

mineral fertilizers. It may be the uncertain weather
of British hay-making times has had a deterrent
effect to the alfalfa growers, though it would seem
more probable that the mere lack of knowledge of
the subject was the main factor responsible for the
fewness of alfalfa fields there. The writer has seen
as thrifty alfalfa in Kent as he has seen anywhere
in the world, and has marvelled at its small extent
till he was told that the entire crop was fed green to
the work horses.

In America a number of men wrote enthusiastic-
ally of the lucerne plant. It is certain that George
Washington grew it at least to some extent, and
Thomas Jefferson, on a kindlier soil, grew it so well
that in one of his letters he mentions the joy that
contemplation of his fields of lucerne gave him. To-
day no alfalfa is grown on either of these farms, nor
in their neighborhood. Is it that eastern farms are
less fertile now, or is it that their owners are less
prudent, enterprising and careful?

In New York Robert Livingstone wrote of it and
many men experimented with the plant, some with
success, some without. In few localities in the east-
ern states, however, did it gain a permanent foot-
hold. There were several reasons for that. One
principal reason was that alfalfa does not mature
seed along the Atlantic seaboard except during very
dry summers ; thus it was necessary to import fresh
seed from Europe constantly at considerable trouble
and expense. Then the plant's nature was not un-
derstood, its lime requirement was not known, much

HISTORY. 59

land was badly drained and fields were ruined by
not being c.ut at the proper time. Thus the enthu-
siasts gradually became discouraged and it became
a settled belief that lucerne could not profitably be
grown in eastern America outside of a few re-
stricted neighborhoods. As indicating the sentiment
of the friends of alfalfa in those days we quote a
letter published in the 1 1 American Farmer ' ' of 1823,
the letter copied from the "New Brunswick Times. "
The method of sowing advised is curious, to sow in
the spring with fall rye, and there may be a hint in
this for others living today in similar conditions.
Note the excessive price of the seed — 50c per Jb., or
$30 per bushel. The letter written by " A New Jer-
sey Farmer ' ' follows :

It may materially promote the interests of agriculture to offer
through. the medium of your paper a few remarks on the culture
of lucerne. This article (frequently denominated French clover),
I have found by experience to be not only one of the most con-
venient, but also the most profitable of any grass which can be
cultivated. It vegetates quicker in the spring than any other
grass, it resists the effects of drouths, it may be cut four or five
times in the course of the season, and it will endure for at least
twelve years without being renewed. Of all other grass it is the
most profitable for soiling. I am fully of opinion that one acre
properly got in would be sufficient to maintain six head of cattle,
from the first of May until November, for before it can be cut
down in this way, the first part of it will be reacry for the scythe.
English writers have recommended the drill system for this arti-
cle, but in this climate I have found this to be entirely fallacious.
The proper mode to be adopted is to have your land in good order,
to sow it broadcast, and to get the seed in during the month of
April or May. The plan I would recommend would be to sow
fall rye at the rate of 15 to 20 pounds to the acre with it. The
effect of this is that the rye vegetates quickly, and serves as a
nurse to the young grass against the heat of the scorching sun,
and by the time the grass attains sufficient strength to protect
itself, say in four or five weeks, the rye withers and apparently

60 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

dies. In the spring, however, the rye will again come forth
mixed with lucerne, will add much to the quantity on the ground,
and prove a most excellent feed for cattle. The rye cut green in
this way and before getting into seed will admit of being cut
two or three times in the course of the season, with the lucerne
before it decays.

The kind of soil most suitable for this culture is a dry mellow
loam, but a sandy or clay loam will also answer, provided it is
not wet. In a favorable season, the lucerne may be cut the next
fall after sowing. After the first season you may generally be-
gin to cut green for cattle by the first of May, which saves your
young pasture and is in every respect a very great convenience,
as hogs and every description of animals devour it with equal
avidity. Backward as this season has been, I have been furnish-
ing a copious supply every day to seven cattle, since the 5th of
May. The seed can be procured at Thornburn's or other seed
stores in New York, at 40 to 50c per pound.

The following notes on the culture of alfalfa and
sainfoin are from a book called " Practical Farmer"
published in 1793 by John Spurrier and dedicated to
Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Spurrier was a transplanted
English farmer. It is curious to note how nearly
he came to knowing how to grow each of these crops,
and how vitally he failed to grasp the truth that
these plants thrive on "gravels" when these gravels
are composed of limestone pebbles, not necessarily
when they do not! This quotation is presented
through the courtesy of J. M. Westgate :

Saintfoin took its name from the French; for the word Saint-
foin, translated into English, is Holy-Hay, which name they gave
it from its excellent nutritive quality.

There may be more benefit reaped from this grass than any
other; as you may get a very great crop in the most dryest land,
on hills, gravels, sands, or even barren ground ; and it will so
improve all those lands in such an extraordinary manner that
they will bring great crops of any sort of grain after it.

The stalks of the plant in poor land will be two feet high, and
in rich land it will grow as high as six feet. It has tufts of red
flowers, of three, four, or five inches in length of the honey-
suckle kind: they are so beautiful and sweet that I have seen

HISTORY. 61

them much esteemed in a garden and called the French honey-
suckle.

This plant will make twenty times the increase in poor ground
than the common turf; and this is owing to its having a long
perpendicular root called tap roots, as well as numbers of hori-
zontal ones; the perpendicular ones sink to a great depth to at-
tract its nourishment. The length of this root is scarce to be
credited by any but those who have seen it; I have drawn it out
of the ground near fourteen feet; and some have told me that
they have traversed it to double that length. This is the reason
I presume why this plant will bear drouth, when all other
grasses have been burnt up by the excessive dryness of the sea-
son. I have at one cutting got two tons of this hay per acre.

Cold, clay, or wet land is not suitable for this grass, as it would
chill and rot the roots. The long root of Saintfoin has near the
surface many horizontal roots issuing from it, which extend
themselves every way; there are of the same kind all the way
down, as the roots go, but they grow shorter and shorter all the
way.

Any dry land may be made to produce this valuable and use-
ful plant, though it be ever so poor; but the richest and best
land will produce the greatest crops of it.

The best method of sowing it is by drilling, but the earth must
be very well prepared and the seed well ordered, or else very
little of it will grow. The heads of these seeds are so large and
their necks so weak, that if they be above an inch deep, they are
not able to rise through the incumbent mould, and, if they are
not covered, they will be malted; that is, it will send out its root
while it lies above ground, and be killed by the air.

The best season for planting it is the beginning of spring; and
it is always strongest when planted alone.

If barley, oats, or any other grain sown with the saintfoin,
happen to be lodged afterwards, it kills the young saintfoin. The
quantity of seed to be drilled or sown broadcast upon an acre of
land will depend wholly on the goodness of it; for there is some
seed, of which not one in ten will strike; whereas, in good seed,
not one in twenty will fail. The method of knowing the goodness
is by sowing a certain number of the seeds, and seeing how many
plants are produced by them. If it is above two years old, it
will not grow. The external signs of the seed being good are
that the husk is of a bright color rather of a purple, and the
kernel plump, of a light grey or blue color. If the kernel be cut
across, and appear greenish and fresh, it is a certain sign it is
good. If it be of a yellowish color, and friable, and looks thin
and pitted, it is a bad sign. The quantity of seed allowed to the

62 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

acre in the drill way is much less than by sowing broadcast. A
bushel of seed to an acre of land is 20 seeds to each square foot
of land if sown broadcast, which would be sufficient; but there
must be an allowance made for casualties.

The quantity of good seed I have found by experience is for
sowing broadcast, two bushels, and for drilling, one bushel. And
as the saintfoin does not cover all the ground the first year,
which spaces are generally occupied by weeds, to remedy this,
when I have sown it broadcast, I have sown four or five pounds
of clover seed with it to tlTe acre, which has answered a very
good purpose, as I have then had a crop the first year.

The saintfoin is but a slow grower at first; the second year
perhaps will not exceed a clover crop, but afterwards it increases
every year for six or seven years before it comes to its full per-
fection; and as that increases, the clover goes off, and makes room
for it.

This valuable plant will keep in perfection for twenty years, if
you only give it a slight top dressing with soot or ashes, once in
four or five years. The first summer, nor early the next spring,
it should not be fed, because it will bo apt to bleed itself to
death; for the sweetness of it is such, that it will entice cattle
to bite into the knot in the ground and spoil it; but afterwards,
when it has gathered strength, the best method will be to mow
the first crop, and seed it after, which is excellent for cows and
sheep.

This plant, as well as trefoil, will not thrive in a wet moist
soil; and as saintfoin thrives best on high grounds, it is a great
advantage in the article of making it into hay, as it has greatly
more advantage of the sun, and less to fear of mischief from wet,
than grass which grows in low grounds. On the high grounds,
the wind will dry more in an hour than it will in meadows that
lie low in a whole day; and often the crops of saintfoin make a
very good hay in the same seasons in which all the grass hay is
spoiled. The sun on the high grounds has also a more benign
influence, and sends off the dew there two hours earlier in the
morning, and holds it up as much longer in the evening; by
these advantages the saintfoin has more time to dry, and is made
with half the expense of common hay.

Saintfoin for hay should be cut when it is half blossomed, and
managed the same as before directed for clover. If saved for
seed, it must be the first cutting. You may know when it is ripe
by the seeds coming out easily in your hand. Dry it in the field,
and thresh it there on a cloth, as it will shed and you will lose
great part of the seed if you carry it to the barn. The straw
will be as good as hay for horses; and the hay, when it has been

HISTORY. 63

well got in, my horses that have worked hard have heen kept on
it alone without any grain, have been so fond of it that they have
refused beans and oats mixed with chaff in the common way for
it. Sheep also will be fatted in pens in winter, with only this
hay and water, better than with corn, peas, oats, and the like. In
short, there is no hay that is made is equal to it, and the produce
will be double that of clover. The land where it is sown should
be very clean from weeds, under a fine tilth; which is best done
by a turnip fallow.

Lucerne is the plant which the ancients were so fond of under
the name of Medica, and in the culture of which they bestowed
such great care and pains. Its leaves grow three at a joint, like those
of the clover; its flowers are blue, and its pods of a screw-like
shape, containing seeds like those of the red clover but longer
and more kidney shaped, and the color all yellow. The stalks
grow erect, and after mowing they immediately grow up again
from the parts where they were cut off. The roots are longer
than the saintfoin, and are not single, but some times they run
perpendicularly in three or four places from the crown.

It is the only plant in the world whose hay is equal to the
saintfoin for the fattening of cattle; but its virtues in that re-
spect are very great. It is the sweetest grass in the world, but
must be given to cattle with caution, and in small quantities,
otherwise they will swell, and incur diseases from it.

Though the common methods of husbandry will not raise
lucerne to any great advantage, yet the drilling and the horse-
hoe husbandry will raise it, annually increasing in value to the
owner, and make one of the most profitable articles of his busi-
ness.

The soil to plant it on must be either a hot gravel, or a very
rich and dry land that has not an under stratum of clay, and is
not too near springs of water. The natural poorness of gravel or
sand may be made up by dung, and the benefit of the hoe, and
the natural richness of the other lands, being increased by hoe-
ing and cleansing from grass, the lucerne will thrive with less
heat; for what is wanted in one of those qualities must be made
up in the other.

The best season for planting of it is early in the spring, the
earlier the better; for. then there is always moisture enough in
the earth to make it grow, and not too much heat as would dry
up its tender roots, and kill it after the first shootings. About
a pound and a half of seed will be enough for an acre.

The planting it in autumn in some climates might do; but
here the winters are too cold, which would kill great part of the
tender plants, and greatly stunt and injure those it does not kill.

64 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

The number of the lucerne plants should be less than those ot
saintfoin to an acre, because they grow much larger in this way
of management, and each occupies a greater space of ground, and
produces a larger quantity of hay.

The quick growth of this plant requires that it should have
large supplies of nourishment, and good room to grow in; and it
is better in all things of this kind to err in setting the plants too
far distant, than in setting them too near.

The most fatal diseases incident to lucerne are starving and
smothering; for this reason good cultivation is necessary to it,
and the often turning the earth with the hoe all about it. By
this means, a plant that in the common way of sowing would not
have been more than eight or nine inches high, will be four or
five feet, and will spread every way so as to produce a quantity
of hay, more like the cutting of a shrub than a plant.

The plants should stand at five inches distance in single rows,
and the intervals between these rows must be left wide enough
for the use of the hoe plough, (if managed according to the
horse-hoe husbandry) ; but if hand hoed, one foot between the
rows will do: for which I will refer you to my experiments on
fallow crops, where you will find that by this method I had at
the rate of four tun lucerne hay per acre. But lucerne sown in
drills so near will in a few years meet in the rows, which will
hinder the mould being stirred, when it will starve for want of
nourishment, and thereby wear out.

Lucerne is of much quicker growth than saintfoin, or any
other grass. I have cut it four times in a season, whereas the
others are seldom cut above twice.

Lucerne is to be made into hay, the same as saintfoin or clover;
but this must be observed, that it is always to be cut just before
it comes to flower. It is a fine food, if cut for the cattle green,
it is so sweet and full of nourishment but it must be kept clean
from natural grass, as that soon choaks and kills it.

Of the introduction of alfalfa into the Pacific coast
region we have less recorded. Naturally the people
of Spanish blood, settling California from Mexico,
brought their favorite farm seeds with them, seeds
of their best suited farm crops ; among these was ^
alfalfa. Not much alfalfa was grown in California
by the Spanish colonists, enough probably to give
them credit for the introduction there, as they cer-

HISTORY. 65

tainly must claim credit for its introduction into
southwestern Texas and probably into New Mexico
and perhaps into Arizona.

It took the keen prophetic insight of the Ameri-
can, however, to see in the alfalfa plant the wonder-
ful possibilities that lay within it. Gold was discov-
ered in California in 1847 and immediately began a
great rush for that land. Many men went by the
long route " around The Horn." In Chili a good
land and fertile, with well developed agriculture,
ships tarried often for a little time. The passengers
wearied with the long sea voyage took themselves
with delight to the fields. There they saw alfalfa
for the first time. Some of them took seed of it with
them to California. Others sent back there for seed
and sowed it in California, land of promise. Cali-
fornia proved to have suitable soil and climate, and
alfalfa throve there astonishingly. Gold could not
always be found with pick and shovel, it could with-
out fail be found by alfalfa roots. For the first time
in its history alfalfa became a great crop and men
began to plant it largely, to talk of it and write of it.

Probably no one knows more of the early history
of alfalfa in California than E. J. Wickson, Director
of the California experiment station and dean of the
agricultural college. My letter to him containing
questiors and his answers thereto is presented:

I am delighted that you will undertake to help me in my alfalfa
investigations. I know of no man better fitted than you. The
points I particularly wish to know are not very difficult of answer.

Question: On what date did the real introduction of alfalfa in
California take place, and where was it sown?

Answer: I have record of sowing alfalfa by W. B. Cameron,

66 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

near Marysville in the Sacramento Valley in 1851, who continued
until he had 270 acres in 1858.

Question: What was the source of the seed?

Answer: From Chili and the plant was called Chili clover until
its Spanish name alfalfa was taken up. It was some time later
when its botanical identity with lucerne was known.

Question: Were there many alfalfa fields or patches in use by
the Mexicans, or earlier Californians, prior to the occupation by
the United States?

Answer: I never heard of any. Introduction is believed to
have been by Americans from Chili with which country there
was much trade and where stops were made coming round The
Horn.

Question: What is the oldest alfalfa field that you know of to
day, and about how many years?

Answer: I have no definite instance. The plant on good soil— -
that is free soil where no root injury comes from standing water
— is counted upon for more than 20 years of profitable growth.

Question: About what percentage of carbonate of lime exists in
the most productive alfalfa soils of California?

Answer: We are now growing alfalfa on nearly all productive
soils, the acreage on the heavier soils, formerly held to be un-
suitable, increasing every year. The average lime in California
soils (average of 262 analyses) is 1.25%.

Question: What would you consider an average yearly pro-
duction per acre of alfalfa hay?

Answer: Five tons.

Question: What is the maximum that you have known?

Answer: I cannot be sure but think it has gone up to 12 tons.

Question: We hear very astonishing stories of long alfalfa
roots; how long a one have you actually seen measured, or had
knowledge of that you considered authentic?

Answer: 24 feet but others claim up to 30 feet.

Concerning Henry Miller's alfalfa I wrote in
"The Breeder's Gazette" in September of 1900 as
follows :

Away back in 1850 there landed in San Francisco a lad with
fifty 'cents in his pocket, a brave heart and a determination to
work and succeed in this new world. He went to work in a
butcher shop. Soon he had a small shop of his own. Then it
was a large shop. Then he bought, in 1858, a little land on which
to hold some cattle. In 1860 he bought land in the San Joaquin

HISTORY. 67

Valley. It was dry semi-arid land. Some of his associates won-
dered what he would do with it. He bought more. After a time,
I think in 1872, he took out a canal to water it. In 1873 he im-
ported some alfalfa seed from Chili. He sowed 7 acres, a large
operation at that time. Gradually the holdings of land and of
cattle increased. Today the firm owns about a million of acres
of land, most of it in California. They have about 100,000 head
of cattle. They have about 120,000 sheep. This growth all repre-
sents the profit made in growing, killing and selling cattle and
sheep.

Henry Miller is one of the wonderful men of our time. He is
one of the men with foresight and faith. His manager, Mr.
Schmitz, of the Poso ranch at Firebaugh, has been with Mr.
Miller for thirty years. He told me many incidents that showed
the kind of stuff of which the man is made. Here is an instance:
When the water was out Mr. Schmitz was instructed to irrigate
and sow barley. The land was not prepared for irrigation. Mr.
Schmitz and his Irish laborers knew little or nothing of the art.
They had a tremendous time of it. Mr. Schmitz lived night and
day in the fields, trying to manage the elusive water. The crop
was a fair one, but netted a loss of some $2,000. Mr. Schmitz re-
ported and asked to be allowed to resign. "What for?" asked
Mr. Miller. "Well, it does not pay. I would not mind working
if I could see that it was a success," he replied. "See here, Mr.
Schmitz, suppose you look after the work and let me do the
figuring," said Henry Miller.

When alfalfa proved the success that it did the solution of the
problem was in sight. After that it became a simple matter of
steadily enlarging the areas of irrigated lands, of alfalfa fields, of
cattle. Today on Mr. Schmitz's division of Poso farm of 160,000"
acres there are 2-0,000 acres of alfalfa. There are 25,000 acres of
irrigated native grasses. He cuts 15,000 tons of alfalfa hay. He
grows 50,000 sacks of barley and 5,000 sacks of Egyptian corn.
His tenants grow some. 100,000 sacks of wheat and 20,000 sacks of
barley.

Poso farm carries about 25,000 head of cattle. It has about
40,000 sheep and ships about 5,000 hogs each year.

Do those figures make you dizzy? Well, I will not deal much
in figures from this" time on. You can get the idea that it is
not merely a ranch, a farm, but almost a state, certainly a prin-
cipality in itself. If there is anything like it in the world I
have not heard of it. We rode up the great weir in the San
Joaquin River, whence the canal starts that leads off westward
and divides the watered land from the dry. A lovely river is the
San Joaquin at this time of the year. Calm, neither hurrying

68 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

nor loitering, it sweeps on toward the bay, flowing under cool
shadows, stretching out wide over shallower reaches, and em-
bracing tree-embowered islands. It bears water enough to make
a garden of the entire valley, could it be held back until needed.
The canal is large enough for steamships at the head; it divides
after a time, and divides again and again as needed, until there
is a vast network of ditches. 'hundreds of miles, so much that
Mr. Schmitz declined to even guess the total length. Italian
laborers take the water from the ditches and spread it over the
land. Dikes, following the contours, make it spread over all.
The alfalfa fields are irrigated three times each season. There is
so large an area to water that it is not practical to get over them
oftener than that, yet it would doubtless be better if it could be
done. And the cattle graze the alfalfa, except that one crop is
taken from the field and made into hay for winter feeding.

Alfalfa grows rank over here. It is the best that I have yet
seen in California. The cattle thrive on it as a matter of course.
They are careful not to turn hungry cattle on alfalfa pasture.
They must be first filled up with hay or grass. After once be-
coming accustomed to green alfalfa they are never taken away,
so do not get hungry, gorge themselves and bloat. That seems
the explanation of it all. They graze it with many thousands,
yet lose hardly any at all. And sheep are treated the same way.
I never saw such lambs as these alfalfa lambs. They are born
early, in February generally, and they run on the alfalfa until
they go to the butchers. Often their mothers are fat enough to
go also in a short time after the lambs are taken away. The
herder merely restrains them from roaming about over the fields
and trampling down too much at a time. The alfalfa is not
grazed short, there is no chasing the sheep away after they have
eaten a little, there is no running them about to keep them from
bloating; they are simply gotten used to it and left alone until
they get fat. And the loss is very light indeed. Shropshire rams
are mostly used. The ewe flocks are largely kept up by purchase
of range ewes. The increase reaches as high as 120%. The
quality of the Miller & Lux cattle is very good — much better
than the average. Very many registered and more pure-bred but
unregistered Short-horns are used, but the California idea pre-
vails that a Short-horn is not good unless he is red. And, by the
way, there are no Short-horns in California; there are only
"Durhams." This term is also used in Utah and Nevada. At
present the cattle are kept until they are three and four years
old. The question of early maturity seems to have been little
considered.

I saw them dipping cattle as a preventive of Texas fever. The

HISTORY. 69

dipping vat is made exactly on the model of a sheep-dipping vat
It is about 75 feet long and the cattle are put through very
rapidly and without loss. The lime and sulphur dip is used, to
which a quantity of crude petroleum is added. This certainly
destroys the ticks if any exist and for a time keeps off the flies.
As to the ultimate benefit, as they are put back on supposedly in-
fected pastures, I think it a matter of experiment. It costs about
five cents to dip a steer. It makes a few orphan calves, that is
the worst of the practice. About 3,000 can be dipped in a day
at one of these plants. The getting of the cattle to the dipping
vat is the main part of the work. As a matter of dipping, this
is entirely successful. None of the loss or difficulty that the Gov-
ernment dipping experiments reported are encountered here. And
I have no doubt that the dipping removes the ticks.

Winter feeding is carried on here in an immense way. There
is quite an elaborate plan of procedure. In order to understand
it you must consider two propositions: one that the hay has in
it more or less of "foxtail" grass, which has on it disagreeable
barbs, and that it is desired to mix with the hay a very small
amount of grain. The problem is to get rid of the danger of the
foxtail, and to mix four pounds of ground barley with some 30
pounds of alfalfa hay and make a ration for a steer. All the hay
is cut through great Ross cutters, then it .is put on the floor of
the great feeding barn and wet down. This barn holds no cattle.
Then the ground grain is mixed with it. It stands for about
forty-eight hours, until it becomes soft and slightly fermented,
then it is taken out and fed. It is in the same condition as
alfalfa silage. The cattle thrive better on 34 pounds a day of
this ration than on 50 pounds of uncut alfalfa fed out of doors
on the ground. That is what these men believe, and who will
argue against so much experience? But the amount of labor in-
volved would stagger an ordinary mind. Imagine handling 12,000
tons of alfalfa in this way, as Mr. Schmitz must do on his own
farm. The amount of grain fed in proportion to hay is very
small, it would seem. Yet the hay is of prime quality; it is as
rich as hay can possibly be.

The method of making hay on this ranch is interesting. It is
cut and raked with ordinary tools. It is then caught up by
large buck rakes on wheels that carry about 700 pounds to the
stack. It is lifted by a great sling, and swung over the rick by
a sort of crane. Or it is loaded on wagons and hauled farther and
lifted by a Stockton fork. These forks are 5, 6 or 7 feet long;
they take up enormous loads and are distinctly better than the
harpoon or. grapple forks used East. I mean to have one on our
own ranch and one in Ohio. The ricks are not left sharp, and
mAj

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

70 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

in our wet Ohio climate would spoil badly. The haymakers are
largely Italians; the irrigators are Italians. Spaniards do some
of the work. Basques do some of it, Mexicans do a part, Portu-
guese do a part, Chinese do the cooking and gardening. Ameri-
cans do a little of everything, and are often foremen. Mr.
Schmitz speaks three or four languages, and finds them almost
indispensable. Things must go wrong very often on such a vast
ranch; there must be perplexities and vexations enough to vex
a saint. Think then how convenient to have three or four lan-
guages in which to express your disapprobation with things in
general and the case in particular!

This much for one man's fortunes as built on al-
falfa roots. But other men were awakening to the
value of the plant.

Soon it spread over much of California, and
thence eastward into Utah where it was called lu-
cerne and where it throve as well as it could thrive
anywhere on earth. In Utah were many small farm-
ers, careful men, keeping cows and horses and pigs
with poultry and bees. To these men alfalfa was a
god-send. The Mormon farmers began to cut alfalfa
for seed. From Utah seed nearly the whole west has
been planted. Colorado took alfalfa next; fields of
good size were being sown in 1886 when first the
writer traveled through that state. A little later
alfalfa suddenly sprang into great prominence in
Colorado. By its ability to enrich soils and make
lands fit for potatoes, beets or any other thing it
came into great favor. A hundred villages in Colo-
rado are built upon the alfalfa plant. Alfalfa is
more to Colorado than all her gold, all her silver, all
her wheat or sugar or forests. To take away alfalfa
from Colorado would destroy the very foundations
of her prosperity and nothing known upon the earth

HISTORY. 71

could possibly replace this rich, beautiful and won-
derfully useful plant.

From Colorado alfalfa came naturally into Kan-
sas, beginning to be an important factor there about
the year 1894. At first it was grown only along the
Arkansas river, and in the dryer parts of the state.
Gradually it overspread nearly all of Kansas, being
of most importance on the richer, dryer, sweeter
soils. Nebraska followed Kansas in taking up alfal-
fa growing. Along the Platte Eiver it established
itself strongly and in the western part of the state,
while gradually, surely its roots penetrated nearly
every part of the state. East of the Missouri Eiver
alfalfa made slow progress. Iowa grew a little, Mis-
souri on her alluvial soils along the Missouri
and Mississippi rivers planted fields and gradually
the growth extended. Illinois undertook alfalfa cul-
ture in 1898 or earlier, but as yet the industry there
is hardly more than in its experimental stage, some
men having made notable success, but many having
failed. Wisconsin grows much alfalfa, having soils
well drained and rich in lime. Minnesota began its
culture in 1857 when Wendelin Grimm came from
the little village of Kulsheim, Germany, bringing
with him a little bag of alfalfa seed from his old
home in the Grand Duchy of Baden. This was the
"ewiger klee" or everlasting clover of Grimm, and
from that day to this in Carver Co., Minnesota, alr
falfa has been grown. Indiana attempted alfalfa
culture and the experiment station published a bul-
letin charging that alfalfa was not particularly

72 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

adapted to that state. In later bulletins this mis-
taken idea has been corrected. Alfalfa is now grown
with much profit in many parts of Indiana and only
that many fields yet are waiting to be limed, drained
and enriched is all that prevents Indiana growing
at least a million tons each year.

Alfalfa culture in Ohio came probably with the
efforts of the writer and his brothers, as detailed in
the introduction to this book. Pennsylvania pub-
lished a bulletin in 1904 detailing how to grow al-
falfa and since then much has been done in prelim-
inary work of experimentation and it is now known
that alfalfa will grow almost anywhere in that state
where the land is drained, limed and enriched. Mary-
land grew alfalfa during colonial times and a few
farmers kept it up in a small way till this day. To-
day alfalfa is grown in every county of the state and
with the new knowledge of the lime requirement for
alfalfa, its culture is now on a sure footing and the
crop is destined to be one of the most important in
the state. New Jersey, once in colonial days grow-
ing it well, has suffered a relapse yet there are many
men over the state succeeding with it, and when the
need of lime and drainage is understood, doubtless
New Jersey will also grow large areas of this beau-
tiful forage. Director Edward B. Voorhees of the
New Jersey experiment station has done notable
work in teaching the essentials of alfalfa culture
and especially in calling attention to the marvelous
power of alfalfa to enrich land when the crops are
fed and the manure applied.

HISTORY. 73

In New York alfalfa has been grown continuously
for over a century. The following notes on the early
history of alfalfa in New York, by F. E. Dawley,
are of value and interest :

From 1791 to 1800, Mr. Robert Livingstone, of Jefferson county,
New York, conducted some experiments, many of which were
successful, and from investigations made in the vicinity of Le-
Raysville, in that county, I feel certain that there are still grow-
ing wild there alfalfa plants which are descended from his orig-
inal plantings. Following these experiments, the next that I am
able to get any authentic record of are those made about 1812
in Onondago county by Sterling Lamson and Moses Dewitt, and
in Jefferson county by Ezra L'Hommedieu. About four miles
west of Cedarvale, in this county,- a few scattered plants have
been growing for years on a side-hill, which I believe came from
the seeding made by Mr. Lamson, as I can get no record of its
having been planted in that vicinity until within the past ten
years, and these scattering plants have been known there for at
least forty years. In a diary kept by this man in 1815, the state-
ment is made about alfalfa, that it grew so coarse that the ani-
mals would not eat it dry and that it was very dangerous in
pastures because of producing bloat. In 1851 a cask of alfalfa
seed was distributed among members of the American Institute
and many patches were grown in New York, New Jersey and
Connecticut.

In 1865 in this section there was great interest in bee-keeping.
A man by the name of Rosenkranz traveled all over the country
selling rights for using the Langstroth bee hive and giving in-
struction in bee-keeping. He had traveled extensively on the
Pacific coast and had become greatly interested in alfalfa as a
bee-food. Among the bee-keepers in this section who were in-
duced to try alfalfa were my father, Wm. Dawley, James Patter-
son, Charles Phillips, William A. House, who lived on the farm
which I now own, and many others. In the western part of the
state those who tried alfalfa were not very successful, although
Mr. Phillips had a remarkably good stand at one time. I be-
lieve that all of them sowed it too thinly and that the proper
bacteria were not present in sufficient quantities to make it a
success. • One of these experimenters sent to California for a
bag of seed, which was shipped to him in the hull, being very
dusty and foul. From this lot of seed, however, sent about 1870,
on the farm which I now own can be traced, I think, the origin
of successful alfalfa growing here.

74 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

A little later than this Dr. E. Lawis Sturtevant, who had
charge of the state experiment station at Geneva and was very
much interested in alfalfa growing, recommended its planting
quite largely and many fields were put out. The failures in this
state outnumber the successes greatly; still in the townships of
Onondago, Dewitt, Geddes and Manlius, Onondago county, and
Sullivan in Madison county, there are to be found many acres
of very successful growth, and on high lands in these counties
four-fifths of all the hay cut last year was alfalfa.

At the present writing alfalfa is being grown con-
siderably over nearly the whole of the state of New
York, but chiefly in the limestone regions of central
New York, its greatest use being probably in Onon-
daga county. There is much limestone in New York
and the farmers are generally intelligent and 'enter-
prising. It would seem that as soon as they realize
that by abundant use of carbonate of lime, making
their soils somewhat like those alkaline soils of Colo-
rado and California, they can grow alfalfa as well as
the West, and that alfalfa in New York is worth fully
double what it is in the West, they will take the mat-
ter up in serious earnest and spread its culture fast
and wide.

It is interesting to know that in old Virginia, where
once George Washington and Thomas Jefferson vied
with each other in growing lucerne, there are now at
least 'two great farms growing alfalfa in hundreds
if not thousands of tons as is done in the West, 'and
perhaps more interest is >shown in alfalfa culture in
Virginia at this time than in any other state along
the Atlantic seaboard.

Of the southern states Alabama, Mississippi, Ark-
ansas and Louisiana are doing most with alfalfa,

HISTORY. 75

Louisiana perhaps leading. Alfalfa revels in alluvial
soils rich in lime. These soils are found along the
deltas of the Mississippi, Arkansas and Red rivers.
A great per cent of the state of Louisiana is adapted
to alfalfa growing once it is drained and the soil
made ready. Mississippi has alluvial "buckshot"
soils along the western side and limestone black soils
along the eastern side. In each of these soil types
alfalfa thrives. It is a remarkable fact that lands
that can be bought for $25 to $50 per acre in these
states will grow four tons of alfalfa hay per acre
and the hay is worth at present writing $20 per ton.
Albania has similar limestone soils and is doing well
with alfalfa thereon. The common upland soils of
Alabama will grow alfalfa when well limed and en-
riched and it is thriving in many places where right
preparation has been made.

With all this encouraging evidence of the spread
of 'alfalfa culture there remains much to be done.
Not one acre in a thousand is made ready for alfalfa
that should be made ready. Think of Iowa with her
wide fields of maize, steadily growing less and less
fertile because 'of the drain made upon them ; think
of her herds of cattle, her sheep, her cows and swine
all craving alfalfa to balance up a ration too exclu-
sively corn. Think of Illinois, her high priced lands,
her fields famed for riches but their fertility steadily
diminishing, her need of foods rich in protein, her
.need of soil building. And Indiana with her poorer
soils and smaller farms needs alfalfa on every farm
she possesses, and Ohio needs it more with her thou-

76 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

sands of dairy farms and her sheep farms and pig
breeding farms. The same is true of Pennsylvania
and New York, only the need is greater, for the
farther east one goes the higher priced is hay and the
more wheat bran is bought to furnish protein to
make milk or grow animals.

All over America just now there is a quickening of
the agricultural life. Men are awakening, gaining
new courage, new hope. The young have higher as-
pirations than ever before; farming is coming out
from the ruts; it is no longer a disgrace to be a
farmer. The best brains and best thought and best
blood of -the land are being devoted to agriculture.
Alfalfa comes at opportune time. It fits in on every
farm, once the soil is made right. It is a permanent
thing. It is a mine of riches, a magazine of rich
provender, a source of fertility wherewith to build
animals and to build other soils.

Alfalfa brings hope, courage and joy. It brings
beauty to field and landscape. It covers over the
scars made on the face of Nature, it stops the waste
of erosion and soil leaching. Where it comes boys
cease leaving the farm, bees come, and birds; the
cows stand tranquil with full udders, land values
advance, paint comes to the country school-house
and happy children trudge along the lanes with well-
filled dinner pails.

And is it practical to grow alfalfa over all this
region! It is practical. Alfalfa is one of the sim-
plest and easiest things grown in the world. It is
one of the hardiest plants known, one of the most

HISTORY. 77

responsive. It is absolutely easy to grow alfalfa.
There are no longer any mysteries about it. To teach
the way so plain that anyone can follow and no one
longer will fail is the purpose of this book.

The writer is very earnest in this purpose. He
repeats absolutely it is true that every farmer may
have his alfalfa field if he has soil with water level
down 36", or soil that may have the water level so
lowered, and soil not entirely composed of peat.
Sands, clays, alluvial soils, all alike yield to the
magic of alfalfa, all alike robe themselves in living
green, all alike yield rich forage and are in turn en-
riched themselves by the alfalfa growing upon them.
There are keys to unlock the most stubborn soils.

Today we have those keys. No longer should any
man fail to make alfalfa grow. The day of "experi-
menting" with alfalfa is over. The day of surely
growing it has come. If any man will read carefully
the plain directions in this book, will read and heed,
he will grow alfalfa, whether he is in Maine or Mas-
sachusetts, Dakota or Dahomey.

VARIETIES OF ALFALFA.

The botanical name of alfalfa is Medicago sativa.
It belongs to the class of plants called legumes. Its
relatives are the clovers, the peas, beans and locust
trees. There are thousands of kinds of leguminous
plants in the world and most of them have some use.
Some provide food for men, as the peas and beans;
some provide forage for animals; all or nearly all
have the power to enrich soils. There are more than
50 rather near relatives to the alfalfa plant. Some
of them are annuals, some are biennials and some
are perennials. Of them all only six have come into
general use as forage plants, and of these only one
or two have much merit. The descriptions following
are from Prof. G. F. Freeman of Kansas:

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa, Linn) is an upright, much branched
smooth or slightly pubescent perennial plant one to three feet
high. The branches arise from a rather woody base which
crowns a long tap-root. This root with its branches may extend
three to twelve, or, in rare cases, even fifteen feet deep, rendering
this species very drought-resistant on account of its being able
to bring up water from the subsoil far beyond the reach of ordi-
nary plants. The leaves are arranged alternately on the stem
and are trifoliate or three-parted, each part being slightly broader
above the middle and usually tapering each way, although the
apex may be frequently rounded, blunt, or even slightly notched.
The pea-like flowers, varying in tint from pale, almost white, to
deep reddish purple, are arranged in rather elongated loose
clusters borne on the ends of the many branches. The pods are
spirally twisted through one to three complete curves, forming a
coil one-fourth to one-fifth inch in diameter. This pod contains
from one to eight seeds. The seeds are kidney-shaped, about one-
eighth of an inch long and a little more than half as wide.

VARIETIES OF ALFALFA. 79

From an agricultural standpoint this species is by far the most
important, being probably the most widely grown and most valu-
able forage plant in the world.

Yellow lucerne or Swedish clover (Medicago falcata) is a
perennial plant strongly resembling alfalfa, but it differs from
alfalfa in being of somewhat lower, more spreading habit and
having bright yellow flowers. It is a native of northern Europe,
extending into Sweden and probably far into northern Siberia. It
shows greater cold resistance than the ordinary alfalfa and is
less liable to winter-killing. This species is probably identical
with the yellow Siberian alfalfa recently introduced by Prof. N.
E. Hansen of South Dakota.

Sand lucerne (Medicago media Pers.}. "There has been a dif-
ference of opinion among European botanists in regard to the re-
lationship of sand lucerne to other lucernes or alfalfas, viz., Med-
icago sativa (ordinary alfalfa) and Medicago falcata (yellow lu-
cerne.) Alefeld and other botanists unite common alfalfa, sand
lucerne and yellow lucerne into a single species. Some botanists
look upon alfalfa and yellow lucerne as distinct species and con-
sider sand lucerne as a hybrid between them. Others regard
them all as distinct species. The three forms, however, differ so
widely in agricultural value and other characters that they can-
not be treated together."

"The ordinary distinguishing characters between alfalfa and
sand lucerne are easily recognizable when the two are grown side
by side."

"The stiff habit of alfalfa differs from the more spreading
habit of sand lucerne. The flowers of the former are bluish to
violet purple, while those of the latter range from bluish and
purple to lemon yellow, with many intermediate shades. The pods
of alfalfa are coiled in about two turns, while those of sand
lucerne are in about three-fourths of one coil. The seeds of the
sand lucerne are lighter than those of alfalfa. Five hundred seeds
of sand lucerne weigh from 0.8 to 0.9 gram, while the same number
of seeds of common alfalfa weigh from 1 to 1.037 grams."

"Sand lucerne, although a perennial like alfalfa, is not so pro-
ductive in lands sufficiently moist for the latter or where it is
hardy."

However, in non-irrigated land in parts of Wisconsin and in
Utah it is said to surpass any other variety except the Turkestan.
In the moist climate of Michigan and in the irrigated land of
Utah, on the other hand, it was much inferior to the ordinary
sorts. Seedsmen advertise it as being hardier, more drought-
resistant and better able to stand grazing than alfalfa, and say

80 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

that it will succeed on sandy soil which is too light to produce
profitable crops of other forage plants.

Yellow trefoil or Hop clover (Medicago lupulina L.) is an
annual species and may be distinguished from alfaifa by its more
spreading habit, its shorter and broader tipped leaves, by its yel-
low flowers, and, finally, by the fact that the pods are not coiled,
as with alfalfa, although coiled to make a single incomplete spiral.
These pods also differ from those of alfalfa in being black when
ripe. This species has some value in moist regions, but is far
inferior to alfalfa.

Bur clover (Medicago denticulata Willd.) and Spotted Medic
(Medicago arabica All.), like yellow trefoil, are also annual
plants and have yellow flowers. They differ, however, from all
of the above-mentioned species in having burry pods. Although
grown in some localities, they are of little agricultural conse-
quence.

Bur clover inoculates land for alfalfa growing
or vice versa. They carry the same bacteria on their
roots. Mellilotus, or sweet clover, also uses the same
bacteria. This fact is useful since it often enables
us to get hold of inoculated soil, or to sow one of
the inferior clovers as a forerunner of alfalfa for
the purpose of inoculating the soil or of enriching it
and storing it with humus.

Types and Varieties. — Alfalfa is remarkably vari-
able. One can go into a field sown all of one sort of
seed and select in it a hundred plants, no two having
very close likeness. Much can be done and will be
done to select varieties having desirable character-
istics. Already the Colorado and Kansas experi-
ment stations are doing considerable in this line,
while other stations not so well located are also at
work, notably Ohio, Minnesota and North Dakota,
and the Department of Agriculture at Washington.

Natural selection, -or the law of the survival of the
fittest, has done much to create types. For example,

VARIETIES OF ALFALFA. 81

alfalfa that has grown for some generations in hot
Arizona becomes by elimination a type adapted to
hot climates, and alfalfa grown for several genera-
tions in Montana or North Dakota becomes also by
elimination, and perhaps to some extent by muta-
tion, a strain able to endure extreme cold.

The practical lesson to be drawn from this vari-
ability of alfalfa is that it is best to choose seed com-
ing from a region in about the same latitude as one's
own farm. Alfalfa from Arizona is not hardy in
Nebraska. Alfalfa from Montana would doubtless
do poorly in Arizona. Alfalfa from California has
not always proved hardy in the East. Alfalfa from
France and Germany usually succeeds in the east-
ern States of America. When it fails it may be that
the seed came from Algeria, up through France,
and thus was in nature similar to the Arizona strain.

Commenting on varieties J. M. Westgate, ag-
rostologist in charge of alfalfa investigation for the
United States Department of Agriculture, says:

Under most conditions, especially in the alfalfa districts, or-
dinary alfalfa, whether from American or European grown seed,
gives quite as satisfactory results as any of the special varie-
ties. In certain sections of the country, however, special varie-
ties of alfalfa have been found to be more valuable than the ordi-
nary forms. Of these the Turkestan, Arabian, and Peruvian
varieties have been introduced through the Office of Foreign,
Seed and Plant Introduction of the United States Department of
Agriculture.

Turkestan alfalfa was introduced into the United States m
1898, and has since been tried in all parts of the country. It
has been found to be superior to the ordinary alfalfa in only lim-
ited sections. It is decidedly inferior in the humid sections east of
the Mississippi River, but has given somewhat better results
than the ordinary alfalfa in the semi-arid portions of the Great
Plains and in the Columbia Basin. In addition to its drought

82 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

resistance, it is also hardier than many of the commercial
strains.

Hardy alfalfa. — There have appeared during the past years
several strains of alfalfa which are characterized by their hardi-
ness and general ability to withstand conditions which are
rather too severe for the best productions of ordinary alfalfa.
There is some variation in the characteristics of these alfalfas,
which may be grouped under this general head, but they agree
in showing a considerable diversity in the color of the flowers,
which varies from yellow to blue, green, and various shades of
violet and purple. These colors are often clouded with a smoky
hue. The predominating color is the violet of the ordinary
alfalfa. The most conspicuous examples of hardy alfalfa are
the commercial sand lucerne and the Grimm alfalfa of Minnesota.

The sand lucerne has been grown for a number of years in
this country. It has recently been found to be adapted to the
colder and drier sections of the country, where it is proving the
equal of any of the alfalfas under test. It seems particularly
adapted to withstand the cold winters of the northern states,
where ordinary alfalfa is very likely to winterkill. It is not
always the heaviest yielder in sections where ordinary alfalfa
succeeds, but its yields are always satisfactory, and it is espe-
cially recommended for conditions where ordinary alfalfa does
not succeed by reason of high altitudes, light rainfall, or severe
winters. Its chief drawback is its tendency to lodge.

The Grimm alfalfa, which has been grown for many years in
Minnesota with excellent success, was brought from Wertheim,
Province of Baden, Germany, in 1857, by a German farmer named
Grimm. It is claimed by some that this variety has attained in-
creased hardiness since its introduction into Minnesota.

Dry-land alfalfa is the name usually given to ordinary alfalfa
seed produced for one or more generations in the semi-arid sec-
tions without irrigation. It is proving somewhat superior to ordi-
nary alfalfa under semi-arid conditions, and as a drought-
resistant alfalfa is about equal to Turkestan alfalfa and sand
lucerne.

Arabian alfalfa is proving of special value in the southwest-
ern portion of the United States, where the winters are very mild.
It is characterized by its large leaflets and the hairiness of the
stems and leaves, quick recovery after cutting and very rapid
growth during the growing season, and also by its ability to
grow at cooler temperatures than ordinary alfalfa. On the other
hand, it is extremely tender to actually freezing temperatures and
generally winterkills in all except the southern and southwestern

VARIETIES OP ALFALFA. 83

states. Its quick recovery after cutting and its longer growing
season enable several more cuttings per season to be obtained
than are possible for the ordinary alfalfa. Unfortunately, seed
of this variety is not yet on the market.

Peruvian alfalfa is similar to Arabian alfalfa, and is likewise
characterized by its long growing season and lack of hardiness.
It grows taller than Arabian alfalfa, but the stems are more
woody. The seed is not yet on the market in this country, as it
is not grown in Peru or elsewhere in large commercial quanti-
ties.

HABIT OF GROWTH.

Alfalfa is a plant with marvelous root growth. It
is not unusual to find alfalfa roots penetrating 6'. 8',
or even 12' into the earth. Very much deeper roots
than these are reported. It is even said that alfalfa
roots have been found that were 30' or more in
length, and doubtless this is true in favoring soils.
Alfalfa is a desert plant by nature. All desert
plants root deep and root far. By aid of these deep
roots desert plants tide over long drouths; if there
is no moisture in the top soil there is perhaps
moisture lower down. Alfalfa is a wonderful for-
ager for moisture and for plant food. It loves deep,
permeable soils. Because its roots penetrate so
deeply into the earth it does not thrive when the
water table of the soil is too near the surface.
Permanent water ought to be down at least 36" for
alfalfa to thrive and if it is to last for many years
even more depth is needed.

Alfalfa Not a Grass. — Alfalfa is in no sense a
grass. It has no communistic ideas whatever.
Each alfalfa plant is a vigorous, hustling, independ-
ent individual. It pushes. its roots down, sometimes
in one large tap root, sometimes in two or three large
roots. It fills the earth with its hairy feeding roots.
It makes a branching crown of many stems. The
deeper the roots can penetrate the larger the crown
will be. The better the soil for alfalfa the fewer

- (84)

ALFALFA SIX WEEKS FROM SEED, SHOWING ROOT TUBERCLES.
FROM LIFE BY EDNA HOPKINS.

HABIT OF GROWTH. 85

plants will stand on the ground. One by one the
weaker plants will be crowded out till at last the
strongest plants will gain their normal position
when there will be a plant for each square foot of
surface in very deep, rich soils of the West, and
these big plants with roots as large as one's ankle;
or there will be four or more plants to the square
foot, as in good land in Nebraska or Kansas; or
there will be a plant for each 4", as, in thinner,
poorer and shallower soils in Ohio and the East.
Alfalfa roots will not stand close together in any al-
falfa soil, be sure of that. Nevertheless it is good
to start them thick, since spare alfalfa plants are
better than weeds in the field.

Roots. — Alfalfa roots are very tough, strong and
hard to cut. Penetrating the soil so deeply they
make drainage channels when they decay and thus
make the soil more alive. They are hard to plow.
Once cut off they do not sprout again, though the top
part if kept in moist earth will send out new fibers
and may grow. Alfalfa is not hard to destroy by
plowing; once cut off and cultivated a few times it
dies.

The large roots are not the ones that feed. The
small fibrous root hairs penetrate each tiny crevice
of the earth and absorb the soil moisture and thus
drink in their food. Going to great depths they are
able to bring up mineral substances that may have
leached down there. They are able to find moisture
when the surface soil is parched with drouth.

The Bacteria.— Alfalfa roots absorb all that is in

86 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

the soil in the way of nourishment, but what they
find is not enough to satisfy the ambitions of the
alfalfa plant. Therefore it calls to its aid a host of
tiny slaves, the bacteria. All clovers have useful
bacteria that live upon their roots and gather nitro-
gen from the air. Then when the bacteria die the
nitrogen is taken up by the plant and made into its
tissue, into its leaves, stems and seeds. These bac-
teria live primarily for themselves, fastening to the
little root hairs. Soon these little root hairs push
out tissue and enclose the bacteria in fleshy ex-
crescences shaped like little grapes or seeds. These
excrescences we call tubercles or nodules. They are
as large as clover seed o<r larger, or smaller. They
occur singly or in masses. Sometimes soils seem
naturally full of these bacteria so that as soon as
the alfalfa is sown they come on the roots. When
this is true the alfalfa starts off with great vigor
from the beginning and endures in thrift nearly al-
ways. At other times soils are found to be barren
of these bacteria and no nodules form upon the roots.
Then the alfalfa seems half starved, weak, yellow,
sickly.

Where Bacteria Thrive. — In some soils it is im-
possible to establish these bacteria, by artificial trans-
plantation or otherwise. When this is true alfalfa
will never thrive. It may live for a time by aid of
manures and cultivation, but it is not thrifty and it
finally succumbs. It cannot withstand the onslaughts
of weeds without the aid of these bacteria feeding its
roots. They get their nitrogen and thus much of

HABIT OF GROWTH. 87

their growth from the air. Thus the soil must have
air in it or they cannot live. Waterlogged soils are
barren of useful bacteria. Thus well drained soils
are best for alfalfa. The bacteria thrive in soils
alkaline, not acid. They cannot well withstand acid
soils. They like a great abundance of carbonate of
lime in the soil. It has not been shown that there
is ever too much carbonate of lime in the soil for the
good of the bacteria. Of other common western
alkalies there may be a superabundance some-
times of sulphate of soda and other more harmful
black alkalies. The alfalfa root is the foundation
of the. alfalfa, plant. When it is vigorous the whole
plant thrives and resists disease and disaster.

Resisting Temperature Extremes. — The alfalfa
plant is hardy against cold. One could almost trace
alfalfa to' its original home by its very habit of re-
sisting extreme heat and at the same time freezing
cold. Desert countries have often blistering days
and freezing nights. Alfalfa will be green nearly all
winter down next the earth, waiting its chance. As
soon as there is sun and warmth of spring
it begins its growth. It is hardier than com-
mon red clover and earlier to start in spring.
Different strains of alfalfa have different de-
grees of resistance to cold. Cold affects the
alfalfa differently at various stages of growth.
When a warm spell in early spring pushes it up to
a swift, succulent growth a hard freeze will lay it
all over as though it were killed. It may indeed be
seriously set back by such a freeze but usually it

88 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA,

straightens up again as soon as it thaws and goes
on growing in a few days. No animals should ever
be let tread upon it when it is frosted. Indeed
it is better for the alfalfa never to be depastured.

The First Growth.— The first growth is usually
strongest, perhaps because of the long rest it has
had during winter, and * maybe because of
more abundant soil moisture in the spring.
In Ohio it begins to bloom in late May or
early in June. In more southern states it
blooms earlier; sometimes in Louisiana it will
bloom in April, or even earlier. The height of
alfalfa at blooming time varies with the soil and
variety. Ordinarily it is about 30 to 40" high. In
very good alfalfa soils with abundant irrigation and
good suns, it may be much higher. The writer has
grown it on his old Utah ranch fields so tall that only
the heads of the deer were visible as they stood
nearly submerged in alfalfa verdure. In some soils
where roots cannot go deep it may not get higher
than 24".

Time to Cut. — When bloom begins time is near for
alfalfa harvest. One cannot judge by state of bloom
altogether when alfalfa should be cut, however.
Perhaps in some western soils it does not matter
when it is cut ; no great harm results from cutting it
at the wrong season. In all eastern regions, how-
ever, it is very necessary that it should be cut at the
right time. Failure to know when to cut it often re-
sults in losing altogether the thrift of the next cut-
ting, and maybe losing the alfalfa completely. One

HABIT OF GROWTH. 89

cannot judge of when alfalfa should be cut by the
appearance or non-appearance of bloom. Usually
when it ought to be cut it will be in bloom. The only
safe indication, however, is found in little shoots
or buds that put out from the base of the stems near
the earth. When these shoots put out, like little
suckers, ready to make new growth, then cut the
alfalfa and cut it immediately. Cutting must not
be delayed else the shoots will become so high that
they will be cut off with the hay. The alfalfa must
not be cut before these shoots appear, because if
this is done the alfalfa will not start off promptly,
and when it does start will be singularly deficient in
vigor and thrift. The reason is not known, but the
fact is often observed that when a part of a field is
mown only a few days too early and the rest of the
field after the shoots have appeared there will be
a difference of 100% or more in the yield of the
next crop in favor of that cut at the right time.

Further, when it is cut too early it often becomes
unthrifty, rusted, yellow, sickly, and weeds and
grass spring up and choke it. Thousands of ruined
fields all over eastern America and in England trace
their injury to having been cut at the wrong time.
When it is mown off too soon all seems to go wrong
with it. It may be that in some way the sap sours
in the roots, the bacteria die, or some poison is
secreted. Some such catastrophe is needed to ac-
count for the behavior of the plants.

Cutting for Soiling Weakens.— In England the
writer has frequently observed that the habit there

90 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

of cutting alfalfa green and using it to soil horses
is responsible for great damage to the fields. At the
end of a field where first the scythe began its work
on immature alfalfa, it was so* weakened that weeds
and grasses came in thick and choked it out. At the
other end of the field would often be good, thrifty
alfalfa, because it had not been cut too soon. It is
wise to cut as early as one can, and not cut before
the appearance of the shoots, because thus a better
quality of hay is secured.

The Next Cutting. — Alfalfa cut at the right time
makes astonishing recovery. The hay raked up, the
field looks brown and bare for a few hours. Then
comes the first tinge of green. In a day it is plainly
to be seen. In two days it is green again. In a
week no one should set foot upon it, and in four or
five weeks it is ready to cut again. Times vary, of
course, but in Ohio if the first crop comes off about
June 1, the next crop will be due about July 1 to 4.
The same rule applies to the second cutting. It
must not be taken away before the buds appear.
The rule of waiting till new shoots appear on the
bases of the stems applies to each cutting. As the
summer gets older and dryer longer times elapses
between the various cuttings. The second cutting
will take about 40 to 45 days to mature, and the
third cutting about the same time. At no time can
one disregard the rule as to cutting when the shoots
have appeared. Never cut alfalfa before these shoots
come. Never delay cutting many days after they
appear.

HABIT OF GROWTH. 91

Cutting Promotes Thrift. — It is a curious fact
that alfalfa needs to be cut in order to keep in thrift.
This is especially true in the region east of the
Missouri River. Doubtless it is in part an acquired
habit, speaking strikingly of the length of years that
our alfalfa has been sown and mown by man. In
Ohio, for example, one will sometimes put down a
fence through a young alfalfa field. Afterward he
cannot mow quite close to the fence and there will
be corners where the alfalfa remains uncut. It is
then a continual object lesson of the effect of neglect,
since the uncut alfalfa becomes unthrifty, a prey to
leaf fungus and other diseases. As the season goes
on the cut alfalfa re-tains its thrift and vigor; the
neglected gets more and more unthrifty. At last
weeds and grass overpower it and in a few years
nearly every plant has disappeared, while the plants
regularly cut alongside have quite retained their
pristine vigor.

Late Mowing Harmful. — In warm countries alfalfa
is always green and growing, so there is moisture
enough, yet it has its periods of partial rest and its
times of greatest vigor. In the arid and irrigated
west it seems to do no injury to -the alfalfa to mow
it down late in the season, or to pasture it close in
the fall. In the eastern states, on the other hand,
it is distinctly hurtful to alfalfa to cut it down so
late that it will not go into winter with a good
growth covering it to hold the snow and protect the
crowns. Always there should be a growth of at
least a foot of alfalfa when killing f ro-st comes. This

92 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

should not be depastured ; indeed, after killing frost
no animal should be permitted to set foot in the
alfalfa field. The difference in thrift and production
between late mown alfalfa and that given fair treat-
ment is very marked indeed. Many plants mown
off in October will die altogether during the follow-
ing winter. Thus when one means to plow the field,
it is wise to mow it as late as convenient, since he
gets quite a little hay from this fourth or fifth cut-
ting, and at the same time weakens his alfalfa so
that it plows easier. Very great injury in the humid
regions has unknowingly been done the alfalfa by
this very ignorance of its nature that led to its being
mown late or depastured until winter.

Danger from Treading. — In dry countries it seems
to do little injury to alfalfa to let animals run on it
all winter, even though they tread it down into the
dust. In all the region of America lying east of tho
Missouri River it is most harmful to alfalfa to tread
upon it in winter, either by the feet of men or ani-
mals, or by wagons going over it. The line of direc-
tion of a farm wagon going across a field can often
be distinctly traced next spring by the two streaks
of dead alfalfa plants.

An alfalfa field should be a sacred place. Its gates
should be closed and locked in September and not re-
opened till May at the earliest, probably not till the
first day of June, though these dates will of course
be dependent on -the latitude, now having in mind
the climate of about parallel of latitude 40.

Hardiness of the Plant. — Alfalfa then is one of

HABIT OF GROWTH. 93

the hardiest plants in the world when exposed to
certain trials and dangers. Drouths have no terrors
for it. Cold has no terrors for it. Heat has no ter-
rors for alfalfa. It dies, if it dies at all, of pneu-
monia brought on by wet feet in winter time, by
cancer brought on by undrained soils and floods of
rains in summer time ; it dies from fungus troubles
brought on by exposure to too much wet and by not
having the fungus-affected tops cut away at proper
time; or it dies because its allies, the bacteria, be-
come diseased and forsake it. It is a Mexican, living
by means of the hot peppers it consumes, the pep-
per to the alfalfa plant being carbonate of lime.
Given these things, dry soil with air in it and alka-
line with carbonate of lime, not sour; keep animals
off it in cold weather, cut it three times a year, keep
grasses from choking it, and alfalfa will endure in
almost any land for half a century.

Ice Will Kill. — There is one thing that may hap-
pen, however, that no art of man can circumvent;
that is ice in winter. There is a danger line along
through Minnesota and parts -of Wisconsin, probably
extending through Michigan, where the warmth of
spring comes before the cold of winter is out of
the earth. Warm days thaw the snow, it makes a
film of water over the earth; this freezes hard and
the ground is locked in icy fetters. This may kill
the alfalfa dead. It may not happen more than once
in several years. When it has happened the only
thing to be done is to grin and bear it, plow the
field, plant to corn or potatoes and re-seed the next
year. Or it may be at once resown the same season.

94 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Life of a Field. — What then is the profitable
duration of an alfalfa field? In California, in some
of the dry valleys with loose subsoil, it may ap-
parently endure for a century. The writer has
walked over an alfalfa field in Texas that was 40
years old ; in Kansas perhaps 10 years, in Nebraska
maybe the same, or nearly as long ; in Iowa probably
four to six years. In Ohio alfalfa will endure for
10 years on the best drained land, and maybe for
much longer time, yet the greatest profit is found in
keeping it only while it is at its maximum efficiency,
and that is about four years. Why expect or care to
have it last forever? Alfalfa is one of the easiest
established of clovers, nor is it costly to seed. It
powerfully enriches the soil. Why then care to
have it endure forever? It is wiser to use it only
while in its full vigor, then as disaster overtakes
it and one plant here, another there, dies out, leav-
ing the stand thin, to plow it and re-seed after tak-
ing off a crop or two of grain or roots, or whatever
is required.

In Maryland there is in Harford county a type
of soil with such acid subsoil that alfalfa will not
last more than a year or two in it. Yet some dairy-
men have learned that it pays better to grow alfalfa
than any other crop, leaving it stand only one year,
then plowing and at once re-seeding. The practice
is to sow in August, letting the alfalfa grow uncut
that fall, then harvesting a good crop in late May,
another in late June, a third crop about the first of
August, at once plowing and thoroughly preparing

HABIT OF GROWTH. 95

the land and re-seeding. Liberal fertilizing is done
each year and thus quite heavy crops of hay are
grown, although it has been learned that the alfalfa
will not go through a second winter, the roots de-
caying about 6" below the surface. Doubtless the
acidity of the subsoil is responsible in large measure
for this result. If large amounts of lime could be
applied to the surface just before plowing and thus
turned under in direct contact with the sour sub-
soil, in time even this land could be made to carry
alfalfa more than one year. It is interesting and
useful, however, to know that the alfalfa pays well
to be resown each year when this is necessary.

Essentials in Culture. — Alfalfa is no Laodicean.
When it is healthy it is one of the happiest plants
in the world', and when diseased one of the feeblest
and most miserable. Fortunately making it healthy
is pretty easy; it speaks in no uncertain tones and
makes its wants known. The writer frequently takes
a walk to the village aJong an old railway embank-
ment, made in large part from limestone gravel, sur-
faced with that and with limestone screenings from
the crusher. The clay in it is of limestone formation.
It could not be said that this soil was exceptional in
any way except that it is thoroughly drained, and
has in it much lime. Scattered alfalfa plants grow
along this embankment. For years they have grown
and seeded there. They are beautifully green and
vigorous plants and they never seem to get old. The
writer, wandering down the railway line reflects,
"Why, here these plants in themselves tell all that

96 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

one needs to know about alfalfa growing. Just give
drainage enough, give air enough in the soil, give
lime enough, give seed, and alfalfa is the surest
plant to grow there is." And this is true'. Only
these simple things need be known : fo make the land
dry, to make the land sweet with lime, or a little
more than sweet, fairly alkaline with lime, then to
make it fertile and sow good seed with faith and
inoculation.

What agricultural joys will follow such simple
doings 'as these! What beautifying of landscapes,
what riches in animal life, what wealth of farms and
homes and villages ! Upon such simple fundamentals
do great things rest.

THE SEED-BEARING HABIT.

Alfalfa left alone will bloom and produce seed on
the first crop. If no fungus troubles its leaves it
will continue to grow, bloom and produce seed all
summer. In Utah the writer has seen bushes of
alfalfa more than 6' high, covered nearly all over
with bloom and seed. In all humid regions there
will be leaf diseases that will make such condition
of growth impossible.

Fertilisation. — The alfalfa flower is probably in-
capable of self-fertilization without the aid of bees
or other insects. F. Eoberts and Geo. F. Freeman,
of the Kansas experiment station at Manhattan,
have made many experiments in alfalfa breeding.
Briefly, in planting a nursery of alfalfa plants,
separated from each other about 18", very great
variation was observed. One field was planted from
seed gathered in Montana, the other from seed of
so-called Turkestan alfalfa. The plants in each
group varied remarkably in leaf and hardiness and
habit of growth. In order to propagate the desirable
types, study of the alfalfa flower was made, with
its habit of fertilization. The following study or
the alfalfa blossom is quoted from Bulletin 151 of
the Kansas agricultural experiment station :

The flower of alfalfa is rather an advantageous one for hand-
pollinating purposes. The two wings have projecting processes
which overlap, and assist in holding down the curved, spring-
like column formed by. the united group of stamens which en-

(97)

98 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

close the pistil. A set of interlocking processes for the keel
further assist in forming this spring-trap arrangement. When
an insect of sufficient weight alights upon the keel, it depresses
the latter, together with the enclosing wing petals; the trigger-
like processes are pushed down past the upcurved column of the
pistil and stamens, releasing them, and allowing the whole col-
umn to spring up with considerable explosive force against the
erect standard. At the time of pollination the style with the
stigma has grown up above the stamens, and when released the
stigma precedes the stamens, striking the insect's body first, in
case the latter rests upon the keel, bearing its deposit of pollen
brought from another flower. The burst anthers in turn dust off
a new deposit of pollen as they are driven past the insect, which
is thus equipped with a fresh supply of pollen to become avail-
able for the next flower. Sometimes the shaking of the flower
stems by the wind, or by the pelting of rain, many accomplish
the same result. Self-fertilization may be secured also by visits
of insects not yet loaded with pollen, which may, by setting off
the explosive mechanism, bring about self-pollination. Since the
pollen is shed before the stamen-pistil column is released, it
happens that the stigma is already partly covered with pollen.
Nevertheless, self-fertilization seems to occur but seldom in en-
closed plants protected from insect visits.

The explosive mechanism of the alfalfa flower has long
been known, having been discovered as early as 1832 by A. P.
De Candolle.

In 1894, Burkill found it impossible to make seeds set in the
unexploded flower, even though pollen were in contact with the
stigma. He considers this fact to be due to the circumstance
that the stigma does not become receptive to the pollen until its
cells are injured by violent contact with some object. In proof
he adduces the fact that he had caused unexploded flowers to
set seed by pinching the stigma, by cutting off the tip of the keel
or by rubbing the stigma with a stiff brush. It appears, there-
fore, probable that insects secure the fertilization of alfalfa flow-
ers largely by accidental injury to the stigma while endeavoring
to cause the proboscis to enter; or else by exploding the flowers
and causing the stigma to be dashed against the standard, the
necessary amount of injury may be accomplished to enable the
pollen to become effective, in which case it may either be the
already present pollen of the same flower, or foreign pollen
brought by the insect that is utilized.

Thus it is plain that insects play a large part in

THE SEED-BEARING HABIT. 99

the fertilization of alfalfa blooms. The honey bee
helps, no doubt, where it is plentiful, and also many
other sorts of insects help — butterflies, millers, ants
and various small insects that swarm in alfalfa
meadows. Whether honey bees are useful in fer-
tilizing1 alfalfa blooms is at present a disputed point,
many men affirming that they secured as large crops
of alfalfa seed before bees were introduced into their
regions as they do since. However this may be, it
is certain that bees pay large profits in the western
alfalfa-growing states. Alfalfa honey is of excellent
quality and it is most doubtful if the bees ever
gather any of it without unwittingly assisting in the
fertilization of the alfalfa flower.

Where Seed is Grown. — The alfalfa plant has
whims and peculiarities not well understood. Parts
of California produce seed, other parts are said to
make too little seed to be worth troubling with.
Nevada is a good seed-producing region, perhaps
because of the extreme dryness of the state. Utah
produces much seed of high quality and Utah is a
dry land. Colorado produces good seed, so does
Montana in lesser amounts. The Dakotas produce
some seed and large amounts are threshed in
Nebraska and Kansas. East of the Missouri Eiver
little seed is grown; east of the Mississippi Eiver
hardly any alfalfa seed is saved. Stray plants in
Ohio, on dry banks or along roadsides will load
themselves with seed, while fields saved for the seed
make not enough to be worth considering. Texas
produces a good deal of seed. It has been found

100 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

that most seed is produced during fairly dry years.
The alfalfa grown on high, dry land without irriga-
tion seeds best. Large crops are grown by irriga-
tion on dry lands, but the irrigation has to be very
carefully done not to water the alfalfa too much.
When alfalfa is growing rapidly and has abundant
moisture, for some reason not well understood it
does not produce seed; the blooms fall and growth
continues. On the other hand, when moisture is
deficient and conditions are much less favorable
seed sets abundantly. It is perhaps the old trick of
Dame Nature making abundant provision against
the extermination of any of her children by provid-
ing bloom and fruit and seed whenever the exist-
ence of the mother is attacked.

Attempts to grow alfalfa seed in any state east of
the Missouri Eiver is apt to result in much disap-
pointment. The humid climate, the lack perhaps
of suitable insects to fertilize, and the attacks of
rust that affects the leaves make it a very uncertain
crop. There are times, however, during very dry
seasons, when thin stands of alfalfa in the eastern
states will mature profitable crops of seed.

GETTING A STAND OF ALFALFA.

When this is read it may be forgotten that the
writer for many years has been a contributor to
"THE BKEEDER'S GAZETTE/' an American agricul-
tural newspaper. In his work for THE^GAZETTE he
has answered hundreds of alfalfa inquiries. Some
of these have been put in such a way that they re-
vealed an intelligent knowledge of the subject in the
inquirers, but very many of these questions are mad-
dening in the fact that they show so plainly that
the seeker for information has almost no knowledge
of his own soil or -of any fundamental principles
governing soil fertility or plant growth. For ex-
ample, here is a sample question; many like it are
received every season: "I wish to sow some alfalfa.
My land is lightly rolling and slopes to the west. It
was sown in oats in 1906, was in corn in 1907. "

Simply that and nothing more! What an index
of the state of agriculture in the United States in
this year of grace 1909! Growing alfalfa is not a
question of seed or sowing. Sow almost any sort of
alfalfa seed, sow at any time of moon or in almost
any sort of way and you will succeed, if — here is the
fatal "if" — your soil is right. Sow with the great-
est labor and pains, make incredible effort at
preparation and you will fail, if your soil is wrong.
Alfalfa growing is a soil question. Get the soil
right and it is difficult to fail. It is easier to get a
stand of alfalfa than of most common farm crops.

(101)

102 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

There is no mystery about getting a stand of alfalfa.
To make that stand succeed once you get it, there's
the rub, especially in the eastern states.

Drainage. — What are the requirements of the
alfalfa plant a,s regards soil?

First, it likes soil to be dry, dry even in a wet
time. That is, it ought to be a soil that will not fill
up with water and remain waterlogged for many
days. Alfalfa loves moisture too, but it must have
moisture and air in the soil at the same time. Thus
it likes well drained loams, alluvial .soil along rivers
or creeks (such lands are usually the best drained)
or even gravelly soils, so they have also fertility. If
naturally well drained lands are not on your farm
then you can make the land dry with tiles. It is
entirely practicable to drain land naturally wet and
"crawfishy" with tiles so 'that it will grow alfalfa
well. The writer has tested this on Woodland Farm
where with his brothers he has laid many miles of
tile underdrains. In truth not much of Woodland
Farm would grow alfalfa before it was under-
drained. Now about the heaviest and surest crops
grow on land once too wet for alfalfa to grow at all.

Drainage, that is the very first essential in alfalfa
culture. Let that truth sink in deep. Do not sow al-
falfa on a marsh, nor on a waterlogged clay that
will -stand full of water half the year. An occasional
submergence by the overflowing of a stream may do
no harm, will do no harm if the submergence comes
in cold weather, or if the water is moving. An over-
flow of even a week's duration, if the water is mov-

GETTING A STAND OF ALFALFA. 103

ing swiftly, will probably do no harm. Even a few
hours of stagnant water lying over the land in hot
weather may kill the alfalfa. Drain. Drain deep.
Drain thoroughly. Alfalfa roots are living things.
Alfalfa bacteria are probably destroyed by being
under water for a long time.

Tiling. — In laying tiles where alfalfa may some
day be sown see that they are laid as deep as the
nature of the soil will permit. Soils differ much in
this respect; sometimes the subsoil is so dense and
impervious that water cannot well penetrate it. In
such case it is useless to lay tiles deep in it. They
will not drain the land any deeper if laid in the hard-
pan than if laid just on its surface. Usually, how-
ever, one can lay tiles in clay loams and "joint
clays" much deeper than he has been accustomed to
laying them. The extra depth pays largely. Tiles
draw water from a much greater distance when laid
deep, and plants thrive in proportion as the perma-
nent water table is lowered. If the water level in
the soil never rises above a depth of 10' from the
surface all the better. Alfalfa roots will readily
penetrate that distance. Tiles cannot be laid deeper
than 4' or 5' with economy, owing to labor cost;
if they could, and the soil were permeable enough
to let them operate to their full depth, it would be
all the better. On Woodland Farm the rule is to
lay no tiles at a less depth than 36" and the standard
depth where soil is right and outlet can be had is
48". In early days many drains Wiere laid too
shallow; these are often taken up and laid deeper.

104 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Deficiency in Soil. — -Curiously enough there are
many- well drained soils in the eastern part of the
United States that are admirably adapted to being
penetrated by alfalfa roots, yet on which alfalfa does
not naturally grow well, if at all. Such soils often
are loose, pervious, easily penetrated by roots. They
may be of clayey lo<am order, or have sandy or
gravelly nature. On them perhaps grow chestnut
trees. Chestnut soils ought usually to be good al-
falfa soils. Naturally they are not. By right treat-
ment they may be made good. The clue to their
reclamation is lime.

Soil a Living Thing.— A. soil is a living, drink-
ing, breathing thing. If it is truly alive it has in it
much air, sufficient water, but that held in suspen-
sion 'as film water only in the earth, not in satura-
tion. That is, there is a film of water about each
little grain of sand, between each two grains of soil,
and between the layers of water is air. The living
soil has in it humus, vegetable matter, in greater or
less amounts. It has in it bacteria in immense num-
bers. It is alive with bacteria. These bacteria are
of various kinds and orders. Some are engaged in
destroying humus. They break it down and from
the nitrogen in the humus make soluble nitrates.
These the plants can absorb through their rootlets.
Some of these bacteria are able to assimilate the
free nitrogen of the air and make it available for
plants growing with roots in that soil. These bac-
teria exist in all soils probably where there is
plenty of humus decaying. Other bacteria there are

GETTING A STAND OF ALFALFA. 105

that live on the roots of the clover and other le-
guminous plants. Alfalfa has its own special' bac-
teria that enables it to appropriate the free nitrogen
of the air. Alfalfa will not thrive, nor even live
very long, without these bacteria helping it. It has
become used to them, it depends upon them much
as the southern people depended upon slave labor
in days gone by. And alfalfa-promoting bacteria
will not live in all soils. In some soils they are
found in myriads after alfalfa has grown there for
a little time, as its near relatives melilotus or bur
clover. What sort of soils do we find these bacteria
to thrive best in when nature has planted them, un-
helped by man! What sort of soils are they that
produce alfalfa spontaneously ? Let us go afield.

Natural Seeding of Alfalfa. — The nearest to
wild alfalfa that is found in America perhaps is in
Montana, along the Yellowstone Eiver. There the
writer has seen fields sown to timothy grass invaded
by the alfalfa plant and gradually crowded out till
at last there was a fine stand of luxuriant alfalfa and
that without the sowing of one alfalfa seed. Thus
it happened: the canal water floated down a few
seed and deposited them near the top of the grass
field. They grew and established themselves as
lusty alfalfa plants. After the timothy grass was
mown off the alfalfa went to seed and scattered a
circle of self-sown alfalfa seeds about the mother
plant. Next year there were many alfalfa plants
where there had been only one, and these in turn
went to seed. The end was a well set alfalfa field,

106 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

with the timothy grass practically crowded out. And
on one farm of 160 acres near this spot, at a place
close to Billings, Mont., a farmer sold his one year 's
cutting of alfalfa hay, amounting to 1,000 tons.
Now, what was the nature of that soil! And what
of the climate!

First, the climate did not have very much to do
with it. At least there are thousands of counties
in the United States with as good climate for alfalfa
growing as this special one, though it is true that
there is plenty of sun and heat in summer,
but an extraordinarily cold winter climate. Water
for irrigation was in abundant supply and never
fear of rain to cause blight or spoil haying. The
soil, then! This is a semi-arid region and the soils
have not for thousands of years been leached by
excessive rains. Thus they are filled with all sorts
of mineral salts. They are alkaline soils; that is,
filled with salts of lime, potash, magnesia and
sodium. Some of these salts are injurious to vegeta-
tion, at least When present in excess; others are
favorable.

The one salt in this soil that especially favors
alfalfa is carbonate -of lime. This exists in great
amounts in this soil, probably at least 1%% of this
substance being present. One and one-half pounds
of carbonate of lime to each hundred pounds of soil !
How much would that mean in an acre! Taking
only the top foot of s-oil it would amount to about 30
tons of carbonate of lime present. That lime is
doing something in that soil; can we discover what!

I1BH

CARBONATE OF LIME.

The most vital fact is one that we cannot now ex-
plain: the carbonate of lime makes the nitrifying
bacteria thrive. They cannot seem to exist with-
out it. Then it keeps the alfalfa in good health.
Why should alfalfa OT any other plant become sick!
We think we know that plants give off certain toxic
principles, poisonous to themselves. That is, the
alfalfa roots exhale perhaps a poison that is in-
jurious to itself and to other alfalfa roots. When
there is much carbonate of lime in the soil this
poisonous principle is in some way neutralized. Thus
the alfalfa keeps in health and vigor and goes right
on performing its miracles. This helps explain
some things that have puzzled the wisest of us.
Many men have had good, vigorous stands of alfalfa
well fed with mineral fertilizers and with stable
manures, and all at once with no warning whatever
it would all die as though stricken with plague. This
has happened repeatedly in many eastern and south-
ern states. Never, so far as the writer has been able
to learn, has it* happened where the alfalfa was
growing on a soil even fairly well supplied with
carbonate of lime.

Carbonate of lime, we may as well fairly confess,
is the very keynote of successful alfalfa culture.
Drainage and carbonate of lime are the two essen-

(107)

108 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

tial things. All the rest that can be added will help ;
these two are indispensable.

Other Functions of Lime. — What other func-
tions besides making the soil habitable for good and
useful bacteria does the carbonate of lime have in
the soil!

It seems the very foundation of fertility itself.
The presence of much carbonate of lime in the soil
seems necessary to the formation of black humus.
In nature soils rich in lime become black loams.
Some good illustrations of this truth are seen in two
instance's. In Mississippi and Alabama are soils
based on decaying limestone, the so-called " black-
prairie " soils. They are exceedingly rich, strong,
productive soils, among the best in the South. They
grow any sort <of crops well, and especially do they
grow alfalfa luxuriantly. Most soils in the south are
very deficient in humus and without the dark brown
color. That is because moist southern soils are lime-
hungry. The vegetation that has fallen upon them
and been buried in them has not changed to black
humus, or to very little of it. Why not ? Because of
the absence of sufficient carbonate of lime.

In Illinois one finds the northern end of the state,
a black, rich prairie soil, very full indeed of humus.
The southern end of the state, on the other hand,
has a -soil of light color, very deficient in humus.
Think what story this tells! Glaciers ground up
limestones in the northern end of the state and mixed
their detritus through the soil. Below the line where
the limestones reached the light colored soils begin,

CARBONATE OF LIME. 109

The same sun shone on all of Illinois during these
centuries, the same rains fell, prairie grasses grew
over most of the land. Where carbonate of lime was
abundant in the soil humus was created, and the
land grew black and rich. Where there was de-
ficiency in carbonate of lime fertility could not
gather. It is a most significant lesson.

Carbonate of lime then conserves humus and fer-
tility in some way. It makes a healthful home for
the bacteria that help plants. What else does it do?

Stops Waste of Nitrogen. — Carbonate of lime
stops waste of nitrogen. Decaying vegetation or
humus in the soil creates nitric acid ; this is readily
soluble, and unless taken up by plants soon leaches
away and is gone. Should there be a sufficient sup-
ply of carbonate of lime present, however, the tiny
drop of nitric acid seeking to escape touches a par-
ticle of carbonate of lime, the two unite and form a
calcium nitrate. This locks up the nitrogen and holds
it in the soil. It is practically impossible to store fer-
tility in soils deficient in carbonate of lime. Soils hav-
ing a large store of carbonate of lime, on the other
hand, will accumulate nitrogen, and hold it for many
years, giving it up again when called upon by the
plants. I have seen astonishing instances of this upon
Woodland Farm. Certain fields have had on them at
one day old home sites, where the first settlers built
their little cabins and had their gardens and cow lots.
For forty or fifty years these small settlements have
been swept away, and nothing remains now to tell
their location excepting th§ fragments of brick or

110 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

pottery turned up by the plow. Naturally the late
treatment of 'these fields has been uniform, and as
much manure has been applied to one spot as to an-
other. When sown to alfalfa, however, a wonderful
story is told, since the alfalfa plants, rooting deep,
find stores of fertility in the subsoil, leached down
perhaps from the old gardens or cow lots, and held
from total escape by the presence in the subsoil of
great amounts of limestone gravel and smaller par-
ticles. The outline of these old gardens and cow lots
will be found so distinctly defined by the luxuriant
alfalfa growing thereon that one can say with cer-
tainty, i ' Here stood the garden fence ; there was the
man 's cow lot. ' '

Maintenance of Fertility. — In America we have
been wont to boast of the fertility of our farms. In
truth, we have great stores of fertility, yet none too
much, and in fact it is probable that there will not
be found in America one farm in a thousand as fer-
tile as it should be to yield a good profit. Other and
older lands are more fertile than ours. The old
fields of France have some of them been farmed for
a thousand years, and none can say how much
longer, and are producing today better than Ameri-
can fields; and in England the same story is often
true. These fertile foreign fields are rich in carbo-
nate of lime; and yet it is being added to> and its
store increased by each provident owner. No Ameri-
can farmer should be content with his stores of fer-
tility as they exist today. His fields are not rich
enough if he can profitably make them richer, and

CARBONATE OF LIME. Ill

indeed with nine-tenths of the farms of America -the
fertility is so low that any hope of profitable agri-
culture thereon must first be based upon a stern and
inflexible determination to build the soils and make
them rich. It is a great thought then that we have
here, that soils filled with carbonate of lime naturally
grow rich of themselves if planted with leguminous
crops, or even left in a state of nature, and that
upon these soils stored abundantly with lime almost
any degree of fertility may be built. And what
other function has lime in the soil! We need not
stop here to discuss its power to floculate and ren-
der more porous the soil, its ability to bind together
sands, and so on. Perhaps that power of lime has
been exaggerated, but this is true, soils rich in car-
bonate of lime are almost universally rich also in
phosphorus. This arises from two causes, one that
lime carbonates usually carry a percentage of phos-
phorus in their own composition; the other, that
they prevent the waste of phosphorus by its leach-
ing away, or its uniting in insoluble compounds with
iron or alumina.

Lime the Basis. — To put it short, you cannot build
a soil rich in either nitrogen phosphorus or prob-
ably potash unless it is first rich in carbonate of
lime. There is here a great field for thought. Hil-
gard says that no great and enduring civilization
has ever been built upon an acid soil. This seems
true. Babylon stood on an alkaline plain rich in
lime, Egypt's soils are reputed rich in lime, Greece
was built upon marble hills, Borne upon limestone,

112 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

and the hills of Judea — where grew such grapes,
such goodly grain, such grass that the land literally
flowed with milk and honey ; Judea where David the
shepherd boy walked and tended his sheep and grew
to the stature of a man ; Judea, where Christ walked
and lived and loved — is a land of limestone, the lime
soft and honeycombed by water, constantly decaying
and giving its riches to the -soil. It is a curious
thought, indeed, that had it not been for the lime-
stone in the hills of Judea, perhaps the Master of
mankind might have been born in another land.

Availability of Lime. — So far as the writer's re-
searches have extended, everywhere that limestone
is found alfalfa grows naturally, almost of itself.
This book will be read by many men, we hope, who
have not been blessed by being placed on soils rich
in carbonate -of lime. Let them not thereby be
overmuch cast down. This is an age of machinery
and of cheap transportation. Limestone exists in
incalculable amounts throughout a great part of the
United States, and can be burned or ground raw, and
transported from the cliffs to the farms at very small
cost. This will be done some day, no doubt. It is
only a question of the farmers awakening to the
advantages to be derived from the use of abundant
carbonate of lime, and their asking for it, when
manufacturers will be glad in nearly every state,
as they have in Ohio, to place the stuff on the market
at a reasonable rate. My good friend, Prof. A. D.
Selby, of the Ohio agricultural experiment station,
himself almost 9$ great an enthusiast on lime as

CARBONATE OF LIME. 113

writer, once remarked that " Never yet was found
an abandoned farm in America that had in its soil
anything like a sufficiency of carbonate of lime."

Evidence of Lime. — It is easy to note the evidence
of lime. Soils rich in it naturally cover with grass,
which stops erosion, therefore the 'hills are smooth
and rounded; roadsides are carpeted with grass as
though seeded by some maker of lawns; animals
stand tranquil and content in pastures filled with nu-
tritious forage; horses grown on soils rich in lime
have fine forms and much life and spirit; boys and
girls have good teeth and strong bones; in fact
nearly all agricultural joy centers around the abun-
dance of carbonate of lime in the soil.

Add Limestone. — If you have not enough lime in
your soil get it. It is a thing fairly permanent in
itself. The rain leaches it away, the soil acids
dissolve it. We do not know yet just how fast
these processes accomplish their object, yet it is not
probably so very rapid. When you put a ton of
limestone in your soil it lasts till it has been dis-
solved by the rain or made inert by soil acids. If
you put in enough lime your sons will have its bene-
fits. With it you can set about soil building in good
courage. With lime enough you can grow clovers,
grow alfalfa, grow the best grasses. What fertility
you add through stable manures will not leach away.
A good German farmer in western Maryland re-
marked one day as he spoke of the large amounts of
lime they were burning to apply to their fields:
"Yes, Mr. Wing, it may be true that lime is not

114 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

manure, but it certainly makes our barn manures
last two or three years longer than they do when we
do not use lime." The truth is that the presence in
their soil of abundant carbonate of lime did two
useful things — it stopped the leaching away of sol-
uble nitrates and it promoted the development in
their soil of the wonderful little organisms that can
fix nitrogen in the soil, even without the aid of
legumes, the azotobacter. Has any farmer failed to
note that grass land, when full of carbonate of lime,
gets stored full of nitrogen, even without the pres-
ence of many clovers? That is the work, so scien-
tists tell us, of these marvelous little azotobacter
organisms.

Carbonate of Lime Is Neutral. — There is an old
saying that has done more to harm agriculture
throughout the English speaking world than any
other known combination of words. It is this : ' ' Lime
enriches the father and impoverishes the son."

This saying leads men to< believe that lime is a
stimulant, something that enables plants to forage
more vigorously and thus more quickly rob the soil,
or else that the lime sets free plant food. There is,
of course, some truth in these assumptions if applied
to burned lime. Burned lime does attack humus
or any vegetable or organic compound. Used in ex-
cess it may render soils temporarily barren. But
carbonate of lime never injures soil in any way. It
is a neutral thing ; like sand it attacks nothing. Soil
acids attack it; it welcomes the enemy and absorbs it
into itself. Could we change that old saw to read,

CARBONATE OF LIME. 115

* * Lime enriches the father, and the want of it impov-
erishes the son," we would be near the truth. In
England we read that while lime has been in use
there for many centuries, it has largely been in neg-
lect for the past forty years, and now there must be
a decided awakening and'a renewed use of it or Eng-
lish soils will relapse most sadly.

Forms and Kinds of Lime. — Eaw limestone is a
carbonate of lime. Burning it drives off the carbon
and makes it a quick, or caustic, lime. After burn-
ing, when it absorbs moisture and carbonic acid gas
again and becomes air-slaked lime, it has then less
causticity than when it was first burned. If it is
slaked with a little water, so that it falls into a dry
powder, it is caustic lime. If it is slaked and ground
in a factory it is called hydrated or agricultural
lime. It is sometimes ground without adding water,
when it is termed ground lime ; or the raw limestone
is ground into powder, which is called ground car-
bonate of lime, or ground limestone, or raw lime-
stone.

Now, what of the virtues of these various forms of
lime?

The burning drives off nearly half the weight of
the natural limestone; thus the resultant product is
nearly twice as strong as it was before burning.
Thus if it must be shipped a long way by rail it may
save so much in freight that it will be better to use
the burned lime. Burning has also made it biting
or caustic. A lump of this caustic lime held in the
hand and moistened will eat the flesh. Caustic lime

116 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

will attack vegetable matter or humus in the soil.
Applied in excess it will destroy bacterial life, so
caustic lime is not so safe to use as the raw rock
ground, the true carbonate of lime. On the other
hand one can use less of it and get effect sooner, be-
cause of its energy. The difficulty in its use to pro-
mote alfalfa growing is that one ought to use more
than lime enough to correct acidity when he is lay-
ing land down to alfalfa; he ought to correct the
acidity and leave a goodly store of lime carbonate
lying in the soil, so that alfalfa roots will be in actual
contact as the plants grow. This one can hardly
do with safety with caustic lime.

Use of Caustic Lime. — How much caustic lime
can be safely used and how can it best be applied ?

Soils differ in their power to absorb lime safely.
Strong clays and soils full of sour humus can take
most; sandy, poor soils must be limed with care if
caustic lime is used. There is some danger of ' ' lime
burn," that is, of making soil temporarily barren
by giving it an excess of caustic lime. The poorer
the soils in humus the more danger of this. Yet I
have seen alfalfa fields in Maryland where the only
good alfalfa present was where the piles of lime had
been slaked, and where probably the lime had been
applied at the rate of ten tons to the acre or more.

How much caustic lime can we use? No one
knows just at present. I saw this experiment tried
in Tennessee: On Idlehour Farm, near Knoxville,
Tenn., James P. McDonald had tried to grow alfalfa
on Tennessee Eiver lands. It 'had miserably failed.

CARBONATE OF LIME. 117

Crab grass had choked out the feeble growth. Mr.
McDonald was a stubborn man and had seen alfalfa
grow in South America. He was determined to
grow it on Idlehour. Suspecting that lime was the
thing needed, he burned a lot of it on his own place
and applied it with a manure spreader. His aim
was to apply about two tons to the acre. In many
parts he applied at least double that amount.
Wherever the manure spreader dropped the lime
the alfalfa grew luxuriantly and the crab grass, was
vanquished. I could not but marvel as I drove
through this wonderful alfalfa. It was the twenty-
fourth day of July and the alfalfa stood above the
axles of the carriage and was ready to be mown, the
third crop for the season. There was hardly a bit of
grass or any weeds in the alfalfa. To show that the
lime had done the work, one could see where the
man driving the spreader had left strips here and
there without lime. In these strips was hardly any
alfalfa, and it was little, feeble stuff, while just be-
side it, where the lime had been applied, it stood up
like a wall.

Crab Grass and Lime. — It seems true that crab
grass, that arch enemy of alfalfa in the south, is
easily vanquished by use of a goodly amount of
lime. I have enough evidence of this to believe that
it may be laid down as a law that lime will cure crab
grass in alfalfa. It is not probable that the lime
destroys the crab grass, or is particularly injurious
to it, but it so helps the alfalfa that it springs into
quick growth and gets the start of the grass. Hardly

118 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

anything can stand before healthy alfalfa. Almost
any weed will conquer unhealthy alfalfa. Lime is
its tonic, its heal-all.

Amount of Caustic Lime. — How much caustic lime
will we dare use? In an acre of soil, counting the
top foot, there are roughly about 2,000 'tons. The
sweetening of this mass of soil cannot be accom-
plished by any handful of lime. One ton to the acre
is one part in 2,000; two tons to the acre is one-
tenth of one per cent, of lime. It would seem folly
to use less than two tons to the acre of caustic lime.
Double that, well distributed, would almost cer-
tainly do harm. Is there a man who has harmed his
soil by putting in it four tons of caustic lime to the
acre, seeing that it is well distributed, and that the
land has good store of humus, and has then sown it
to alfalfa?

Caustic lime must not be supposed to remain
caustic for a long time after it is applied to the soil.
It soon absorbs carbon again and becomes a neutral
and harmless substance. This being true, why not
use some form of carbonate of lime in the begin-
ning? The only answer is that it is sometimes
cheaper, because of freights or lack of machinery
for grinding, to use the burned lime.

Other Forms of Lime. — Now for some other forms
of lime. Air->slaked lime, as has been said, ha>s
absorbed a lot of carbon and is not nearly so biting
and caustic as the fresh burned lime. It is fre-
quently for sale at a comparatively low price, be-
cause it is a waste product about lime kilns. It is

CARBONATE OP LIME. 119

safe to use in fairly large amounts on the land.
Probably no harm would result from using as much
as six tons to 'the acre of air slaked lime. One may
burn his own lime and, putting it in piles, let it air
slake on his own farm if he has time to wait, or he
may buy it cheap from the refuse about the kilns.
Bear in mind that it has gained in weight in slaking,
and is only about two'- thirds as strong as the fresh
burned lime.

Ground lime is fresh-burned lime ground ready
for use. It is very convenient to distribute, and
there may possibly be some virtue in having it slake
in direct connection with the land. The only objec-
tion to its use is that manufacturers often charge
pretty well for grinding it. The farmer can some-
times grind it at home, or he can buy lump lime and
slake it at home at almost no cost. He can pile the
lime in little piles of a bushel in a place over the
field and let it slake by absorbing moisture from the
soil ; then when it is in powder spread it at once with
the .shovel. Or he can slake it to powder in a large
pile and apply it with a lime distributor or by use
of the manure spreader. To first lay down in the
manure spreader a thin layer of chaff or manure
and set the machine on the slow speed, will make it
work very well. Many manure spreaders are now
made with special lime distributors.

Time to Apply. — When is the right time to put on
caustic lime! Not in direct connection with manure,
since it will doubtless attack the manure and set
free more or less nitrogen that may possibly be

120 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

wasted. Better to turn the manure under and apply
the lime afterward. It can then be mixed through
the soil with the disk or any sort of harrow. Lime
sinks, rains dissolve it and leach it down, so usually
it is best not to turn it down deep. It takes a liitle
time for lime to neutralize soil acidity, so get it on
some weeks or months ahead of the time that you
wish to sow alfalfa. The time of year when it is
applied is not essential. A farm is a busy place, if
it is a business farm. So just get out the lime when-
ever you have leisure, only remembering not to put
caustic lime in contact with manure if you can well
avoid it.

Depth to Apply Lime. — As has been said, lime
sinks, so it is usually best to put it near the surface.
It ought, however, to be mixed as perfectly as
possible with the soil, and is not very effective when
left in lumps, since it is not then in contact with
enough of the soil particles. There are soils that
have such acid subsoils that they will not grow
alfalfa more than a year or two before it perishes.
In these soils the roots decay down about six inches
below the surface. Sometimes this rotting is caused
by too much water in the subsoil, but when the sub-
soil is dry water will not stand in post holes, and
then one must conclude that it is soil acidity that is
a)t fault, especially if he finds by the litmus paper
test that the soil is really sour. I have seen such
soils along the Atlantic seaboard. In the making
of these soils lime was left out and other combina-
tions of chemicals put in that form probably mineral

CARBONATE OF LIME. 121

acids. Liming the surface makes alfalfa start off
vigorously and make good growth for a year or a
little longer, then it begins to decay, and will rarely
live the second winter. In these soils the need is to
study how best to get lime down into the subsoil, or
at least down in direct contact with it. I suggest
that one way to accomplish this is to apply lime very
liberally to the top of the land before plowing, then
to turn the land as deep as possible, turning at the
same time the furrows as near as practicable
squarely upside down. A better plan, but more la-
borious, would be to distribute the lime in the bot-
tom of each furrow as the land was plowed, turning
it under by the next following furrow. This puts
the lime in direct contact with the subsoil. If a sub-
soil plow could now follow and open the underlying
ground, which would let some of the lime drop into
it, the work would be done in an ideal manner.

Value of Liming. — It may make men in California
or Colorado smile to read of any such laborious way
of making land ready for alfalfa in the East. They
need not scorn the eastern man nor his soil or
methods. He has in truth better opportunity to
make profit from alfalfa growing than they with
their splendid soils, rich in lime and phosphorus,
and their fine, sunny skies. The eastern man has
advantage of splendid markets. His alfalfa when
he gets it is worth to him at least $15 per ton, and
if he is a dairyman or a stockman buying wheat bran
at $25 per ton he can very nearly replace a ton of
purchased bran with a ton of alfalfa hay grown

122 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

near his own barn. Then eastern lands sell at com-
paratively low prices; all along the Atlantic sea-
board land can be bought for from $40 to $75 per
acre that will, with proper preparation, grow from
three to seven tons of alfalfa hay a year. Some
western men are seeing this and coming back to the
neglected Atlantic states, and with splendid west-
ern faith and enthusiasm are building alfalfa soils
there and reaping rich profits therefrom. I have in
mind very many instances where liming lands has
brought alfalfa after it had repeatedly failed before
the lime was applied.

Effects of Lime. — When God made soils He often
made them by grinding up rock masses, either by
use of glacial icebergs or by the grinding action of
rivers. When these rock masses were of limestone,
the result was a limestone soil filled with particles
great and small of ground limestone or carbonate of
lime. In some soils there are enormous amounts of
this material. In some very fertile soils of northern
Illinois, taking the top five feet there will be found
in one acre as much as 500 tons of carbonate of
lime. Such soils are always rich and productive.
They are always natural alfalfa soils, provided they
are well drained. Along most rivers the alluviums
are pretty well stored with carbonate of lime, thus
one sees the river bottoms growing alfalfa well when
the near lying uplands are too sour to grow it at all.
It is because of the greater amount of lime in these
alluvial soils, that and the better drainage and fer-
tility all around, that mark them as alfalfa lands.

CARBONATE OF LIME. 123

There are river soils that -will not grow alfalfa, but
they are soils made by the deposition of silt that
came itself from land too poor in lime. Much of
western Kentucky will not grow alfalfa without lim-
ing, yet along the rivers, particularly along the Mis-
sissippi Eiver, alfalfa grows gloriously. The same
is true of the land across the -river in Missouri.
Much Missouri land needs lime to promote alfalfa
growth, but the alluvial soils near the Mississippi
grow it beautifully, and alfalfa growing in southeast
Missouri is assuming large proportions.

In Kentucky the writer has observed certain steep,
stony hillsides growing alfalfa luxuriantly, while
many level and apparently much richer soils not far
away would not grow it at all. The reason was
plain ; the small stones were fragments of limestone,
and the soil, though apparently poor, was yet rich
in carbonate of lime, fairly well stored with phos-
phorus and potas'h, and the alfalfa, finding itself
so healthy and vigorous, foraged for its own
nitrogen.

In Washington state alfalfa grows splendidly
along the eastern side and in the irrigated valleys
of the middle section, because the soils there are
alkaline and not sour, with abundant lime, but on
the western slope of the mountains and along Puget
Sound it grows hardly at all, because lime is deficient
in those soils. On an island in Puget Sound the
writer found very luxuriant alfalfa growing near
the shore, and upon investigation found great quan-
tities of shells buried in the soil. The Indians had

124 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

feasted on clams, it would seem, and this was the
dumping ground for their shells during unnum-
bered years. Here then was carbonate of lime, and
it was most noticeable that the soil in the interstices
between 'the shells was dark in color and evidently
contained a good deal of humus, while the soil of
the interior away from the lime was raw and yellow.
The lesson is plain; in order to make alfalfa grow
all over western Washington it is only necessary to
apply lime, and as limestone is very scant in supply
the best source, perhaps, would be these very shells,
which could be ground to a powder and mixed with
the soil.

Lime in England. — In other lands men have long
imitated Nature's way and used lime in large
amounts. England is built upon chalk rock, arid
chalk is a soft form of carbonate of lime. For cen-
turies farmers have dug this soft chalk and hauled
it to the fields, spreading it broadcast where it soon
crumbled and mixed with the soil. The writer lias
stood on the brinks of chalk pits in England so deep
that only 'the tops of trees peeped above their edges
and marveled as he reflected what enormous
amounts of chalk had been taken from them and for
what a very long time men had been doing good
farming in that land. It is a curious thought, too,
that the soil to which these good English farmers
were applying this lime was already what we would
term in America a limestone soil. It was a soil once
derived from the chalk rock itself, decaying through
the ages through the action of soil waters and soil

CARBONATE OF LIME. 125

acids. Rains fall, they leach out lime, plants decay,
turn sour, the acid attacks lime, thus year by year
th top soil loses more and more its lime and tends
to sourness. Once in Lincolnshire I walked down
into a chalk pit where a laborer was loading a cart,
on the farm of Henry Dudding, of Lincoln sheep and
Short-horn cattle fame, and asked the laborer why
he dug the chalk. "It be for the dung, sir," was the
response.

"And do you put it on the land?"

"Ay, and it do make the clovers and the grass
grow better, sir, ' ' was the response. This on a farm
already buried in rich grass, already having enough
lime in its soils so that sheep pasturing on them had
bones like calves and cattle stood on legs like straight
columns of a temple.

Rider Haggard in his interesting book, "Bural
England," makes frequent reference to lucerne,
stating usually that it is grown where the land was
chalky and drouthy. On one farm he found them
applying a sort of marl that they dug from the sub-
soil, this on the farm of Robert Stephenson of Bur-
well, Cambridge. I quote :

He described to me a process which I was not fortunate
enough to witness, as in these days of depression it is, I under-
stand, but seldom practiced on account of the initial expense, al-
though it used to be common enough — that of treating fen lands
with gault. This gault, a mixture of clay and marl, is dug from
the subsoil out of trenches cut ten yards apart, and spread on
the surrounding surface to the quantity of about 200 tons to the
acre. The land thus treated is said to double its value. The cost
of the operation may be put at from $15 to $25 per acre. One
application will last from 10 to 12 years, the full benefits being
experienced in the second year after treatment.

126 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Mr. Stephenson also grew lucerne, and when he
wished to sow down land to grass for a permanent
pasture, sowed the grass seed in the lucerne field,
finding that the seed took well there (as we have all
learned, of times to our sorrow), and that the lucerne
or alfalfa furnished good pasturage till the other
seeds came on.

I have mentioned these foreign uses of carbonate
of lime because agriculture is so recent in America
that we have not much precedent to which to refer,
and agricultural practice abroad is the result of
experiences of the fathers for centuries back . What-
ever one finds them doing over there he may feel
pretty certain has been well tried and tested. In
Scotland I have seen heath land reclaimed and made
into farming land. The process there was to first
drain the wet, sour slopes, then lime them with about
thirty tons to the acre of lime, the raw carbonate of
lime being used, if I remember correctly, and after
that manure was used; then clovers, turnips, oats,
grass or any good thing that the climate would
grow.

New Work. — It is rather a new work, this use of
carbonate of lime or raw ground limestone in Amer-
ica. A few years ago nothing could be done except
to dig marls out of the earth where they were to be
found, and as these marls were nearly always
under water not much of this has been done. With
the increase in use of concrete construction came
call for crushed limestone. Railways asked also
for crushed limestone for ballast material. Crush-

CARBONATE OF LIME. 127

ers of great size and power were installed at lime-
stone quarries and quantities of limestone dust ac-
cumulated. Finally men began hesitatingly to use
this limestone dust. The results were astonishingly
good. Then quarrymen began advertising the
ground limestone and selling it at a low price. The
farmers took hold of it in Ohio, Illinois and some
other states, and at last quarrymen began installing
large crushers and grinders that took the raw rock
from the quarry and reduced it to powder, making
the whole output fit for farm use. This is usually
put on cars in bulk and sold for from 75 cents to
$1.50 per ton. The low price quoted is from a point
in Illinois where the writer believes the state, with
convict labor, grinds limestone for agricultural
purposes.

Limestone Harmless. — This ground limestone is
harmless to the soil, so one may use as much of it
as he chooses. Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins of the Illinois
experiment station has applied it at the rate of 100
tons to the acre with not the least sign of injury to
the soil. It is pleasant stuff to work with, not acrid
and biting like burned lime if it gets on your skin,
nor does it get caked together if it happens to get
wet. One may put it on his soil at any time that
suits his convenience. He may put it on in connec-
tion with manure if he wishes and no harm will
result. It cannot burn out the humus, it attacks
nothing. Soil acids attack the particles of limestone
and are neutralized, but the lime itself does no harm
no matter how much is used. It is nature's way of

128 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

using lime in the soil. Some day, soon let us hope,
there will be thousands of machines busily at work
grinding up the raw limestone rocks, which fortu-
nately are plentiful enough in America, and farmers
will be busy spreading this sweetening powder
broadcast over their land.

Distributing Lime. — I have found some difficulty
in distributing limes. Spreaders there are, but
usually they do not apply it nearly fast enough.
There will be machines devised that will apply as
much as one wishes, up to ten tons to the acre, no
doubt. At present the manure spreader seems as
satisfactory as anything available for spreading
ground limestone.

Quantity of Lime. — How much should be used on
an acre? It is difficult to say. The art of lim-
ing is too new in America, especially with carbonate
of lime, ground limestone, to give us much data, We
can only guess. The writer has known of remark-
able results from use of as little as three tons per
acre of ground limestone. This seems an infinitesi-
mal amount when one considers the 2,000 tons of soil
in the top foot of an acre. Take that acre apart,
there are 160 square rods in it. Supposing one were
asked to lime one square rod sufficiently to sweeten
it well, using the inert ground limestone, how much
would he naturally put in? Most sensible men would
put in at least 500 pounds, supposing cost was not
considered. That would make forty tons to the
acre, and we cannot afford tha.t now; there are too
many acres to be limed. But we can afford 100

CARBONATE OF LIME. 129

pounds to the square rod, and that seems little
enough, and yet it means eight tons to the acre.
That amount I would advise when the material can
be had cheap enough to make it possible, and even
more. It costs! Yes, but it pays. Take an acre of
old, sour land that is not worth cultivating in its
natural state and put on it eight tons of ground
limestone. Put the cost at $2.50 per ton. That
means an expense for liming of $20 per acre. Then
that land will be fit to sow alfalfa upon, as soon as
it has been drained and enriched. Mind, we do not
claim that lime is a manure. The lime makes it
possible to grow crops that make manure. With
alfalfa growing well upon that acre it ought to yield
at least four tons each year, and there is a thousand
pounds of hay for each ton of raw limestone rock
you have used. Cannot afford it? Can you afford
not to do it?

But with much less ground limestone on some
soils alfalfa has come where it had failed repeatedly
before. Among a mass of similar letters I find this
significant one from Iowa :

"After repeated failures with alfalfa in this county (Scott,
Iowa), I have acted on your advice and applied 3,000 pounds of
raw limestone dust with the seeding in August of 1907. This acre,
diagonally across the three different varieties, produced a uni-
form luxuriant growth of alfalfa at the three cuttings, besides a
growth of one foot not cut. I estimate each cutting at two tons
per acre. The rest of the field showed a patchy growth ranging
from two inches to 18", very unsatisfactory. I am convinced that
you are right when you say that raw limestone will assure suc-
cess with alfalfa."

I tried for several years to help a farmer in east-
ern Pennsylvania grow alfalfa, but each effort was

130 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

without success. I advised drainage, and the land
was drained, but yet alfalfa refused to grow. I
advised manure, and the land was made so rich that
hog weeds grew as high as a man's head, and yet
alfalfa refused to grow. I advised much phos-
phorus with no result. Different times of seeding
were tried, and inoculation of the soil, and yet only
failure resulted. Then I gave much belated advice
to lime, and lime well, to use eight tons of ground
limestone to the acre and seed in late July. The
man did nearly as he was told, putting on six tons
of raw lime dust to the acre, and the very next year
cut six tons to the acre of alfalfa hay. His field was
the marvel of all the country around, and men came
to see it.

I could multiply these instances almost indefi-
nitely.

Lime in Soils. — The reader should bear steadily
in mind that the natural alfalfa growing regions of
the world have in their soils now about from .5 per
cent to 4 per cent of carbonate of lime. Five-tenths
per cent is half of 1 per cent, or about ten tons of car-
bonate of lime to the acre. Four per cent, would be
approximately eighty tons of carbonate of lime to
the acre. These figures are for the top foot of soil
only. In natural alfalfa soils the subsoil is usually
richer in lime than the top soil. When a man lives
away from the limestone it is his privilege to buy
carbonate of lime and add it to his soil. And when
he lives in a region where limestone rocks abound
and the soil is yet deficient because of leaching1 rains

CARBONATE OF LIME. 131

of many centuries, it is his privilege to crush and
grind the rocks of his own farm and put the dust
over his land.

Farm Machines for Crushing. — In this connection
it may be remarked that there are now machines
made that will take the raw rocks that may crop out
on a man's own farm and grind them into usable
dust, the machines being mounted on wheels and
readily portable, so that they can be drawn from one
farm to another, as need demands. Thus the farmer
may have a machine come to his own farm and
grind up for him a pile of limestone of as many hun-
dred tons as he desires. It will lie in pile unharmed
by weather till he is ready to put in a field.

There are many thousands of acres of land in
Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and adjoining states that
is fairly fertile, is naturally pretty well drained so
that the expense of drainage will be but slight, and
that only awaits the coming of lime carbonate to
make it produce good alfalfa. And the beauty of
it is that in Tennessee and Kentucky very often the
limestone is right in the neighborhood, and some-
times right on the farm where it is needed.

Summary. — I realize that I have taken not a little
time to present this matter. My apology is that the
subject is fraught with such import. The wealth of
our land can easily be doubled. Drainage is the
first step. Use of carbonate of lime is the second
step, and the third is the addition of humus to the
soil, the use of phosphorus, in some instances of
potash, and the sowing of alfalfa. Or, if there is

132 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

prejudice against alfalfa, then sow clover, or any
other useful legume. Sure it is that once the land
is dry and sweet all the other good things will nat-
urally follow in train. Bacterial life in the soil,
sweet and abundant crops will follow with better
animal life, more hope in the farmer's breast, better
schools and more children in them, better country
roads (for there will be money to pay for them) and
a higher level of life and living all around.

Fertility and Abandoned Farms. — Prof. A. D.
Selby of the Ohio agricultural experiment station, in
an essay read before the Columbus Horticultural
Society in 1907, on the question of "Abandoned
Farms," makes the following significant remarks
concerning the intimate relation between soil sweet-
ness, soil bacteria and soil life, and the continuance
and progress of farm occupancy. We quote:

Vietch has made the following observations: "Broadly speak-
ing, no more striking proof of the importance of maintaining an
alkaline reaction basic condition of the soil is needed than is
furnished by those soils which have become famous for their
persistent fertility under exhaustive cultivation. The loess soil
regur of India, Tschernoseum of Russia, chalk of England,
basalt of the far northwest, prairie of the middle west, blue
grass of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the limestone valleys of
the east are soils which are recognized as the most fertile in
their respective localities, and have maintained their pre-emi-
nence in fertility, in some cases for thousands of years. These
soils are all basic in character, alkaline in reaction. The history
of liming furnishes more general evidence upon the value of an
alkaline reaction of the soil as one of the chief economic factors
in crop production. * * *

I believe it was Berthollet who observed that "la terre est
quelque chose vivant" — "the soil is a living thing." In a much
greater degree in our day than in Berthollet's day we recognize
the soil as a living medium, whose biological content is now
rich or now poor, here abundant and full of vigorous possibilities

CARBONATE OF LIME. 133

or there marked by a paucity in both organisms and cultural
possibilities. In whatever sense my hearers may conceive of the
earth, whether here covered by a wide range of growing species
of trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses, and there bedecked within the
range of a single farm with a number of fields in different crops,
say of potatoes, corn, oats, wheat, clover, hay and the like, in
like degree do I ask them to conceive of the vastly richer co-
incident microscopic life present within these highly cultivated
soils working ceaselessly and ever and anon multiplying
in incalculable numbers, yet ever, so long as favorable cultural
conditions are possible, maintaining themselves both as to the
variety and number of sorts.

Granting once this conception of the soil, we can understand
that it is an enclosing nidus as well as a nutrient medium which
supports this life within and upon it. This nidus may be here
rendered highly acid in reaction by the decomposition of vegeta-
ble tissues that are incorporated in it or there become excessively
alkaline if no soil leaching may occur, as with certain alkali
soils of the west. But conceive in this same connection the great
difference as a result of years of culture that will come about in
a soil deficient in available bases which may at all times be
relied upon to correct automatically the acids produced by the
fermentations and decompositions taking place in the soil, as
compared with a soil at the outset very largely composed of in-
soluble silica or sand, and lacking in these same automatic cor-
rections of cultural tendencies. I would here again insist that
these abandoned farms as farm lands are abandoned, because
they come soon to lack that biologic balance in these nidus rela-
tions and in their contained organic life as well.

May we not add that the practice of rotative farming, of
which this region shows an advanced type, has its justification
and its profit in the very biologic balance maintained thereby?
May we not go even further and point to continuous cropping in
a single species as an extreme disturbance of this balance of soil
organisms at the same time that it uses up particular soil con-
stituents? I am convinced that in both cases we may reply in
the affirmative and that fuller knowledge of soil life may show
most strikingly the mistake of continuous cropping just as the
breeding and introduction of so many soil diseases of the special
crop have so often shown its economic disaster.

What has just been stated with some fullness is not given as
a proven thesis; rather as a suggestion that has for many years
been driven step by step into the writer's soil conceptions in the
course of somewhat extended observation and reading upon farm

134 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

and soil subjects. No pretensions are made to special qualifica-
tions in this line, but none the less the writer is firmly convinced
that more than soil chemistry, as it has been applied for a
century, and more than soil physics, as so ably enlarged within
two decades, is needed to furnish the explanation of the vital
changes of the soil and their relation to successful agriculture.

When the line between calcareous or limestone outcrop and
sandstone outcrop marks as it does the line between profitable
land and unprofitable land for certain crop purposes, as it seems
to do in some portions of Ohio, it may not be wholly heretical to
look to the calcareous compounds as offering at least a part of
the explanation of the differences. When history adds the weight
of evidence in the maintained fertility of particular calcareous
soils the same question is again raised. And since the soil chem-
ist and soil physicist have not marked out the differences either
in kind or degree, an appeal to the soil biologist, to the soil
bacteriologist should now be made. Chester of the Delaware sec-
tion once made determinations of the number of bacteria in a
gram of a certain Delaware soil before and at periods of a
few weeks after this soil had been treated to dressings of lime
of various amounts and to Thomas slag. These were all
in pots in comparison with untreated soil from the same source.
The acidity of the original soil was determined and the amount
of correction afforded by the treatment was also determined by
the same method; while the untreated soil maintained an almost
uniform bacterial floral of about 520,000 bacteria per gram of
soil, the soil treated to dressings of lime showeu only a partial
correction of apparent acidity, but an enormous increase in the
number of bacteria per gram of soil. With smaller amounts of
lime, say at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre, the number of
bacteria reached 2 to 3,000,000 per gram while with 4,000 pounds
of lime dressing per acre, the number of bacteria reach 5 to
8,000,000 per gram of soil. If nothing more may be said, we cer-
tainly conclude that these results are very suggestive. I wonder
if we have really begun the study of the problem of applying
lime to siliceous soils?

Basic Slag a Source of Lime. — There is a phos-
phatic fertilizer on the market in eastern states
wherever convenient to ocean ports that combines
very nicely available phosphorus and lime. That is
the Thomas phosphate or basic slag meal. This
stuff is a by-product of the steel mills of England

CARBONATE OF LIME. 135

and Germany. Our own iron ores, being poorer in
phosphorus, do not make much of this substance.
It is in great use in the Old World. Germany alone
uses 2,000,000 tons of it each year. Wherever tested
in America it seems to give very satisfactory re-
sults. The writer tested it on Woodland Farm many
years ago and never got stronger, healthier alfalfa
than by its use.

Basic slag usually contains from 16 to 20 per cent,
of phosphoric acid with from 36 to 50 per cent, of
lime. It is said that the phosphoric acid is in
a form that is nearly all available, and it can-
not revert in the soil nor leach away. There is
hardly a farm east of the Missouri river where
more phosphorus will not yield profit. Where
freights are not too high, basic slag costs no more
for the available phosphoric acid than any other
source of phosphorus, and thus the lime is gotten
free. It is advised that from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds
per acre of basic slag be applied where alfalfa is
sown. The large surplus of phosphorus thus given
will not leach away, but will remain to feed the
plants for some years, while the lime will help
sweeten the soil.

Basic slag costs too much for use at present in the
cornbelt states. Where it is available is in New
England, New York, and along the Atlantic sea-
board. The price is about one dollar per unit of
phosphoric acid ; that is, slag analyzing 17 per cent,
available phosphoric acid would cost the consumer
about $17 per ton. At present writing the Coe-

136 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Mortimer Co. of New York import most of the
Thomas phosphate.

I have seen astonishing results from the use of
this substance in England, where it is applied to
meadows and pastures. In May in England one sees
many manure distributers or fertilizer distributers
going over the meadows and pastures. If he will
take trouble to see What these machines are distrib-
uting he will find in most instances it is basic slag
that is being sown over the grass, sometimes with
an addition of nitrate of soda or potash. Where the
basic slag is put, very marked result is seen in the
clovers that spring up in the grass. Even when no
clover seeds are sown at all the result is often as
though it had been sown to clovers, since a rich
growth of them comes up and overtops the grass. The
explanation is that the clovers or their seeds were
already in the soil waiting for favorable conditions.
The coming of the phosphorus fed the little plants,
then the lime sweetened in a degree the soil, and the
plants shot up and overtopped the grass. Thus the
forage was much enriched, and later when the clover
leaves and roots decayed the soil was so enriched
that the grass was greatly thickened and strength-
ened. When one is applying annual fertilization to
his alfalfa meadows he may well consider the use
of basic slag.

Sour Soils. — It may be asked, "How do soils be-
come sour?" Any vegetable matter decaying in the
soil will create an acid there. From sweetest apples
is made the sourest vinegar. Tea leaves put in a

CARBONATE OF LIME. 137

stone jug with water will make a sour vinegar, as the
writer tested in his ranching days. Soil acids accu-
mulate in soils that have no lime to neutralize them.
Some plants grow well in sour soils, but not many
useful plants. Wild things grow most in acid soils.
Useful legumes grow poorly, if at all, with some ex-
ceptions. And alfalfa refuses to grow at all with
the soil sour.

How is one to judge if his soil is sour? If he is
experienced in soils he can tell by the character of
plant growth on the land whether it is sweet or sour.
Certain grasses betoken sour lands. Sorrel, or sheep
sorrel (Kumex acetosellan) is pretty sure to come
where there is lime deficiency, and sorrel and alfalfa
do not go well together. There is a simple test that
any one can make with litmus paper. This is a blue
paper that can be bought of the druggist, usually in
little slips, stoppered in glass bottles. One can take
a slip of this paper and some of the suspected soil,
having it moist, and insert half the length of the
slip in the moist soil and let it remain in contact for
half an hour. If there is any apparent redness in
the paper be sure that there is acidity in that land.
If the blue paper does not turn red the land is at
least neutral. To test whether the land is actually
alkaline with lime, which it ought to be to grow big
alfalfa, expose a slip of the paper in quite weak
vinegar only long enough to turn it red, then insert
it in the soil and leave it for an hour, having the soil
moist and in contact. If it then turns blue again
you may be sure that you can grow it on that land,

138 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

This then is true: to get maximum crops of
alfalfa, to grow it as though you were growing a
weed, make your land alkaline with lime, instead of
having it acid. Then get it dry, add proper amounts
of fertility, and the only troubles you will have will
be in caring for the crops of hay and some day in
breaking your tough alfalfa sod.

Where the Lime Soils Lie. — Where probably
are soils already filled sufficiently with lime, and
where are 'they deficient from the standpoint of the
alfalfa plant?

In no part of the arid and semi-arid region has
there been found evidence of any need of lime in
the soil. Often there will be found from !T/^% to
4% of carbonate of lime in those soils. This would
be equivalent to from 30 to 80 tons of this substance
in the top foot of soil of each acre.

Coming eastward it is doubtful if any part of
Nebraska, Kansas or the Dakotas need lime, except
in their eastern portions or in especially sandy parts.
It seems certain that the western portions of these
states have lime enough already. Southeastern Kan-
sas needs lime, so doubtless do parts of Oklahoma
and the Indian Territory.

Texas has a great diversity of soils. Parts of
Texas are tremendously supplied with carbonate of
lime. There alfalfa is almost a weed, suffering only
from lack of sufficient rainfall. Eastern Texas, on
the other hand, needs lime very badly indeed to
make alfalfa thrive. Along rivers the alluvial soils
are usually well stored with lime.

CARBONATE OF LIME. 139

Arkansas needs lime badly, except in her alluvial
soils along the Mississippi Kiver. There one sees
luxuriant alfalfa grown. Some of the "buckshot"
soils of Arkansas have in them a great amount of
lime carbonate and are destined to be great alfalfa-
producing regions. The hill soils and uplands
mostly are in need of more lime. There are excep-
tional areas of upland that have already sufficient
lime native in their soils, but these areas have not
yet been accurately defined.

Missouri grows alfalfa about in proportion to her
lime content. In Pemiscot county along the Missis-
sippi River on "buckshot" soil alfalfa grows glori-
ously. This soil contains about 1*4% °f calcium
carbonate. Prof. M. F. Miller, of the Missouri Col-
lege of Agriculture, reports that where about y* of
1% of carbonate of lime is in Missouri soils and
humus is supplied through use of manures, alfalfa
thrives.

At this time (1909) it is unknown how much of
Iowa would be helped by application of more lime.
A letter giving results from Scott County is pre-
sented on a preceding page. It is probable that
over much of the prairie section of the state a light
application, say one ton to three tons per acre of
ground limestone, would put the right condition
there for proper bacterial life in the soil. That is
about all there is to it; lime enough is needed to
make the earth swarm with the right sort of bac-
teria. Lime enough is needed to correct any toxic
principle exhaled from the alfalfa roots,

140 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

All the region east of the Mississippi River will
be helped by use of ground limestone, with the ex-
ception of some favored spots where glaciers have
already ground the rocks to powder and mixed it
through the land. Anywhere that alfalfa fails to
thrive after the land has been made dry and fairly
rich one may know that carbonate of lime is de-
ficient. Especially may one be sure that all soils
along the Atlantic seaboard are deficient in car-
bonate of lime, and by supplying this lack their
capacity for crop production may be immensely
increased.

The Chemistry of Lime. — In "The Breeder's Ga-
zette" of July 14, 1909, Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins, agron-
omist of the College of Agriculture, University of
Illinois, sets forth clearly the chemistry of lime in
its relation to soil improvement. I quote his state-
ment complete :

The use of lime for soil improvement is a subject which is dis-
cussed with a great deal of misconception and confusion, due in
large part to the erroneous practice of referring to lime as though
it were a chemical element.

Lime is not an element and consequently is not an element of
plant food. It is an alkaline substance and is known in three
forms: the carbonate, the oxide and the hydroxide. The carbonate
is the natural form found in rocks and soils and it consists of
either calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate or a double com-
pound of calcium magnesium carbonate known as magnesian
limestone or dolomite. When highly heated these carbonates lose
their carbon dioxide as a volatile gas and the oxide or quicklime
remains. This substance takes up water either from direct appli-
cation or from the moisture of the atmosphere and changes into
the form of hydroxide or water-slaked lime. On long exposure
to the air the hydroxide will absorb carbon dioxide from the air
and give off water, thus reforming the carbonate compound. Thus,
we may say that calgiunj earboaats (CaC03), calcium oxide (CaO)

CARBONATE OF LIME. 141

and calcium hydroxide (Ca02H2) are ordinary forms of lime;
also that magnesium carbonate (MgCO3), magnesium oxide
(MgO) and magnesium hydroxide (MgO.HJ are the correspond-
ing magnesium compounds, more or less of which are contained
in magnesian limes, of which the most common form is calcium
magnesium carbonate CaMg(C03)2. Any of these compounds
may be used for neutralizing acids and thus for correcting the
acidity of the soil.

If it can be kept clearly in mind that these are the substances
properly called lime, and that nothing else is lime, much confu-
sion can be avoided. However, a compound properly named cal-
cium chloride (CaCL) is often called chloride of lime and yet it
contains no lime whatever and does not possess the property of
lime. In other words, it is not an alkaline substance and has no
power to correct the acidity of the soil. It does contain the ele-
ment calcium which is also contained in the ordinary forms of
lime, but the element calcium is not lime.

Now let us turn to the subject of plant food. There are 10
essential elements of plant food and it is true that calcium is one
of these elements and that it is required to a greater or less ex-
tent by all agricultural plants, but it is not at all essential that
calcium as an element of plant food be applied to the soil in any
form of lime. It may be applied as calcium sulphate or as calcium
phosphate, and it even exists in many soils which are absolutely
devoid of lime which are even strongly acid and markedly in need
of lime, but which, nevertheless, may contain abundance of cal-
cium for plant food in the form of acid calcium silicates. Thus
the acid soils of Illinois which require an application of several
tons of ground limestone to correct their acidity contain several
tons of the element calcium in the plowed soil of an acre. In
some cases soils are found which are not only deficient in lime
but also deficient in the element calcium and on such soils the
application of any of the calcium limes would furnish both lime
for correcting soil acidity and the element calcium for plant food.

Summary.— Alfalfa is one of the most beautiful,
most valuable and most profitable crops in the
world. It makes the most hay. The hay is the rich-
est and best. It enriches the soil on which it grows.
It endures for many years with one sowing. It has
redeemed the arid and semi-arid west, It is coming
into every state in the Union.

142 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Many needless failures in attempts to grow alfalfa
have resulted in eastern states. Alfalfa need not be
a hard plant to establish. It is hardier than red
clover. It withstands any drouth. It withstands
cold better than any other clover. In some regions
alfalfa seems native to the soil. In other regions
all the nursing in the world fails to establish it. Why
is this difference?

All natural alfalfa countries have the soil filled
with carbonate of lime. There may also be other
alkalies in it, and sometimes injurious alkalies, but
carbonate of lime is the useful thing found. Wherever
the soil is well stored with carbonate of lime alfalfa
grows like a weed, if other conditions are good.
Where the soil is acid no amount of manure will
keep alfalfa alive very long.

Carbonate of lime is the sort that God put in the
soil when He made it. Burned lime is man's at-
tempt at improvement. Burned lime may help and
may harm. Carbonate of lime, that is, raw ground
limestone, never harms soil. It cannot harm soil,
use it as freely as you like. One could put on 50
tons to the acre and do the soil no injury. It would
merely lie in the soil inert till it was required. Car-
bonate of lime is needed to make the bacteria of
alfalfa thrive. It is needed to free the soil from
poisons that destroy both bacteria and alfalfa. Car-
bonate of lime stops waste of fertility, makes vege-
table matter into humus, arrests fleeing nitrogen.

Ground limestone will make alfalfa grow without
fail, if a £§w other easily met conditions are com-

CARBONATE OP LIME. 143

plied with. The amount needed will vary; all soils
have already some lime in them. Where there is
marked deficiency apply 100 pounds of ground lime-
stone to the square rod for alfalfa growing. Always
leave a strip unlimed to note the result.

Here are the few simple rules needed to assure
alfalfa :

First, water let out of the soil and air let in by
drains.

Second, soil made alkaline, not neutral, with
ground limestone.

Third, soil with some humus in it, preferably from
stable manure.

Fourth, soil with phosphorus and a little potash,
the phosphorus preferably from bone meal or basic
slag, though acid phosphate will answer. And use
enough of it. Alfalfa feeds heavily on phosphorus.

Fifth, good seed mixed with some soil from a
good alfalfa field or from a sweet clover patch, sown
on a deeply plowed, firm, fine seed bed, any time
between April and September.

Ground limestone insures vigorous alfalfa. Vig-
orous alfalfa is the most energetic soil enricher in
the world. When it has stood a few years if it is
then plowed and planted to corn the result is simply
marvelous.

A field well set in productive alfalfa will yield 5
tons to the acre. This is easily worth $10 to $15
per ton, as alfalfa hay is nearly of the same value
as a feed as wheat bran. Thus you note that it
yields good interest on a valuation of $250 per acre,

144 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Common farm lands do not pay well. Invest in
limestone, manure, phosphorus, alfalfa seed, make
over that $75 land into $250 land and farming will
pay you.

Visiting a Stone Quarry. — A visit to a limestone
quarry is an interesting thing. These thoughts
came one day to the writer as he strolled with a
company of Ohio State University agricultural stu-
dents beside the quarries at Columbus, Ohio. A
great mass of limestone rock rises to within a few
feet of the surface of the soil. Here the Scioto
river, cutting its way through, has eroded a chan-
nel, exposing cliffs of limestone; here have come
quarrymen seeking to mine the rock for building,
for road ballast and for grinding to put upon the
soil.

Upon this scene burst a class of students, eager
and curious to note everything, like happy children
out of school, climbing over the heaps of debris,
shouting merry jests and making exclamations of
surprise as they note the many curious revelations.

Here, by the railroad embankment, newly made,
spring up blue grass and white clovers, their roots
in the crumbling limestone of the ballast, eloquently
telling how waste soils may be restored and covered
over with vegetation where lime is. To our left a
tangled jungle of old dry weed stalks standing upon
heaps of limestone debris, and as we plunge within
this jungle we find the weeds are mostly sweet
clover, growing huge and lusty, laden last summer
with flower and yet bearing seeds. Think of the

CARBONATE OF LIME. 145

myriads of bacteria on the roots of this sweet clover,
busily soil building, getting this waste land ready
for more useful things.

Now we stand at the brink of the quarry, a great
hole in the ground. Our gray haired teacher asks
us if we know what is the most durable of all man's
work upon earth, and smilingly he tells us that the
most permanent thing that man has ever yet
achieved is a hole in the ground. But, think of
the human energy required to quarry and cart away
these millions of tons of limestone that once filled
this excavation ; and think further than that, to the
time when this part of the earth was a shallow sea
where warm waves rocked endlessly and little shell-
fish swam and crawled, and dying one by one, be-
queathed their bones to make the limestone that was
one day to become this rock; and next, the quarry-
men, short, thick, brown men, hugely muscled,
pounding away upon the rocks as though they loved
it. They too tell the story of lime, for is not the
island of Sicily one limestone rock? Yes, and these
sturdy peasants tell another story, the story of the
vigor that may come from simple living. For cen-
turies their food has been macaroni and olive oil,
with, let us hope, an orange for dessert, and yet to-
day they can in physical energy far surpass the
meat-eating American. And what are they doing,
these swarthy Italians, with dynamite mightily shat-
tering this rock, 'with steam locomotives dragging it
to the crushers, and there dumping it into yawning
jaws that mightily bite and chew it until it is shaped

146 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

for railway ballast or for concrete construction?
And here is another machine, more interesting yet,
a machine of prophecy, a machine meaning great
things to the farmer, for in this machine, so small
and apparently insignificant, the rock is ground
rapidly into powder and this powder through end-
less carriers is loaded into cars, no man's hands
touching it after it is first dumped, and from this
mi]l it goes forth by cars to the fields of Ohio. Think
what this means; somewhere an old sour clay field
refusing to grow clover, refusing to grow anything
rich enough to yield profit, sending no boys to col-
lege, giving little hope to the owner, and now under
one shower of this ground limestone will come the
miracle. The sourness will disappear, clover will
grow, the bees will hum, the mower will click, the
boy will whistle, books will come into the home and
magazines, and let us hope some lad from that farm
will start to the university.

Building Soils to Stay Built. — My father was a
firm believer in the idea that a soil could be so en-
riched that it would afterward stay rich, that it
would gain momentum enough, so to speak, so it
would keep on caring for itself afterward. There-
fore he would apply manure in large amounts to
one spot of land after another, seeking to establish
this condition of things.

There is much basic truth in his theory and his
practice was not far wrong. When much manure is
worked into sweet soil, a soil well stored with car-
bonate of lime, there is set up there a laboratory

CARBONATE OF LIME. 147

where fertility is steadily manufactured. There
will be air in such a soil and bacteria in enormous
abundance, among them the useful bacteria that live
upon any sort of decaying humus in the soil and
gather nitrogen from the air, the new-found azobac-
ter. Thus there is a perpetual fertility-gathering
plant established right in the soil.

It all depends, after all, on the possession by the
soil of a large amount of carbonate of lime. If that
is absent the fertility put there in excess of the
needs of the plants soon leaches away and is gone.
The writer has traveled in lands very deficient in
lime, so deficient that the well water was almost as
pure as distilled water, and there has noted that not
only were the fields incredibly poor, but even such
places as barn lots had in them very little richness
indeed, though manure had been wasted therein for
a century or more.

Think how old the world is ! And since the rocks
cooled and vegetation started to cover the earth
roots have been decaying in the soil and leaves fall-
ing thereon with stems and branches and all man-
ner of debris. Enough vegetable matter, enough
humus-forming material, has fallen to the earth and
become buried in the earth nearly everywhere, to
make the soil incredibly rich. Instead we commonly
find even wild soils rather poor. Why? Because of
the lack of carbonate of lime. That is the one thing
that can fix fertility and hold it for use in future
years.

On the old farm at Arlington, near Washington, it

148 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

is said that manure enough has been applied since
it has been in possession of the United States to
cover the soil with a layer several feet deep, and
yet the land is of only very moderate fertility. Why f
Because it is so lacking in carbonate of lime.

Coming back to my father's idea that land could
be given such an impetus towards fertility and pro-
ductiveness that it would "keep a-going " it should
be said that it is only a partial truth, after all.
Doubtless the nitrogen content of the soil can be
maintained. In order to do this leguminous crops
should come with somewhat frequent recurrence,
since legumes restore nitrogen faster than anything
else we know. And alfalfa is the most vigorous ni-
trogen gatherer at our command. No one can store
a soil with fertility and draw upon it with maize
or oats or wheat or timothy grass without rapidly
depleting his store. All these things are s'oil rob-
bers; they do not create or secrete fertility for the
soil.

Phosphorus Needed. — Nor can legumes or alfalfa
do impossibilities. The mineral elements are pres-
ent in fixed amounts. Of potash one may have a
great abundance and on many soils need never
worry nor concern himself, but phosphorus is usual-
ly a thing needed and not in sufficient supply. It must
be remembered that plants cannot build their tissues,
form their blooms and mature their seeds without
using in regular "balanced ration " all the elements
of plant food. They cannot make use of an excess
of nitrogen profitably when phosphorus is in scant

CARBONATE OF LIME. 149

supply. Thus on Woodland Farm, which is rapidly
becoming fertile — nearly as fertile, probably, as it
is profitable to make farm land — we find it wise each
year to purchase this one element, phosphorus. We
put it. on when we start alfalfa. We put it on the
old alfalfa meadows. It pays largely in increased
yield and in increased vigor of the plants. This
makes the alfalfa able to resist weeds and rust and
all the enemies of it. And once on the farm much
of the phosphorus is retained, is used over and over
again. When we cut the hay we take up phosphorus,
and if we were to sell the hay this would be drained
away and lost, but when we feed the hay on the
farm, as we try to do with most of our crop, we
sell away only as much phosphorus as is contained
in the wool and mutton of the lambs and in their
bones, and what goes to the manure is pretty care-
fully saved and put back on the land. Thus our
store increases steadily.

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL.

I have dwelt so long on the subject of carbonate of
lime that I must now take occasion to emphasize that
lime is not sufficient plant food. Lime promotes
bacterial life and saves plant food and makes it
available and helps it accumulate. After one has his
soil well filled with carbonate of lime, then he is
ready to begin to build it. If nature had filled that
soil with carbonate of lime ages ago she would have
gone on with the work and stored it with vegetable
matter, humus. Then there would be now in that
soil nitrogen and bacteria in abundance, and prob-
ably abundant phosphorus and potash as well, since
phosphorus is nearly always in pretty good supply
where carbonate of lime is plentiful in the soil.

Let us get clearly in mind here that liming is only
a step in the soil-building process; it is the founda-
tion of things, as it were. And now again let us re-
peat that soils are living things. The productive-
ness of the soil is dependent, upon the numbers of
bacteria found therein. Bacterial life is not abun-
dant in soils that are deficient in humus, vegetable
matter.

Stable Manure Best Source. — The very best source
of humus is stable manure. If the reader has fol-
!owed the story of Woodland Farm, related in the be-
ginning of this book, he will have in mind the great
part that manure played in building the alfalfa

(150)

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 151

fields. Early in our experience we learned that
wherever we applied a good coat of manure, there
we got luxuriant alfalfa. This led us to feed lambs
and cattle and to save the manure with care. Later
study of the use of manure showed us that there was
great waste when manure was let stand in the yard
till fall before it was hauled out. Therefore we made
practice of drawing it at once to the fields and
spreading it nearly as fast as it was made. This
practice we yet observe.

Manure in the soil does very much more than add
fertility. Probably we do not know nearly all that
it does. First, doubtless it directly feeds the soil.
There is nitrogen in manure, some small amount of
potash, and a little more phosphorus, though not
nearly so much phosphorus as there should be to
make a balanced ration for plants. But manure
brings in myriads of bacteria. These bacteria aid
plant life and plant growth. Where manure is the
special nitrifying bacteria abound. The bacteria too
that attach themselves to alfalfa roots and clover
abound much more in soils filled with manure.

Manure Brings Inoculation. — It is seldom if ever
necessary to inoculate land for alfalfa when it has
been well enriched with manure. I once saw a field
sown to alfalfa in C'anada that was so well inocu-
lated that in six weeks after the alfalfa was sown
the tiny nodules were found on the roots, and this
field was the first sown in that neighborhood, nor
was it artificially inoculated. It had simply been
well manured. In other states I have seen the same

152 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

curious result. In Iowa on the experiment station
farm at Ames a field was sown in alfalfa. All the
seed was sown the same day and in no way was the
treatment of one part of the field different from
the treatment of any other part, yet there was se-
cured a fine stand of thrifty alfalfa on one side of
the field and very thin and poor alfalfa on the other
side. The explanation seemed to be that on a previ-
ous year one side of this field had been manured and
sugar beets grown thereon. Yet all the field seemed
very fertile and Director C. F. Curtiss thought that
planted in corn all of the field was rich enough to
grow 80 bushels to the acre. But that addition of
some stable manure a year or two previously made
one side of -the field eminently fit for alfalfa, while
the other side remained in unprofitable condition so
far as alfalfa was concerned. From experience I
feel sure that I had rather take a rather poor piece
of land, well manured, for alfalfa growing, than a
naturally rich piece of land with no manure. In
truth some of the heaviest alfalfa I have ever seen
grew on "Woodland Farm on soil naturally very in-
fertile, though well filled with lime, after the field
had been well coated with manure, the manure
turned under deep and alfalfa sown.

One day I was plowing in this self same field when
a curious thought came. A flock of black birds was
following the plow, hopping eagerly along and
keeping up animated discourse, meanwhile busily
searching for something. What they were after, of
course, was earth worms. The thought then came,

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 153

"Why, here is the best indication yet of whether
alfalfa will thrive in a field. If the black birds fol-
low the plowman it is sure to grow ; if no black birds
come let him beware how he sows alfalfa." It is
indeed a true indication for all eastern soils; there
may be lands in the South and West where the earth
worm is not a sure indication. Earth worms thrive
only where there is humus in the land. They do a
most useful work in opening the soil by means of
+heir tunnels to let in air and let out water. They
bury up vegetable matter and promote bacterial
life. Where earth worms are the soil is evidently
drained, although it may not be drained deep
enough.

Alfalfa Loves Rich Soils. — The plain truth is that
thousands of men all over the eastern states of
America have tried to grow alfalfa on-land too poor
for it. Alfalfa loves fertile soil. In turn it adds
greatly to the fertility of any land on which it grows.
It is an energetic soil enricher, but it will not en-
rich poor soils. That may be a pity, but it is after
all in the order of Nature. "To him who hath shall
be given. ' ' One must have fertility in order to trap
more fertility. No other available plant will gather
so much fertility as the alfalfa plant. A field of it
will gather nitrogen largely, the hay may be fed,
the manure saved, another field enriched and sown
to alfalfa and thus the fertility will spread from the
one spot of infection till all the farm is covered.
But only by beginning right, by making one field
rich and dry and sweet, getting it set in alfalfa,

154 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

then from the manure of that field spreading to an-
other, can a man succeed. It is easy once you get
started. The farther you go the faster the work
proceeds. I write now of rather poor eastern
soils. Of course there are soils already so rich in
all needed elements of plant food that it is idle to
add more, Men owning such soils are more blessed
than they probably realize.

Soils Devoid of Humus. — Will not alfalfa grow in
soils devoid of humus! It is an interesting ques-
tion. I feel that it will, under certain conditions.
There are desert soils that would seem to be almost
devoid of vegetable matter, yet fully charged with
mineral salts and in these I have seen the most tre-
mendous alfalfa that I have ever seen. Perhaps
there was more humus in that gray-colored lime-
impregnated alkaline soil than I thought, but it
certainly was as hard as brick when dry and of the
color of lime mortar. It is sure, however, that in
eastern soils humus is most desirable; how indis-
pensable it is remains to be worked out.

An Example of Farm Practice. — On Woodland
Farm there is one 60-acre field commonly called the
Gill field. It has not long been a part of the farm.
The soil was clay, some of it white and some of it
black. A part of the field was low and peaty. For
many years it had probably not paid the cost of cul-
tivation. It had had little or no manure since the
forest was cleared away.

The first step was to get rid of surplus water and
miles of ditches were laid, one of them to give out-

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 155

let being for some distance 10 to 12 feet deep. The
usual depth was 3 to 4 feet. Then a very little stable
manure was spread over the field and red clover
was sown with beardless spring barley as a nurse
crop. With the clover was sown a fertilizer com-
posed of tankage and acid phosphate. The barley
was cut oft' for hay and the clover came on and made
a fair growth. It was a good stand and had a
healthy look, which no one remembered seeing on
this field for many years. The clover was cut for
hay and seed, and a trifle more of manure spread
over the ground. It is evident that on a 60 acre field
one will not strew manure very thickly unless he has
access to a very large store, and only the farm barns
and feeding yards could be drawn upon.

The land was then plowed and planted to corn,
making about 55 bushels per acre. Its previous crop
had been about 20 bushels. On the corn stubble
more manure was spread in 1904 and again the land
was sown to clover with a nurse crop of beardless
spring barley. This time it was hoped that the field
might be dry enough and fertile enough to take al-
falfa, so a mixture of alfalfa, was put with the
clover, about 10 per cent or a little mo>re. Again the
barley was made into hay.

This time the clover was a glorious success, yield-
ing more than double what it had yielded the first
year and the alfalfa came in strong for the second
cutting. It was vigorous over nearly all the field.
In the spring of 1906 the field was again sprinkled
somewhat with manure and plowed for corn. The

156 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

yield that year was about 90 bushels. Again with
a light coating of manure it was put in corn. This
time the yield was 85 bushels. For the corn crop a
dressing of 400 pounds per acre of raw Tennessee
rock phosphate was applied. Just what effect this
had we do not know, as we left no test strips. It
probably was of material benefit, however.

Once more a light application of manure was
made. In truth the applications of manure were all
light except on certain spots of exceptionally poor
white clay. The land was plowed again and seeded
(in April, 1908), to alfalfa with a nurse crop, as
usual, of beardless spring barley. With the seeding
was sown fertilizer, plain acid phosphate, analyzing
about 16 per cent available phosphoric acid, at the
rate of 250 pounds per acre.

1908 proved a very dry summer yet a splendid
stand resulted over the whole field. A crop of bar-
ley hay was cut and later a light crop of alfalfa
hay, probably not quite one ton to the acre. From
the window where I sit I look out afield across this
very stretch of land. It is (May 5, 1909,) a glorious
sight. Aside from a few wet pond holes there is not
a square foot of the land that is not covered with
green and growing alfalfa plants. That field should
make near 5 tons of hay this year. And every year
since the manure spreader started over the tiled
fields the land has paid well.

It is not probable that alfalfa would have made a
strong growth on this field without this slow bring-
ing-up process. The land was too run down, too de-

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 157

pleted of humus. Could more manure have been
spared doubtless the field could have been gotten
ready for alfalfa earlier, but it was not available,
so red clover, which is less exacting, came in first
and paved the way.

Methods of Using Manure. — While there can be
no question of the value of manure for alfalfa yet
there are several ways of using it, some much more
successful than others. It is seldom good practice to
apply heavy coats of manure and at once sow al-
falfa. The trouble is from the strong growth of
weeds and annual grasses that will result and which
may in part smother the alfalfa. Manure is often
filled with weed seeds, has tendency to rush rapidly
all weeds that naturally spring up and these worth-
less things outgrow the little alfalfa plants. Weeds
may usually be subdued by mowing off the field
two or three times during the season, but there is
danger in mowing young alfalfa at the wrrong time
which sometimes destroys it. Briefly, alfalfa ought
not to be cut till little shoots appear on the bases of
the stems. These shoots appear as buds which de-
velop into new stems. Before these shoots appear
it sometimes quite destroys alfalfa to cut it off ; this
is especially true the first season of its existence. So
one can not mow off weeds till these little shoots
come. The writer has more than once seen efforts
made to force alfalfa to grow by heavy manuring
when what it really needed was liming. The only
result was a worse crowding by weeds.

It is very much better to apply a heavy coat of

158 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

manure and plow it under the preceding year, then
plant a crop of corn and keep the crop absolutely
clean of weeds and grass so that no seeds will be
formed. This gives pretty clean land for alfalfa
sowing the succeeding year. Impossible to keep
corn land clean, say you? It is neither impossible
nor very difficult. On Woodland Farm it has been
found that about 5 plowings with two-horse culti-
vators followed with two goings through with one-
horse garden cultivators of the many shoveled type,
kept the corn almost absolutely clean, and men with
hoes rapidly completed the work. A good stand
of corn greatly helps here.

Eradicating Fox-tail Grass. — Fox-tail or pigeon
grass (Chaetochloa glauca) is one of the worst ene-
mies of alfalfa in all eastern America. It is an an-
nual grass that becomes very thick in young mead-
ows and sometimes in old ones. Mowing it off does
not prevent its going to seed, in fact mowing it off
only seems to make it grow thicker. It cannot be
eradicated by disking in new alfalfa fields. Take it all
in all it is the worst pest of alfalfa in the eastern
states. Crab grass is next to it, but crab grass does
not trouble where there is plenty of lime in the soil,
while fox-tail is no respecter of lime or anything
else.

Fortunately fox-tail has its weak point; its seeds
do not live long in the soil but soon germinate there
and grow. On Woodland Farm we have kept a corn
field absolutely clean for one year, and next season
sown the land to alfalfa, with the result that we did

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 159

not see a single plant of fox-tail on a square rod,
and this over a great part of the field. Just destroy
the plant absolutely before it seeds during one year
and you have it conquered.

Growing Humus-making Crops. — Not every farm-
er has access to a manure heap. Some have too
much land, some have too few animals. Thus many
who wish to grow alfalfa desire to grow on the land
some crop that will help fill the soil with needed
humus. What is available for this purpose! Very
much depends here upon the location.

Cowpeas. — In Tennessee, and probably in Ken-
tucky, the cowpea is a good forerunner of alfalfa.
The cowpea has several excellent qualities. If a
vigorous growing variety is chosen it covers the soil
all over and shades it. This shade promotes the
gathering of nitrogen as we have long known. The
pea vines smother weeds and so help clean the land.
Their roots, abundantly supplied with nodules,
gather nitrogen and store it in the soil. After cow-
peas the soil is also much more friable than it was
before. The vines may be left to lay upon the land,
disking them and turning them under, or may be
cut off for hay. Certainly one gets more humus to
turn them under. In the South a crop of cowpeas
may be grown and the land plowed and sown to al-
falfa the same year. This is not practicable north
of the Ohio River. Morgan found in Tennessee a
very great increase in alfalfa yield when it was
sown after cowpeas.

Turning Under Green Cowpeas. — There seems a

160 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

somewhat greater danger of souring land when
green crops are turned under than when they are
left to ripen and decay somewhat on the surface be-
fore being turned under. It is not easy to account
for this fact. It is always well when turning under
cover crops where alfalfa is to be sawn to* use a
larger application of lime than one otherwise would
use, since thus he avoids the danger of souring the
land.

Cowpeas however, may do soils good and may pos-
sibly do them harm. It has been taught that cow-
peas always build soil, whether the vines are taken
away or left on the soil to be turned under. Prof.
C. A, Mooers of the Tennessee Station has shown
that cowpeas when cut and removed from the soil
have a marked effect in depleting it of fertility.
Probably they rob it rapidly of available phos-
phorus. It is plain that when cowpeas are grown
to prepare the land for alfa'lfa seeding they ought to
be turned under, not taken away from the land.
"Cut them and put the manure back!" Yes, but
would it come back?

The Soy Bean. — An easier crop to grow than the
cowpea is the soy bean, and it also is a soil enricher
and affords much humus when turned under. Soy
beans are of many sorts. The large growing kinds,
like the Mammoth Yellow, make the most vegetation
for turning under, while smaller growing sorts make
most seed in northern latitudes. Soy beans to do
well need soil inoculation. It will come of itself if
they are continuously grown on the same land. Soy

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 161

beans are drilled in drills about 24 inches apart and
cultivated carefully till they cover the land, when
their shade suppresses weeds.

To get a money crop out of soy beans and yet
have a hot of humus-making material is easy. One
does it with hogs, turning them in after the bean
crop is mature and letting them harvest the beans.
Afterward the stems remaining with many leaves
will be plowed down.

Soy beans respond well to fertilization with phos-
phatic fertilizers. The larger grows the soil-build-
ing crop, whether of soy beans, cowpeas, crimson
clover or anything else, the larger the alfalfa will
grow after it. Therefore fertilizer applied to the
cover crop is all to the good.

Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum). — One of
the most charmingly beautiful clovers is crimson
clover, the trifolium of the English farmer. It is
an annual clover. Sown in summer it makes a fall
and winter growth (if there is any open weather)
blooms in May, ripens its seed and dies. It is of
no use sown in the spring. It is much used in Eng-
land, France and the Middle Atlantic States of
America. It is a good forerunner of alfalfa. This
plant is remarkably cold-resistant and in suitable
soils grows during every warm spell of winter. It
enriches soils admirably if it has itself the right
bacteria at work on its roots. On some soils where
it is new it needs inoculation. Crimson clover is
sown in late summer or early fall, usually as a
catch crop after corn or garden truck. It makes

162 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

rapid growth during the late season and starts early
in spring.

It is easily established if sown in late July or
August. It will not endure heat so is of no use
sown in the spring. It grows during cool weather.
On the other hand it will not endure extremely
cold weather, and is usually killed by repeated freez-
ing and thawing of spring in the region of the corn-
belt. It is especially at home in Maryland, Dela-
ware, New Jersey, Virginia, and in fact all along
the Atlantic seaboard. There it is an admirable
catch crop and forerunner of alfalfa when one is
desirous of bringing in large areas to meadow with
least possible delay.

Eoberts -shows that the fall growth of crimson
clover in New York, taken on Nov. 2, yielded as
much as 155 Ibs. of nitrogen per acre and doubt-
less the spring growth would have yielded in ad-
dition even a greater amount had not the plants
killed out during the freezes of spring. Nitrogen is
difficult to buy for less than 15 cents per pound and
often costs much more, so it is clear that the crim-
son clover had done a lot of work at nitrogen-gath-
ering very economically indeed.

Using Crimson Clover. — A good way to use crim-
son clover is to sow it in the corn at last working,
or to disk up an oat or wheat stubble and sow it
there. The latter way will give sure results. Use
phosphorus in some form to stimulate the crimson
clover, since the better it thrives the more it will
do for you and all will be kept in the soil for the

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 163

use of the succeeding alfalfa in any case. Acid phos-
phate works well with crimson clover; put on 200
pounds of it per acre, choosing always a grade
analyzing a good percentage of available phosphoric
acid. It likes a good seed bed too. Mix with
it 10 per cent of alfalfa, and if the land has never
had on it either alfalfa or crimson clover, get some
infected earth from an old field of each of the plants.

Infecting a Field. — One can use rather a small
amount of earth and get good results in inoculat-
ing a field if he does it in the right manner. Let
him get as little as 100 pounds of earth from where
crimson clover has been grown and 50 pounds of
earth from an alfalfa field or a sweet clover patch
and mix these together and pulverize them well. Do
this away from the sun. Then mix the crimson
clover seed, say 15 pounds and say 2 pounds of
alfalfa seed with the 150 pounds of infected soil.
Sow this altogether on an acre of land. Sow it
if you can late in the day, or at any event follow
the sower with a harrow that will at once stir the
land and cover seed and infected soil. Sunlight is
fatal to inoculation.

The result will Be that both sorts of plants will
grow well together and the alfalfa plants, while
much more feeble in growth than the crimson clover,
will yet hold its own pretty bravely and will be-
come inoculated and thus will prepare the land for
a single seeding of alfalfa next year.

Crimson Clover for Pasture and Hay. — The crim-
son clover will make good pasture in the fall and

164 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

early spring. Do not pasture it much if you wish
the full benefit of its nitrogen-gathering and humus-
making. Before the seed forms, and as early as it
flowers, it can be made into hay. Crimson clover hay
is nutritious, only when cut too* late it has a bad
habit of sometimes killing animals by forming hair
balls in their stomachs, so it is best to let it
ripen and take off a crop of seed, putting the straw
back, or else to plow it under and use all the growth
as a manure. Do not expect crimson clover to do
much without inoculation. This comes in more
easily with crimson clover than with most other
legumes.

Alfalfa Following Crimson Clover. — As soon as
the crimson clover is turned under begin cultiva-
tion of the land and get it in fine tilth, destroying
any weeds that may spring up. Do not sow the
alfalfa seed till the soil is well stored with moisture.
After every rain go over the field with some efficient
sort of harrow. If the land is not hard a spike
tooth drag harrow is one of the best implements
of summer culture. Should rain make it hard and
in danger of baking, the disk or spring tooth may
be needed.

The lime may be put on now, though it would
have been better to have put it on before the crim-
son clover was sown so that it could be doing its
quiet work of sweetening the land.

As soon as the land is stored with moisture, say
by the last week in July or some time in August,
the alfalfa may be sown alone. One ought to ob-

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 165

serve carefully the scattered alfalfa plants that
grew in the crimson clover to see if they were in-
oculated, so as to know whether to do anything
further toward inoculation of the land before sow-
ing to alfalfa alone.

Nodules on the Roots. — If he finds the alfalfa
plants vigorous, of thrifty growth and dark green
color, he may make a good guess that they are safely
inoculated. If they are feeble, pale, spindling, yel-
low, he may well doubt the inoculation having
"taken." To make sure let him very carefully dig
up alfalfa plants and wash off the earth from their
finer root hairs. The nodules are easily seen when
present, though one can seldom get them by pulling
up a plant, since they are so easily stripped off,
their attachment to the roots being delicate. They
are of light color, about the size of alfalfa seeds or
a little smaller and are sometimes, when conditions
are good and lime is plentiful in the soil, set on
like bunches of grapes, though usually they are
found singly on the little root hairs.

Crimson Clover in Conclusion. — Crimson clover
is a plant better adapted to cool weather than to hot,
to England and France, where it thrives, than to
regions where grows the royal maize plant. In Eng-
land it is termed trifolium and is highly esteemed
for soiling in May. It thrives best in sandy soils
along the Atlantic seaboard and will probably never
be of much importance west of the Allegheny Moun-
tains or north of the Ohio River. But in Virginia
it is a great aid in getting alfalfa set on old fields

166 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

needing humus sadly. It has failed in countless in-
stances because of lack of inoculation. If one wishes
to grow it he should either inoculate with soil from
some successful crimson clover field or should per-
sist year after year in growing it on the same soil
till at last the inoculation comes. There seems
a wild clover along the Atlantic Coast that carries
the same bacteria as' crimson clover but this is not
found west of the Alleghenies. With proper inocu-
lation crimson clover will succeed over a far wider
territory than is now known or supposed.

Melilotus or Sweet Clover. — What is a weed? A
plant out of place? Weeds there are and weeds. If
one must have them, and usually, he will, he could
hardly have a better one than Melilotus alba, or
white sweet clover. There are two sorts of sweet
clover, one with white blooms and one with yellow.
The yellow-flowered sort is Melilotus officinalis. It
is not so good as the white nor so common. Sweet
clover looks like alfalfa. Indeed, it is a sort of first
cousin to the alfalfa plant. The main difference is
that it has a less deeply boring root stock and is a
biennial, or a two-year plant, while alfalfa may live
half a century. Sweet clover is a good sort of weed,
because it is not unsightly and it feeds the bees and
wherever it grows it mightily enriches land. It
loves lime land and hard places along roadsides and
on railway embankments. It will grow 6 or 8 feet
high in favorable places or if it is cut down close it
will bear seed when only just above the earth.

It was Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins who first called at-

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 167

tention to the fact that alfalfa and sweet clover
bear the same bacteria on their rootlets and that
sweet clover inoculates land for alfalfa. (Breeder's
Gazette, Sept. 16, 1903.) So there is quite a use-
ful combination of facts. Sweet clover is very
hardy, it will grow on poor soil, it enriches soil very
much and it improves the physical condition of soils,
then it inoculates the land for alfalfa. In truth
many fine fields of alfalfa have had their start from
inoculation taken from sweet clover weed patches
along roadsides.

Melilotus has never been treated as a farm crop in
the North. In the South it is much used in Alabama
and Mississippi, both as pasture and for hay. No
better authority on meliMus could be found than
Prof. J. F. Duggar, Director of the Alabama ex-
periment station. I quote from a letter from him:

In reply to your request, I give you the following data on
Melilotus alba (sweet clover), as it is grown in the central
prairie belt of Alabama and Mississippi.

The seed should be sown in February and lightly covered. It
may be sown either on ground devoted entirely to this crop or
sown with seed oats or among growing plants of fall-sown oats.
At least one bushel of unhulled seed per acre is needed. If sown
alone and on good land there will usually be one or two cuttings
the first year. If sown with oats as a nurse crop and on poor
land, the first year's growth will scarcely be sufficient for cut-
ting, but will afford a fair amount of pasturage.

The second year new shoots spring from the old crowns early
in March and the first cuttings of hay can be made early in May.
There is usually a second cutting. Melilotus should be cut when
just beginning to bloom, since after this date it rapdly becomes
woody. The hay, especially that secured the year the seed are
sown, is very nutritious, the composition resembling that of
alfalfa, though melilotus hay contains a smaller proportion of
leaves, and the stems are coarser, especially in the hay secured
the second year of the plant's life. At first live stock do not

168 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

relish either the hay or the green plant, but in time most ani-
mals eat both with apparent relish, though always preferring
grass and other legumes.

Sweet clover seeds abundantly in its second year of growth
and will thus occupy the land continuously if not destroyed by
cultivation. It never makes a full stand except on lime land.
Soil deficient in lime, but made up largely of clay, often pro-
duces individual plants of thrifty growth, but I have never seen
on such land a stand thick enough to be profitable. The chief
value of melilotus is for the renovation of the stiff, waxy, lime
soils of the central prairie regions of Alabama and Mississippi
where the subsoil is a soft or rotten limestone.

In Alabama yellow melilotus is not at all comparable in value
with white melilotus.

The yellow comes up earlier in winter, blooms in April, and
is dead by June. It never attains the size of either top or root
attained by sweet clover and hence is not equal as a renovating
plant. Moreover, the bitter principle is much stronger in yellow
melilotus, so strong indeed as to taint the milk and butter made
from it, a condition that rarely if ever occurs with white meli-
lotus.

Note the curious fact that sweet clover like alfalfa
revels in lime land. I have seen it growing with
great luxuriance in piles of crushed limestone rail-
way ballast where one would hardly think any plant
could find sustenance, but that railway ballast was
of limestone and full of limestone dust.

Use of Sweet Clover. — Here would seem to be the
correct use of melilotus, for making land ready for
alfalfa. If it is land deficient in lime put on ground
limestone enough to make it alkaline, or else use
burned lime if the ground limestone can not be had.
Then in case the land needs humus and fertility to
be made ready for alfalfa, sow to melilotus for two
years. There is no magic about melilotus probably
aside from the magic of its bacteria, and it will
grow the better for fertilization, so fertilize it with

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 169

an application of about 250 pounds per acre of high
grade acid phosphate or some better phosphate car-
rier. Inoculate the seed when it is sown. That is
easily done if one can get earth from some alfalfa
field or some sweet clover patch. Not much earth
is needed; 100 pounds of earth is ample for an acre.
Dry the earth in the shade, spreading it out on the
barn floor, and shoveling it over now and then, mak-
ing it fine. Mix the earth with the melilotus seed
and sow together. Melilotus seed is sometimes seen
in the hull, though seedsmen usually sell the
cleaned seed. It resembles alfalfa seed almost ex-
actly, being sometimes a trifle larger. It weighs
60 pounds to the bushel cleaned. To sow 15 pounds
per acre of cleaned seed would doubtless give a
stand. Mix this with the 100 pounds of inoculated
soil and sow together, for thin land long run with-
out manure, land too poor for alfalfa. If it is rich
soil one would best sow alfalfa at once and be done
with it, but if the soil needs building first, probably
the sweet clover plant is as good a thing as one can
build with. It is especially adapted to worn soils
(after liming or naturally filled with lime) in south-
ern states.

No Fear of Pest. — Some fear may be entertained
lest the sweet clover becomes a pest in the land.
There is no danger of that. Simply mowing the
plant will destroy it as it is a biennial and must
seed every second year. It often appears in alfalfa
fields the first and second years after starting and
sometimes the seedsmen are harshly criticised for

170 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

selling adulterated alfalfa seed. Nearly all western
seed will contain a little sweet clover seed and no
seedsman probably can detect it or clean it out. It
is not a serious injury to the alfalfa and disappears
completely the third year when the alfalfa is mown
off in regular rotation. There is never any difficulty
in getting rid of melilotus when one gets ready to
dispose of it. It is very much hardier than alfalfa
and probably a better forager for plant food; cer-
tainly it thrives on poorer soil than alfalfa does and
it does very much to make the land ready for alfalfa
wherever it grows. It does not ask for as deeply
drained land as do'es alfalfa. On the other hand
animals usually scorn to eat it, though I have seen
it eaten with relish by sheep, pigs and cows in
Alabama, and the animals throve.

The seed usually sells a little cheaper than alfalfa.
Should there develop much demand for it there
would be large profit in producing seed on suitable
soil, since it seeds very freely almost anywhere,
while alfalfa does not.

Melilotus in Kentucky. — As indicative of what
melilotus is doing in Kentucky we quote the follow-
ing extracts from letters written by J.. T. Mardis,
from Pendleton County:

As an illustration of its value, I will explain that seventeen
years ago I bought one hundred acres of as badly worn and
washed land as could be found anywhere, My first resolve and
constant efforts following was to improve and get in grass, and
to obtain these results I worked all my spare time, year
after year, filling washes with any material to be had, plowing,
harrowing and sowing grass seeds and seeds of many different
plants advertised and recommended for improving land, for which

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 171

I spent hundreds of dollars, but as the land was too poor to take
in grass to do any good, the labor and seed were lost, as the
condition of the land grew worse with each season until seven
years ago, when I took up sweet clover, with the result that to-
day the land is in fine shape, either being cultivated and produc-
ing good crops or in fine blue grass sod, and while producing this
effect the land yielded an abundance of pasture and hay. And
oh, what a relief to be rid of the sight of those unsightly barren
and washed hillsides.

It is a biennial, makes fine pasture the first season and
abundant crop of pasture, hay or seed the second season. There
are two varieties — white and yellow — the latter being generally
preferred for hay, as it does not grow so coarse; it grows from
two to four feet high, while the white will double this growth
under same conditions, and makes splendid hay if properly man-
aged; makes more and later pasture and builds land up much
quicker. Each is good for all kinds of stock; does not bloat
cattle or sheep; is one of the best honey plants known. It is a
leguminous plant, the strongest within our knowledge. When
once established it requires no further seeding as it reseeds
itself. After it has once seeded, the land may be cultivated two
or three years and a good stand follow without reseeding.

Sown at any season of the year, you are sure to get enough
to secure a catch by waiting and allowing it to seed and spread,
but of course it is desirable to get a good stand at once, for which
I advise sowing from Dec. 1 to March 1, on top of land without
covering. Or if sown later, say to the first of May, it should be
harrowed or brushed in.

It can be sown with small grain of any kind either in spring
or fall. If sown in early fall it should be covered sufficiently
deep to prevent germination until spring. Good results are had
by sowing on stony washed and barren hills during the winter
months without previous preparation of the land, as the - seed
will be carried down by the frequent freeze and thaw. The seed
should never be sown on snow or hard frozen ground, as it is
liable to be carried off by following rains. Good blue grass
sod can be had in three to four years on this class of land by
sowing the two seeds together; all grasses do much better grown
with sweet clover.

To illustrate the rapidity with which sweet clover is gaining
favor, I will state that in 1903 I saved one bushel of seed. In
1904 I saved four bushels of seeds. I wrote articles which were
published in the county paper, describing its habits and quali-
ties. I continued to recommend it locally; and in 1905 saved

172 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

thirty bushels of seed which were readily taken, and later in the
season the demand could not be supplied at any price. As a re-
sult hundreds of acres of land in this and in one or two neigh-
boring counties, so worn and washed that it was almost worth-
less, has been and is being brought back to a state of productive-
ness and value.

In regard to seed, there seems to be no established market as
to prices or number of pounds per bushel. It is sold at all kinds
of prices per bushel, the bushels ranging from 14 to 60 pounds
per bushel.

There is also a vast difference in the quality of the seed, as
to how it is cleaned and handled, as it heats very readily even in
small bulk, consequently there is much dead seed sold, which fact
has discouraged many would-be growers.

I recommend the sowing of unhulled seed as a cheaper seed
as something else is often substituted for the hulled.

It should be cut when the first blooms appear and handled
much the same as other clovers, giving a little more sunshine,
according to weight of crop. For hay I advise sowing the yellow
blossom variety on hand where the machine can be run. More
feed of fine quality can be had per acre from this plant than any
grass I have ever seen. For improving land and for grazing I
strongly advise using the white variety. I do not recommend
sweet clover for low or wet land.

We have recently purchased 200 acres more of the same class
of land" and will soon have this in the same present condition of
the first 100 acres purchased. During the spring of the ex-
tremely dry season of 1908 we broke for corn an old timothy
meadow where patches of sweet clover had been started, and all
during the season, after the corn had started, it was easy to see
where the sweet clover had grown, and these spots were the only
part of the field where we had any corn which was fairly good,
and the rest of the field yielded only fodder of poor quality.

Mr. James Thompson, an all-round business man and director
of the Pendleton Bank at Falmouth, has purchased a few. hun-
dred acres of worn out land which he has seeded to sweet '.clover
and is well pleased with the investment and says he knows of no
other plant so valuable to those having worn out or washed land.

Mr. J. S. Gardner, Kelat, Ky., stock buyer and shipper,
says: "The fattest sheep and cattle I handle are those from
sweet clover pastures."

Milch cows fed on sweet clover hay yield an abundance of
milk from which is made nice yellow butter. Stock cattle, young
horses and mules do well on the hay without grain.

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 173

Land is just as easily broken after a heavy crop of sweet
clover as after common red, if plowed before the seed plants
have made too much growth. Seedling plants do not interfere
with wheat. The yearling plant is a little in the way of harvest-
ing, but does not injure the crop, unless it should be very thick.
It will grow just as well on the poorest stony washed limestone
land as on the best of soil. The land cannot be too dry and hot
for it to succeed. It does prepare land for alfalfa by loosening,
enriching and furnishing the necessary bacteria. It is a drouth
resisting plant, and continues to grow through the dryest sum-
mers, furnishing an abundance of grazing, while other grasses
are parched, and remains green until quite hard freezing. Sweet
clover is all right on good land, but it is the man with the worn
land who needs it most. On dry land such a thing as an entire
failure is out of the question if good seed is sown, no matter at
what season of the year, but of course you may expect best re-
sults from spring seeding where the seed is covered by any means
convenient, or from early winter sowing, when nature will do
the covering. When sown for hay I use one bushel of seed to
four acres, for grazing or improving land one bushel will be suf-
ficient for five or six acres. If sown late in the season and the
weather is dry the seed will lay over to the next spring and
come all right. Some of the best stands I have ever had were
obtained from such conditions.

Some of the statements made may seem a little extravagant to
those not familiar with the plant, yet there is not a particle of
exaggeration. Just imagine a growth from six to eight feet high
and so thick a man can scarcely walk through it, being left on
the land to enrich it and stop wash and to be followed without
cost the next season with a growth of seed plants that will form
a dense sod and grow to the height of two to three feet, and this
process repeated year after year, and add to this the fact that
this plant unquestionably attracts to the soil more than double
the amount of nitrogen that red clover will under the most favor-
able conditions. Can you then wonder that land is so rapidly im-
proved?"

In Wyoming. — The Wyoming experiment station
reports that lambs fed upon sweet clover hay relished
it and throve. It was found that they digested it ex-
ceedingly well, and that it contained a very large
percentage of digestible protein. It is well known

174

ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

that animals usually refuse to eat green sweet clover.
It seems that when made into hay, with a little salt
added, they relish it.
The Wyoming experiment is thus reported:

Sweet clover throughout most of the eastern states is consid-
ered as a weed and is treated as such. At this altitude, under
our peculiar conditions, it is believed by a few that there is a fu-
ture for it, since it grows well. It is an alkali-resisting plant
and, although it is not palatable to stock in the green condition,
yet after it is cured, especially where salt has been added, the
stock relish it and thrive well upon it. It is very nutritious,
readily digestible, and contains an exceedingly high percentage
of crude protein. It is more nutritious When cut at the proper
period than many of the other hays.

The sweet clover hay used in this experiment was grown
on the experiment station farm near Laramie in 1905. It had
been in stack for over a year before being used for this experi-
ment. It was very rank at the time of cutting and the amount
of stems, therefore, very large in proportion to the leaves. The
stems had become rather hard and woody. Notwithstanding
this, the hay proved to be a very narrow ration, since the nutri-
tive ratio was only 1:3.2. The crude fiber did not run as high as
would have been expected, being but 24.75 per cent. The experi-
ment was begun April 13th and completed April 26th, 1907.

Amount fed 3,000 grams

Amount of orts 00 grams

Amount of feces (air dry) 1,118 grams

ANALYSIS.

Water.

Ash.

Ether
extract.

Crude
fiber.

Crude
protein.

Nitrogen-
free extract.

Fepd

7.81

10.75

1.58

24.75

15.74

39.37

Feces

6 27

9.41

42.32

10.44

28.67

AMOUNT IN GRAMS.

Dry
matter.

Ash.

Ether
extract.

Crude
fiber.

Crude
protein.

Nitrogen-
free extract.

Fed and consumed
Feces

2,765.7
1,047.8

322.5
105.2

47.4
32.3

742.5
473.1

472.2
116.7

1,181.1
320.5

Digested •

1,717.9

217.3

15.1

269.4

355.5

860.6

Per cent digested

62.12

67.38

31.86

36.28

75.28

72.86

MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL.

175

DIGESTION COEFFICIENTS OF SWEET CLOVER HAY.

Dry

matter.

Ash.

Ether
extract

Crude
fiber.

Crude
protein.

Nitrogen-
free extract.

Sheep 1
Sheep 2

58.44
62.08

65.36
64 62

32.91
28 06

27.14
37 48

75.33

75 77

70.52

72 74

Sheep 3

62.12

67.38

31.86

36.28

75 28

72 86

60 88

65 79

30 94

33 63

75 46

79 04

The digestive coefficients of sweet clover hay are entirely sat-
isfactory. It seems that the great objection to the hay is the
flavor and the fact that it becomes woody if it is allowed to
ripen. It is believed that there are possibilities for this plant in
Wyoming if it is cut at the right time and properly cured and
cared for. It grows well and the yields are large. The nutritive
ratio is 1:32.2, as found by this experiment, which makes sweet
clover a narrower ration than alfalfa.

PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS.

Phosphorus is the "life" of the soil. Scientists
are not agreed as to the function of phosphorus
in the soil, some contending that as applied it is
merely a sort of disinfectant, as it were ; that it de-
stroys certain toxic or poisonous conditions hurt-
ful to plant life. Certain it is, however, that soils
well stored with available phosphorus are produc-
tive of the right sorts of useful plants. Soils well
stored with phosphoTus are rich soils, grow rich
plants and make splendid animals. The soils of the
central blue-grass region of Kentucky are so rich
in phosphorus that the addition of more can not
usually be seen in the crop. They are rich too in
carbonate of lime and from these soils grow the
best grasses in the world, and the horses and cat-
tle feeding on these grasses are famed the world
around.

Soils that are p'oor and unproductive are usually
much helped by applications of additional phos-
phorus. Alfalfa especially responds to this element.

Basic Slag. — Basic slag has already been men-
tioned. It is a refuse left from making steel. Cer-
tain ores rich in phosphorus make bad steel unless
that element is taken out of them. John W. Pater-
son of West Scotland Agricultural College, Glas-
gow, in an admirable pamphlet on use of "Basic
Slag on the Farm," says:

The essential constituents of manures are nitrogen, potash

(176)

PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 177

and phosphoric acid for the sake of the crop, lime for the sake
of the land.

At the outset of cultivation size of crop will generally be de-
termined by the supply of the first three. After a term of years
the ability of the soil to respond to fresh applications of artifi-
cial manures will largely depend on its holding a sufficiency of
lime.

The use of most of the ordinary artificial manures involves
the washing out of lime into the drains. Thus the application of
1 cwt. sulphate of ammonia will, in ordinary circumstances,
cause an ultimate loss of more than its own weight of available
lime compounds in the drainage of waters. After a long period
of artificial manuring the use of ground lime as a soil corrective
has been rapidly gaining prominence in recent years.

It is in view of this fact that among all artificial manures
basic slag possesses a special interest. While primarily em-
ployed as a phosphate, it contains ground lime as an accidental
constituent. Bones do not cause waste of available lime com-
pounds from the soil. Basic slag actually increases them. All
other artificial manures in common use, nitrogenous, phosphatic
and potassic, cause a gradual washing away of the lime com-
pounds from the land.

Manures are applied not because the land is ever actually
deficient in nitrogen, potash or phosphoric acid at the time. They
are applied rather because the natural supplies of these are in a
form unsuitable for absorption by plants.

The importance of lime in land is that it hastens the conver-
sion of the natural soil constituents into available forms. This
effect is exercised on the phosphates, on the potash, but above all
on the nitrogen. The general effect of liming on newly broken in
land, especially on peats, which are commonly deficient in lime,
is sufficient evidence of this.

Leguminous crops, including clovers, vetches and beans, do
not require nitrogenous manures because they are able to utilize
atmospheric nitrogen. Lime greatly strengthens their power to
do this, thereby giving larger crops and enriching the land in
nitrogen at the same time. Basic slag has the same power part-
ly owing to the extra lime which it contains, the effect being
usually best seen in the stimulation of clovers in pasture leys.

Basic slag is a by-product in the manufacture of steel by the
basic process. Pig iron frequently contains phosphorus; and steel
made from this is brittle unless the phosphorus is removed. In
the process of manufacture a blast of air is forced through the
molten pig iron, whereby the phosphorus in the pig is burned to

178 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

give phosphoric acid. This acid then unites with lime thrown
into the molten metal for the purpose. A phosphate of lime is
formed. This rises to the surface of the metal as a fusible slag,
and is subsequently poured off and cooled. A dark, brittle, hard
mass is obtained, which is capable of extremely fine grinding in
roller mills.

In 1886, Dr. Hilgenstock showed that basic slag phosphate ex-
ists as a hitherto unknown compound of phosphoric acid and
lime, viz., a tetra-basic phosphate (CaO)4P2O5. Later investiga-
tions showed that this phosphate, if only sufficiently ground,
passes easily into solution even in very dilute acids. In a sample
shaken up with peat and water, 78.8 per cent of its phosphate
was dissolved in 14 days. The suitability of basic slag phos-
phate for direct absorption by plants was thereby demonstrated.

The special characteristics of basic slag as a manure are (1)
the easy solubility of its phosphate in dilute acid, (2) the pres-
ence of free lime giving what is chemically called an alkaline re-
action. In both these respects basic slag is superior to bones.
Super-phosphate, the other principal source of phosphoric acid, is
superior in solubility, being water soluble, but inferior in its
general effect upon soils, being deficient in lime. These differ-
ences in character of the three manures are seen in their relative
effects as crop-producers in carefully conducted experiments.

The capacity of leguminous crops to utilize atmospheric nitro-
gen renders nitrogenous manures generally unnecessary. For
the same reason farm yard manure, which supplies much nitro-
gen, can in most cases be better utilized upon some other crop.
The most profitable return will in ordinary practice be obtained
from a dressing of artificials supplying phosphates, potash and
lime.

Beans, vetches and peas are all lime-loving crops, and for this
reason basic slag is well suited to their requirements. Belonging
to the same natural order are sainfoin, lucerne and clover, im-
portant forage crops. For these, 5 cwt. basic slag, and 2l/2 cwt.
kainit in autumn, is recommended as a suitable application, with
3 or 4 cwt. superphosphate, and the same quantity of kainit again
in spring. The quantities stated may require to be increased or
diminished according to the fertility of the land.

While the necessity of applying manures to land under crop
is now almost generally recognized, the claims of pasture
strangely enough are almost wholly neglected. Recent investiga-
tions have shown, however, that this is a mistake. More es-
pecially is this the case with the medium and second-class
pastures, whicn form such a large proportion of our grazing area.

PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS.

179

Practically speaking, all such pastures will yield a profitable
return to a suitable application of manures, and in some cases
the natural yield may be even trebled.

Attention was first directed to the improvement of pasture
land by Dr. Somerville, while director of the Northumberland
County Farm at Cockle Park. His experiments were started in
1897, an'd the results to date are published in a report by his suc-
cessor, Prof. Gilchrist. The plots receiving different manurial
treatment are each 3 1-20 acres — three acres being grazed each
summer, while the odd fraction is cut for hay. The live-increases
of the sheep and the yields of hay are carefully noted during
each year, and compared with the unmanured plot. Ten differ-
ent systems of manuring were contrasted in the experiments, but
the following four only need be referred to, as they were most
profitable of the various methods:

PLOT.

MANURES.

Cost of
manures.

Mutton
produced
(6 years).

Profit
from
manures

II;-y
per acre
(6 years)

6

Unmanured . ...

246 Ibs.

59 cwt.

3

10 cwt slaf 1897

22 s

822 Ibs

158 s

164 cwt

4

5 cwt sla°- * 1897 same 1'JUO...

22 s.

602 Ibs.

108 s.

133 cwt

5

8

7 cwt. super,* 1897. same 1900
Same as plot 5; ^ ton ground lime.
1897, same 1899

36s.

56s.

642 Ibs.
769 Ibs.

88s.
107s.

124 cwt.
138 cwt.

"Containing 100 Ibs. phosphoric acid.

The profit is estimated from the extra mutton produced over
and above that on the unmanured plot. It is valued for the
purpose at 3%d. per pound, live weight.

Basic slag here has proved at o^ce the cheapest and most
profitable form of fertilizer on pasture. Its superiority to super-
phosphate (Plots 4 and 5) seem to be due to the fact that besides
containing easily available phosphate it also contains free lime.
Comparison of plots 5 and 8 bears this inference. The land at
Cockle Park is stiff clay, and has been under pasture for over
thirty years.

Basic slag is purchased on its percentage of phosphate of
lime. The quality varies from about 20 to 45 per cent phosphate
, (equal to 9 to 21 per cent phosphoric acid). The higher grades
are usually rather cheaper per unit. The unit prices of different
samples may be ascertained by dividing the prices per ton by the
percentages. Other things being equal, the quality which sup-
plies the unit of phosphate at the lowest cost on the farm should
be purchased.

I devote this amount of space to basic slag be-

180 ALFALFA FARMING .IN AMERICA.

cause I have seen such good effects come from its
use in England, and because it did equally well on
Woodland Farm. It will never perhaps be cheap
enough for use west of the Allegheny Mountains,
since it is all imported from England or Germany,
but along the Atlantic seaboard it is now probably
as cheap a source of phosphoric acid as anything
known. With basic slag one gets quite a little lime
free of cost, since usually there is about 55% of
carbonate of lime in basic slag. It should sell for
about $1 per unit; that is, a slag analyzing 18%
phosphoric acid should sell for $18 per ton, when it is
about as cheap as any other source of phosphorus
with the lime thrown in.

In England on old pastures basic slag works
miracles. There with the sowing of no seeds at all
clovers spring up and cover over the land, almost
crowding out the grasses. The lime has sweetened
the soil, the phosphorus fed it, the clovers result.
Later the decay of clover leaves and stems fill the
soil with available nitrogen which in turn feeds the
grass. When will we learn in America to feed soils'?

Oilier Sources of Phosphorus. — Prof. Alfred
Vivian, of the Ohio State University, so clearly and
concisely states the composition of phosphatic fer-
tilizers in his admirable little book, "First Prin-
ciples of Soil Fertility, ' ' that we here quote :

Phosphoric acid is present in the soil in much smaller quan-
tities than potash, and experience shows that it 'is much more
likely to become exhausted. In fact, there are sections of the
country where no other fertilizers than those furnishing phos-
phoric acid are used, while these are bought in large quantities.

PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 181

All this class of fertilizers contains its phosphoric acid in the
form of phosphates, i. e., the phosphoric acid is combined with
some basic substance, which is generally lime. The phosphates
may be subdivided into two general classes — the natural and the
manufactured phosphates.

Natural Phosphates. — There are two general sources of phos-
phates— the bones of dead animals, and certain phosphate-contain-
ing minerals, which will be briefly considered.

Raw bone meal is made by grinding raw bones to a powder,
and the finer it is the more valuable the product. This substance
contains about 22 per cent of phosphoric acid and 4 per cent of
nitrogen. Raw bones contain a small quantity of fat as well and,
as this prevents rapid decay of the bone, the phosphoric acid and
nitrogen in the meal are somewhat slowly available to the crop.

Steamed Bone meal. — Most of the bone meal sold at the pres-
ent time is made from bones previously steamed to remove the
fat and a part of the nitrogen compounds. The fat is used in
making soap and the nitrogen in glue and gelatins. Steamed
bone contains from 28 to 30 per cent of phosphoric acid and
about IV2 per cent of nitrogen. The steamed bones can be ground
to a much finer powder, and the removal of the fat causes them
to decay more rapidly, so that they must be considered a more
valuable source of phosphoric acid than the raw bones.

Mineral Phosphates. — In a number of places rock deposits are
found that contain varying percentages of phosphate of lime.
These phosphates are usually named after the place where they
are obtained, as, Carolina phosphates, Florida phosphates and
Tennessee phosphates. These rocks contain from 18 to 32 per
cent of phosphoric acid, and differ from the bone products in
that they are purely mineral substances and contain no organic
matter. Ground into a fine powder, they are sometimes sold un-
der the name of floats, but the rock phosphates are used only to
a limited extent in the crude condition.

Superphosphates or Manufactured Phosphates. — The phos-
phoric acid in all of the natural phosphates described is combined
with lime in a form that is extremely insoluble in water. In or-
der to make the phosphate soluble it is sometimes treated with
sulphuric acid, which unites with part of the lime, leaving a
phosphate which contains only one-third as much lime as the
natural phosphate, and which is soluble in water. The lime and
sulphuric acid make a compound which is the same as that found
in gypsum or land-plaster. This combination of soluble phos-
phate and gypsum, made by treating the natural phosphates with
acid, is called by the various names of super-phosphate, soluble

182 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

phosphate, acid phosphate or acidulated rock. For its manufac-
ture the rock phosphates are generally employed, both because
they are cheaper and because the organic matter in the bones
interferes with the use of sufficient acid to make all the phos-
phate soluble. A good sample of super-phosphate or acidulated
rock contains about 16 per cent of phosphoric acid in a form that
is soluble in water. Sometimes when insufficient acid has been
used a part of the soluble phosphate will change into a form in-
termediate in solubility between the natural phosphate and the
acid phosphate, and the acid phosphate is said to have undergone
reversion, and the new compound is called reverted phosphate.
The latter product is supposed to be more available to the plant
than the insoluble or natural phosphate, hence the soluble and
reverted phosphoric acid taken together are known as the avail-
able phosphoric acid.

In some instances bone meal is treated with a limited amount
of sulphuric acid and the product is called acidulated bone.
This substance contains a much smaller proportion of its phos-
phoric acid in the soluble form than does the rock superphos-
phate. When soluble phosphates are added to the soil they soon
combine with the mineral matter, and are converted first into
the reverted phosphate, and finally into the insoluble form such
as is found naturally in the soil. In this way the phosphoric
acid is fixed and there is no danger of its being lost by leaching.

Relative Value of Phosphate Fertilizers. — The soluble phos-
phate present in the acidulated goods is generally considered the
most valuable form of phosphoric acid for use as a fertilizer. At
first sight it seems useless to go to the expense of making the
phosphate soluble when it is again rendered insoluble by the
soil before the plant can make use of it. The real object in mak-
ing it soluble is to aid in its distribution in the soil. When an
insoluble phosphate is applied it remains where it falls except
for the slight distribution it receives by cultivation. In the case
of the soluble phosphate, on the other hand, the phosphate dis-
solves in the soil water and is widely distributed before it be-
comes fixed by the soil. In the former case the roots must go
to the phosphate while in the latter the phosphate is carried to
the roots. It follows from what has been said that after the
soluble phosphate is distributed throughout the soil the indi-
vidual particles must be very much smaller than is the case with
the insoluble phosphate.

There are some soils upon which the superphosphates cannot
be used without injury, usually those that are deficient in lime,
the superphosphate in such cases having a tendency to make

PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 183

them acid. Indeed it is even asserted that soils containing an
abundance of lime in the beginning may be made acid by the
continued use of superphosphate if no lime is added.

When the natural phosphates alone are considered there is no
doubt that the preference should be given to those derived from
bones. The organic matter present in the bones decays when it is
incorporated with the soil, and this process doubtless causes the
phosphate to become more readily available to the plant, while
the rock phosphate on the contrary is very slowly decomposed.
The degree of fineness to which bone meal or mineral phosphate
is ground is of prime importance. Very fine bone meal is much
more available than that which is coarser and is always rated at
a higher price a ton.

Using Floats with Manure. — The use of floats, or finely ground
phosphate rock, has not met with general favor, and it probably
does not give good results when used alone. Some of the earlier
experiments indicate that it has practically no value as a source
of phosphoric acid for the plant. Recent investigations at the
Ohio and Illinois Experiment Stations show that when floats are
added to farm manure it has a very high fertilizing value; in
fact the increased crop production in Ohio due to adding the
ground rock phosphate to the stall manure was nearly as large
as that obtained from the addition of superphosphate. The acid
substances produced during the decay of the manure apparently
make the phosphoric acid in the rock more available, and it
would seem from these experiments that the comparatively in-
expensive floats might, partially at least, replace superphosphate
if used in connection with the manure. Other experiments have
demonstrated that good results can be obtained from the use of
ground rock phosphate when plowed under with a green manure
crop like clover, but that it is of very little value if used on a
soil low in organic matter. In a plot experiment at the Mass-
achusetts experiment station two "equal money's worth" of
ground Carolina rock and superphosphates were compared. In
this case the superphosphate proved superior at first, but within
a few years the plot to which rock phosphate was added gave
higher yields. It would seem, on the whole, that the use of
floats with manure is worthy of a trial by anyone needing a
phosphate fertilizer. Ohio Bulletin 134 recommends that the
ground rock be used "as an absorbent in the stable, thus secur-
ing an intimate mixture with the manure in its fresh condition."

Raw Plwspliatic Rock for Alfalfa. — Raw rock,
or floats, the natural Tennessee, South Carolina

184 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

or Florida phospliatic rock, is the basis of the fer-
tilizer called acid phosphate, or acidulated bone. It
is made into acidulated form by the addition of
about as much sulphuric acid as is taken of finely
ground rock.

The raw rock contains a large amount of phos-
phorus, but it is not in an available condition to
be taken up by plants ; at least this is the general
supposition. Experiment, however, shows that when
the finely ground pliO'Sphatic rock is put in contact
with decaying organic matter in the soil it does be-
come available and plants feed upon it. A given
amount of money will -purchase about two or three
times as much phosphorus in the form of raw rock
as it will purchase in the acidulated form.

J. F. Jack on. his farm in eastern Virginia has
given the raw rock a careful test and with very
marked results. The rock was applied at varying
rates, from 250 pounds per acre to 1,000 pounds per
acre. Check strips where no fertilizer was applied
were left. The result showed conclusively that the
raw phosphate was available and where 1,000
pounds per acre was applied the result was a splen-
did growth of alfalfa. Even the application of 400
pounds gave good results, though it is not probable
that it would be nearly so permanent. Fully as good
results were obtained with the raw rock on this par-
ticular soil where a heavy growth of crimson clover
had been turned down and about 1,000 pounds per
acre of water-slaked lime was used, as was had from
raw bone, 400 pounds, or acid phosphate, 400 pounds.

PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 185

It is not yet safe to say that upon all soils the
result would be the same, but on this particular soil,
somewhat acid, with a heavy growth of green clover
turned under, there is no mistaking the great saving
resulting from the use of the raw rock.

Upon this same soil potash seemed to give no
noticeable result, nor could be found a strip where
was applied nitrate of soda at the. rate of 100
pounds per acre. It was indistinguishable, showing
that the decaying crimson clover furnished all the
available nitrogen needed for the growth of the
little alfalfa plants.

There was left one plot with no inoculation. The
result was most astonishing. Where the land was
inoculated -with soil evenly spread the alfalfa stood
thick and strong, knee high and more. 'Where no
inoculation had been applied it was thin, weak,
crowded with weeds, many plants less than 2" high.

Phosphates on Alfalfa. — Even on good land I have
found it very profitable to sow some sort of phos-
phate with new sown alfalfa. The phosphorus cer-
tainly greatly stimulates the little alfalfa plants and
makes them hustle to get ahead of the weeds and
grass. Thus stronger stands result. Also less seed
may be sown to the acre than if no phosphorus is
used. The writer and his brother have used on
Woodland Farm raw bone meal, acid phosphate and
basic slag with about equal reults so far as the eye
could see. It is our practice to put on 250 to 400
pounds per acre of 16% acid phosphate when the
alfalfa is sown in soils well filled with lime. Acid

186 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

phosphate is about the most soluble of the phos-
p'hatic fertilizers and thus is best for top dressing
when there is abundant lime in the soil. When there
is suspicion that there may not be lime enough then
basic slag or bone meal should be used, unless lime
also is applied. Acid phosphate dissolves away a
part of the lime in the soil. That is its one bad
feature.

As has been stated the alfalfa meadows on Wood-
land Farm get an annual dressing of phosphorus
young and old alike, and this practice pays well.

Fertilizer Distributer. — On Woodland Farm we
own a wide and large fertilizer distributer. This
machine sows a strip 8' wide and the box holds 1,000
pounds of fertilizer.' It simply sows the stuff broad-
cast on the surface. There are various types of
these machines. The American Seeding Machine
Co., Springfield, Ohio, makes one, and another is
made by the Peoria Drill and Seeder Co>., Peoria,
111. With such a machine a man can go rapidly
over his old meadow, or ~sow his phosphorus over
his land preparatory to seeding his alfalfa. Time
is the thing hardest to command on most farms in
the spring; many would fertilize their meadows if
they were not otherwise too busy. With these large
wide sowing machines a man can rapidly get over
his fields. No one should hesitate to buy the fer-
tilizer, since a dollar so invested will usually re-
turn three or four in the crop of hay.

Adding to Fertility. — There is here a striking
thought. Since our farms east of the Missouri

PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS. 187

Eiver are nearly all of them deficient in phosphorus,
if we buy it and use it on alfalfa meadows, then
feed the alfalfa hay and put back the manure, we
are steadily adding to our capital of fertility; not
much is lost, only we sell away in the bones of our
cattle, pigs and sheep a part of it and in their flesh
and blood a little more. An alfalfa farm may thus
become a great laboratory of fertility gathering,
provided the crops are fed on the farm. When they
are sold off the story is different.

Row Much Phosphorus? — In England it is the
custom to apply very large amounts of basic slag to
their meadows and pastures far in excess of what
the plants can take up, and they seem to get large
profit from so doing. There is lack of careful ex-
periment to show us what amounts of phosphorus
will pay best sown with or on alfalfa. The require-
ments of the plant, that is, the amounts actually
taken away from the soil, are as follows : 1,000 Ibs.
of alfalfa hay contains 5 Ibs. of phosphoric acid; 4
tons, or 8,000 Ibs., would then contain 40 Ibs. of
phosphoric acid. Two hundred and fifty pounds of
16% acid phosphate would contain that amount,
and should make good what was removed from the
soil by the 4 tons of hay. That there should be abund-
ance in supply the writer advises the use of 300
Ibs. annually of 16% acid phosphate, or propor-
tional amounts of the stuff, if a different percent-
age is bought. Thus if only 10% of available phos-
phoric acid is present one would need to use 400
Ibs. or more. So it is cheaper and better to use only

188 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

the high grade fertilizers containing large percent-
ages of available phosphoric acid.

How Well Will This Pay?— In most of the east-
ern United States a 16% acid phosphate can be
bought for $14 to $16 per ton. Thus 250 Ibs. would
cost about $2, and the labor of applying it about
30c. Thus to fertilize an acre costs less than $2.50.
The yield of hay will be increased in proportion to
the need of phosphorus, but on Woodland Farm it
has been as much as 2 tons of hay per acre increase,
and thus this additional hay cost us only $1.25 per
ton. Could we have afforded to have left this land
unfertilized !

The plain fact is that farming is, after all, a
manufacturing proposition. The land is the fac-
tory. Its fertility is the raw material. A man
would be thought inconceivably foolish who would
through stinginess refuse to keep his factory sup-
plied with raw materials, thus letting his machinery
work to only half of its capacity. The alfalfa
meadow, the corn field, these plants are our ma-
chines. Feed them with their required raw ma-
terial.

POTASH AS A FERTILIZER.

Most- soils derived from granitic rocks have in
them a lot of potash. Most soils in the glaciated
area of eastern and central America seems to b3
quite well supplied with potash. Some sandy soils
are deficient, and peaty lands, where once old pond
bottoms were, are especially deficient. To grow al-
falfa on peat or to grow corn there one must use
potash.

Testing ivitli Potash. — As a rule on ordinary up-
land clays and clay loams potash seems not to be
lacking. Very often where it is applied to such
soils no result can be seen. It is wise for each farm-
er to make test of this matter for himself. Let him
procure a few hundred pounds of muriate of potash
and apply it in strips over his fields, marking the
ends of the strips so that he can see the result, if
there is any. About 200 Ibs. per acre of muriate of
potash is a moderately heavy application.

Wood Ashes. — "Wood ashes may contain 8% of
potash and 2% of phosphoris acid. There is also
some lime in them and other minerals in small
amounts. AVood ashes have an especially good ac-
tion on alfalfa. It is an interesting truth that no one
has yet been able to compound a fertilizer that would
have the same effect as wood ashes, though the ingre-
dients were so mingled that chemically the two mate-
rials were nearly identical. Nature has done some-

(189)

190 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

thing with wood ashes that man can not imitate very
well. The writer has secured splendid results from
use of wood ashes on soils that did not seem to need
potas'h. I advise that all wood ashes be saved with
care and whenever there is a saw mill or any other
wood-burning furnace nearby the ashes should be
secured and applied to alfalfa land. Wood ashes
are applied in varying amounts, from 500 Ibs. to one
ton per acre.

PLOWING THE SOIL.

Plowing is an ancient art. The height of a land's
civilization is very nearly to be measured by the
sort of plowing done there. What is plowing for!
It turns under loose stubble, trash and vegetation,
putting it down into the soil where it may decay and
by its decay help set free mineral plant food. It
loosens the earth to let air in and this promotes im-
portant changes in the soil. It lets the water sink
down into the soil, hence plowed lands are moister
and will withstand drouth much longer than un-
plowed lands.

There are certain crops that seems to thrive on
shallow plowed soils. Alfalfa, on the other hand,
seems to thrive best where the land is plowed deep.
In older lands than ours, where agriculture has
advanced very far towards a perfect system, deep
plowing is much practiced. In France some plow
a foot deep and even deeper. On the Island of
Guernsey men often plow a field twice, the first
plowing shallow, the second one crossways and go-
ing down as far as 16". On such lands alfalfa
thrives especially well. In France and Algeria men
plow for alfalfa full 20" deep.

Why Deep Plowing Suits Alfalfa.— The reason
why alfalfa likes the land plowed deep is doubtless
because the letting in of air and moisture favors
the life of alfalfa-promoting bacteria. These

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192 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

thrive especially well in soils where the air can
penetrate easily. The bacteria supply alfalfa with
nitrogen. Thus deep plowing is equivalent to feed-
ing the alfalfa with extra nitrogen. The heaviest
growth of alfalfa that I have ever seen was on the
ranch in Utah where I once lived, £he plants stand-
ing 48" high all over the field and very thick. The
underlying soil there was of loam, interspersed with
layers of loose sand and gravel, a soil that was too
easily drained, not very fertile, but well filled with
lime and o<ther alkalies. With copious irrigation
that land produced enormous crops of hay.

Deep plowing in a manner imitates such a condi-
tion by letting in the air and storing up more mois-
ture as well. Of course one must use judgment. If
his soil is of poor clay with only a thin skin of
vegetable mould on top one dares not bury that
deep under the clay and plant maize thereon, but
it is probable that he could do it and plant alfalfa
with success, especially if the land was well drained
and limed.

The water-holding power of deeply plowed soil
is about double that of unplowed, or shallow plowed
soil. This is important when it comes to getting
maximum crops of .alfalfa hay. The lack of mois-
ture is usually the limiting factor in crop yield, a
fact not half appreciated as yet.

How to Plow Deep. — I have done some experi-
menting on a hard clay soil with numerous small
round boulders or " niggerheads ' ' in it in trying to
plow deep. It is not an easy task. In this especial

PLOWING THE SOIL. 193

soil on Woodland Farm the top soil is rather poor
in lime, leached away by the erosion of centuries
of rain. Down about 16" are many limestone peb-
bles. Could these be thrown up by the plow the
result would be the same as a heavy liming — be
better, in truth. How do we know this! By the be-
havior of land that has been tile drained. Where
the ditches are dug the subsoil is mixed with the
top soil — in fact in filling the subsoil is usually left
on top — and there will grow the best alfalfa with-
out question. Even in a dry year the effect is very
marked, the narrow strip of land where the tile ditch
stood sending up alfalfa like a ridge, often 12 or
more inches taller than the rest of the field. The
effect is more marked on a dry year than on a wet
one, so it can not be attributed to the effect of
underdrainage altogether.

W^e have found that with a large common break-
ing plow we could go down 10" easily enough, if
the land was not too moist nor too dry. After that
a smaller plow can follow and go 4" or 5" deeper.
Not much of this last soil will be thrown clear of
the furrow, but it will become well mixed through
with the top soil. Woodland Farm has only be-
gun experimentation along this line, but we are
quite well persuaded that by the time the reader
sees these lines we will have abundant proof of the
great use of this deep plowing. We are ready to
advise only in fairly fertile soils, especially if the
subsoil has more lime than the surface, a depth of
plowing of 12" or 16" or as deep as you can go.

194 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Plowing, like the tariff, is "a. local matter," so
each farmer had better test the thing for himself.
On his own soil deep plowing may not work so well.
It is easily tested on a small scale in any event.

Subsoiling. — A subsoil plow is one that merely
runs in the furrow and loosens up the underlying
soil. It does not bring any of it up to the surface.
Subsoiled land has much greater water-holding ca-
pacity than before it was subsoiled. Sometimes this
fact is a detriment, if the land is poorly drained.
It is difficult to subsoil land that has in it boulders
or large stones. Subsoiled land erodes less than
other land, because the water sinks readily into the
subsoil and there is thus a great reservoir of satu-
rated earth which in turn gives moisture to the over-
lying soil. In all hilly regions where there is dan-
ger of erosion, as in east Tennessee, subsoiling has
been found to be a more useful practice.

Not so much work has been done in subsoiling
for alfalfa as should be done. I have only done
such subsoiling as I described in the ditching work
done on Woodland Farm. That has convinced
me, however, that some day much land will in some
way be loosened up here and the yield of alfalfa
be increased at least 25%, and probably more.

On the Eappahannock Eiver, in Virginia, J. F.
Jack has tested subsoiling in a limited way and the
result has been very markedly good. In truth sub-
soiling tested alongside of additional fertilization
gave markedly superior results. Other men have
related to me their experiences with subsoiling, but

PLOWING THE SOIL. 195

so far as I am aware nothing has been done in ex-
periment station work along this line. On all hard
clays and wherever it is desirable that more water
be stored in the subsoil I advise the use of the sub-
soil plow. It would certainly be wise to test it in a
small way at first, then if results seemed good it
could be adopted as a part of the regular practice.

In Europe it is not unknown to trench or dig
up a field with spades to a depth of 36", mixing top
and bottom soils, and land thus treated, well limed,
well manured, yields crops that would astonish an
American farmer, even if living on the richest soils.

Plowing for Spring Sowing. — When alfalfa is to
be sown in the spring it is well to get the plowing
done early, this so that the land will settle together
again and make a better seedbed for the seedling
plants. Freshly plowed land is too loose to hold
moisture near the surface well. Thus it is best
to plow for alfalfa in the fall or during the winter.
If lime is to be applied it is best to apply it imme-
diately after the plowing, or after one dragging of
the land. Then it is disked in and mixed well with
the soil.

If the plowing can not be done early it may be
done immediately before seeding, but then more
care must be taken to firm the soil again and make
a good seedbed. Going over it several times with
the disk harrow is one way to firm it, or to roll it
with a heavy roller and afterward disking it will
bring the top soil into capillary connection with the
subsoil.

196 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

It is not so necessary to get a perfect seedbed in
spring sowing as it is when sowing in the fall. There
is much more moisture in the spring and heavy
rains will probably come to compact the seedbed,
yet drouths are to be looked for at any time, so
one should do his part well in any case.

Example of Spring Sowing. — Take Woodland
Farm, where always of recent years seeding has
been done early in April. This farm is about on the
40th parallel, in the latitude of Columbus, 0., Phila-
delphia and Springfield, 111. Spring seeding is done
here because of the climate and soil. Singularly
enough at this point on the curve of the earth there
seems more fighting of the elements than either
north or south of us. At Wooster, 0., some 80
miles north of us, snow and frozen ground prevail
during a much longer time in winter than with us.
Thus at Wooster they find fall seeding of alfalfa a
better thing than spring seeding, while we have had
very poor success indeed with fall s'eeding, which
usually lifts out of the ground during the repeated
freezes and thaws of winter.

Disk, Harrow and Drag. — Land destined for al-
falfa is almost always planted to corn the year be-
fore and given very clean and careful cultivation.
For the corn crop as much manure as was available
was applied. The land is plowed in the fall or win-
ter if there is time and the soil is found fit. The
plows are set to run as deep as practicable. In this
practice we are reforming steadily year by year,
deepening our soil as fast as we well can. As soon

PLOWING THE SOIL. 197

as danger of hard freezing is over, say by April 10,
when the land is dry enough to be fit to till, we go
afield with disk harrows. The cutaway double disk
harrows suit us very well for this purpose. Fol-
lowing the disk harrow goes the slant-tooth smooth-
ing harrow, which levels the land quite well.
After the smoothing harrow goes the plank drag.
This makes a smooth surface, free from clods. The
drag is made of three planks, about 2x12, lapped
together like shingles and bolted together. The
drag makes drilling easier and a better seed-bed.

Sometimes the fertilizer is sown before the land is
dragged, sometimes afterward. This point is not
very material. As already described, we commonly
sow acid phosphate of about 16 per cent grade, be-
cause it is cheaper with us than bone meal or any
other carrier of phosphorus. We sow no potash
except on black peaty soils, once beds of swamps.
Lime we have applied earlier; it is best to have it
incorporated with the soil some weeks or even
months before sowing the seed when this is pos-
sible.

Seeding with Drill. — After the drag comes the
drill. We use a drill with grass seed attachment
that sows both barley and alfalfa seed. The alfalfa
seed is sometimes set to fall in front of the drill
and sometimes to fall behind, depending somewhat
on the nature of the soil. On stiff clay land it will
not do to bury alfalfa seed very deep. On lighter
looser soils they will come up through an inch of
soil.

198 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

The drill is set to sow two bushels of beardless
spring barley to the acre. This barley does not stool
heavily. It is not a very prolific barley either, but it
makes a good nurse crop for alfalfa. The facts that
it does not often lodge and does not much shade the
young alfalfa are all in its favor.

SEEDING AND GUTTING.

About 15 pounds of alfalfa seed are sown. We
have used more and have used as little as 8 pounds.
In the long run there seems little difference in the
yield of hay, but on the whole we prefer to use 15
pounds of seed.

Work After Seeding. — If the land is very dry,
we follow the drill with a roller. We seldom do
this, however, since there is always danger that rain
may follow and further compact the land, making
it hard for seeds to get up. We very much prefer
to get the under part of the seedbed firm before
putting on the seed. We sometimes follow the drill
with the plank drag again. We aim always to leave
the land quite level and smooth, so that the mower
will run nicely.

Inoculation. — With us no inoculation is needed,
nor was it ever needed seriously on Woodland
Farm. Just why this was true we can not imagine
except that our father had allowed some few clumps
of melilotus to grow and that he had always used a
good deal of manure. For some unexplained rea-
son manured land is nearly always inoculated with
alfalfa bacteria, illogical as the statement seems.
Inoculation comes in about a month, little nodules
by that time appearing on nearly every rootlet.

Further Treatment. — It is seen how easily we

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200 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

sow alfalfa, with what slight labor and expense, yet
magnificent stands are secured in every instance
We have not one record of failure where this system
has been followed on Woodland Farm except in
a few spots where the barley lodged badly and was
not soon enough removed.

The further treatment of the field is to let it alone
till the barley comes into bloom. Then we go in
with mowers and cut it all down and make it into
hay. By that time the alfalfa will be needing a
clipping. Sometimes we wait till the grain is be-
ginning to form in the heads, but usually we take
off the barley hay earlier than that.

Time to Cut. — The test of when young alfalfa is
ready to clip is when the plants put out little buds
or shoots down near the ground, at the bases of the
stems. It ought never to be clipped before then.
After that time it ought to be clipped promptly, as
one must not cut off these new shoots with the
mower. We have said this before and will repeat it
again as the point is so essential to success.

Why Make Barley Hay? — Why do we not let the
barley ripen its grain! Because if we were to do
that it would seriously weaken the young alfalfa.
Ripening grain takes a tremendous amount of
moisture from the ground. It also not infrequently
lodges and this smothers out the young alfalfa.
Very little shading or mulching will kill it. So it
is better to make hay of the barley. It makes good
hay; all animals love it. It is more profitable made
into hay than used in any other form.

I,

BARLEY AS A NURSE CROP FOR ALFALFA.

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 201

Subsequent Cuttings. — When the barley is taken
away the alfalfa comes vigorously on and makes
another cutting in about 40 or 50 days. The time
to cut this is judged by the buds or shoots upon
the stems, just as at the first. This is in fact the
inviolable rule in cutting alfalfa if you would pre-
serve its vigor and productiveness.

After this cutting it is left strictly alone. No one
trespasses again on the alfalfa, no animals graze
it, no mower invades its domain. It may be 24
inches high when killing frosts come; no matter;
leave it stand and next year you will gain all that
and much more with it.

Value of Barley Nurse Crops. — Why the nurse
crop with spring sowings? First, because there is
pretty good profit in beardless barley hay. We
feed it to all our animals. The alfalfa has grown
about as well for the presence of the barley as it
would have grown alone. And the barley rather
subdues other annual grasses. There is a curious
principle in Nature that some plants are delete-
rious to other plants. Cockle burrs, for instance,
poison land for corn, and where barley grows well
foxtail grass is not so much seen. Then when the
barley is taken away the alfalfa seems to push right
on, almost unmolested. We can get a much better
stand of alfalfa with a nurse crop of beardless
spring barley than we can to sow it alone, and we
get the barley hay as a clear gift.

Other Nurse Crops. — Why not choose oats as a
nurse crop! With us they are not nearly as de-

202 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

sirable. When oats are left to ripen their grain
a poor stand of alfalfa is almost inevitable.

I have often sown oats with alfalfa, mowing
them for hay when in bloom with good results.
When oats are sown no more than a bushel of seed
should be sown to the acre. If the soil is very rich
and the seedbed very good three pecks per acre
will be enough seed, or even a less amount. Oats
stool much more vigorously than barley and thus
thicken up and shade the alfalfa plants too much.

Oats must be mown off earlier even than barley
to leave good stand of alfalfa. When the little sta-
mens begin to hang out from the oat heads then cut
for hay at once. Or if the oats should lodge mow
immediately and remove from the ground. Oats
make more hay than barley, but it is harder to cure.

Flax has sometimes been used as a nurse crop
for alfalfa with pretty good success.

Alfalfa is sown in wheat successfully in some
places. It is absolutely necessary that the land be
previously inoculated, or that the inoculating earth
be put and harrowed in before the alfalfa is sown,
or failure will surely result. It is necessary to
harrow the wheat and make a fair seedbed so that
the alfalfa seed may be covered. On the whole,
wheat is not a good nurse crop for alfalfa, since
if the soil is rich it is apt to lodge and smother out
the baby plants.

Oowpeas, soy beans, rape, Canada field peas, all
these things have repeatedly been tried with no

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 203

success whatever. They shade too much and
smother out the alfalfa.

Fall rye sown in the spring is advocated by a New
Jersey man who used it thus nearly 100 years ago.
I have not tested it, but have my suspicions.

Alfalfa may be sown with corn at th£ time of last
cultivation in July. Thus sown it makes almost a
stand, never quite a perfect stand. The corn robs
the land a little too much of moisture to allow the
alfalfa to get rightly rooted. There is also a little
too much shade. Should alfalfa seed ever become
cheap again it would pay to sow it in corn for soil
improvement, even if it was turned over next year
in late May and again planted to corn.

Where Are Nurse Crops Permissible? — In Ohio,
Illinois, Indiana and probably Iowa and Missouri
a nurse crop may be often as good a thing as it is
on Woodland Farm. Much depends upon whether
it is intelligently used. To sow grain thickly and
to let it ripen on the land may very likely prove
most injurious to the alfalfa. If a man knows his
failings, if he is too greedy to cut the nurse crop
at the right time, or too careless, he had better
not sow one at all, but sow the alfalfa alone.

West of the Missouri Eiver it is usually too dry
to permit the use of a nurse crop. South of the Ohio
Eiver it is safer and better to sow alone in the fall
or mid-summer with no nurse crop.

It is most tempting when one sees a magnificent
growth of oats or barley on the land to say, "I must
let that ripen; it is too fine to cut down for hay";

204 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

and the letting it ripen will usually damage the
alfalfa stand about 25 to 50 per cent. I have re-
peatedly asked a lady for a half-cup of tea and
never in my life found but one who could give it !
All the rest would fill the cup full. So if the reader
is one of the few men who can resolve to cut his
nurse crop for hay at the proper time, he should,
if he lives in a similar climate to ours, use a nurse
crop. Otherwise he should sow alfalfa alone.

Fall Seeding of Alfalfa. — There seems a large
area where fall seeding is more successful than
spring seeding. Where fall seeding succeeds it is
the cheaper way. The use of the land is not lost for
any appreciable time, and often one gets a full crop
of some sort of grain before seeding his alfalfa.
Northern Ohio seems adapted to fall or rather mid-
summer seeding of alfalfa ; also New York, in parts
at least, a good deal of Pennsylvania and much of
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. In
Missouri some practice one way, some another ; Kan-
sas and Nebraska seem to get good results from fall,
or better, mid-summer seeding. In Iowa summer
seeding is advised.

The reason why alfalfa usually thrives when sown
in mid-summer or early fall is that then there is
less crowding by weeds and especially by annual
grass. Furthermore, alfalfa is a heat-loving plant
and it pushes rapidly forward if the seedbed is good
and it gets started in late July or August. It is
very essential, that the seedbed be good, and no
pains should be spared to make it so.

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 205

Spring Ploiving and Summer Solving. — Some
have practiced spring plowing of the land and after-
ward harrowing it after every rain, after every
appearance of weed growth, until all the weed seeds
are killed, then sowing the alfalfa alone in July.
Usually this results in a good stand. The cost is
considerable. No return from the land is had at
all for one year and the repeated harrowings cost
quite a little. It is one of the surest ways, perhaps,
of getting alfalfa started in land very foul with
grass and weeds. I do not advise this plan except
in cases where it is extremely difficult to get a stand.
By harrowing well after each rain nearly all of
the moisture is conserved. Thus it is a plan well
adapted to use in semi-arid regions where it is not
easy to establish alfalfa because of lack of moisture
in the soil. In such situations the land should be
plowed in the fall and disked after each rain or
snow fall and all care possible taken to conserve the
moisture that falls. After once the land is moist
down to a depth of a foot or more and a thoroughly
good seedbed is secured then the alfalfa may be
sown, though in such situations it is usually well to
defer sowing till August. The state of tilth of
soil and the amount of available moisture are more
important determining factors, however, than the
time of year in dry regions, where alfalfa does not
heave out by frost in any event.

I can not from my own experience recommend
this plan of seeding for any states in the cornbelt
region, since it is an unnecessary expense and no

206 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

more successful, so far as I have seen, than several
other less costly plans.

Seeding After Early Potatoes. — The land may be
plowed early and deep, fitted as soon as it is ready
to work and planted to potatoes, choosing some very
early maturing variety. There is hardly any better
plan than this. The potatoes well repay high manur-
ing and fertilization. They should have plenty of
phosphoric acid given them; in the eastern states
it is common to give early potatoes as much as 500
to 1,000 pounds of high grade acid phosphate per
acre; potash also usually tells a good tale when
applied to potatoes. Thus if the crop is highly fer-
tilized there remains a good surplus in the soil
available to the alfalfa.

The potatoes well repay good cultivation and thus
weeds are destroyed and when the potatoes are dug
the land is left clean and thoroughly well loosened
up. It is an easy matter then to level it off, disk
it well and get ready for alfalfa seeding. This can
usually be done in July and as soon as the pota-
toes are fit to dig and sell they should come out
to make room for the alfalfa, the more important
crop of the two by odds.

Do not plow the potato land. Disk it very thor-
oughly, then disk it again. If the soil is too dry to
make alfalfa grow, wait for rain before sowing the
seed. Should there come a shower, disk again and
wait for a rain that will moisten the underlying
soil. There is danger in sowing alfalfa seed in the
dust, expecting rain to come and bring it forward.

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 207

Rain may come, certainly, but often in only sufficient
amount to bring the seed up, or merely to germinate
it, and underneath there is dust. Thus the seed-
lings perish before they can get their rootlets at-
tached to the subsoil. So wait till there is moist
soil enough not merely to bring up the seeds but
to let their rootlets feed and penetrate on down.

Inoculation an Aid. — When sowing alfalfa either
in July or August one must remember that the time
until fall and killing frosts is short, so do all that he
can to hurry it forward. Thus it is well if the land
has never had alfalfa on it before, nor ever been
manured with manure made from feeding alfalfa
hay, to inoculate the soil. Inoculation hastens
growth in young alfalfa immensely. Soil from a
successful alfalfa field, or soil from a patch of mel-
ilotus or sweet clover, or soil from where burr
clover grew is usually successful in inoculating al-
falfa. The various cultures of beneficent bacteria
have not worked well in field practice, we regret to
say. So take earth from some other field and inoc-
ulate the place you expect to put your new sown
alfalfa in. There are various ways of distributing
this inoculation. If the soil has been thoroughly
well limed, or is naturally well stored with carbon-
ate of lime, and if it has had some manure, inocula-
tion will "take" in it and go through the field very
rapidly, once give it a start.

Seeding. — Sow it in any manner most convenient,
either through a wheelbarrow seeder or through a
drill, taking great care not to drill it in too deep.

208 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Go immediately over the land with an efficient har-
row, trying to* cover the seed one inch deep. It
is no harm to apply more fertilizer at the time of
sowing this seed. It will only push the young plants
the more rapidly forward.

In Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and other
states of like climates this seeding should be done
in late July or early August. It is essential to get
the plants strongly rooted before winter sets in
with its frosts and cold. The stronger the root the
less liability to winter killing.

Subsequent Treatment. — No clipping, no pastur-
ing nor any other treatment should be given the
alfalfa this season. Simply let it alone and keep
all animals out of it. The only thing that might
cause a man to meddle with it would be if he should
discover some dodder in the field. This should be
destroyed as soon as seen. Pull up the infected
plants and burn them. Throw down a little straw
on the spot where the dodder has appeared and set
it on fire. Dodder is worse than fire to alfalfa. No
other weeds will be apt to trouble. If any large,
coarse weeds should come up they may be pulled
up by hand.

There is hardly any better way of starting alfalfa
than this if a man has a liking for potatoes. The
crop usually pays well for use of the land, and the
alfalfa crop comes on strong and is secured at
the least possible expense.

Summary. — Summarizing the process of sowing
alfalfa after potatoes, the essentials are, first, selec-

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 209

tion of good dry rich land, with plenty of lime in it,
or else applying liberally of lime before planting.

Deep plowing and somewhat high fertilization for
the potato crop. Planting as early as practicable
of a very early -maturing variety of potatoes.

Very careful cultivation that will conserve all
possible moisture and destroy the weeds well.

Digging as early as possible and immediate prep-
aration of the soil for alfalfa.

Inoculating when needed with soil from a success-
ful alfalfa field or a sweet clover patch and sowing
the seed as soon as there is a good seedbed and
enough moisture in it. Covering the seed about an
inch deep with the harrow.

Leaving the alfalfa alone, no matter how high it
gets, leaving all the growth to protect it in winter.

Fall Seeding After Wheat. — It is often desirable
to sow alfalfa after a crop of grain. This is prac-
tical enough if the season proves not too dry. Al-
falfa best follows a crop of winter grain, since that
ripens earlier than spring sown grain. Perhaps the
worst defect in the practice of following alfalfa
after wheat arises from the fact that if the land
is as fertile as it ought to be to grow a heavy crop
of alfalfa the wheat is apt to lodge. There are
soils, however, so well balanced that they will grow
both excellent wheat and heavy crops of afalfa. I
have seen in France wheat as high as oxens' backs,
yet not lodged at all, growing on alfalfa sod, and
destined to grow alfalfa again in the regular rota-
tion.

210 v ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Preparation for Crop. — When alfalfa is to follow
wheat the land may be well limed in the fall before
the wheat is sown, if it is in need of lime. As early
as possible the wheat shocks should be taken off
and immediately the plow started in the stubble,
Now is a dangerous time, since one may so easily
lose his moisture and get instead of a seedbed a
mass of sunbaked clods that no harrowing will re-
duce to fineness. To avoid this each half day what
land is plowed should be fitted by use of harrow and
drag, or perhaps use of roller, followed at once by
harrow. It is not sufficient to fit each evening what
has been plowed during the day, but each half day's
work must be completed within that half day. This
is also much the easier way. An hour spent upon
freshly turned land will do more than a half day
after the furrows have dried out into hard clods.

Be not content, either, with a half preparation of
the land. Do a good job of it. Use drag, disk and
smoothing harrow. Make the earth fine. Seal up
in it all the moisture it holds. It is work well spent.
Since it must be done in any event it is wise and
economical to do it immediately it is plowed, when
an hour's work is worth a half day's later on. In
order to do this best it may be well to let the man
who does the plowing work till about 9:30 in the
morning, then, unhitching from the plow, hitch to
the plank drag and go over what he has plowed with
that. Unhitching from it, hitch to the disk harrow,
and after disking then go over it with the slant-tooth
smoothing harrow, which finishes it pretty well and

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 211

effectually seals the land so that no moisture can
escape. Of course if several teams are plowing one
man may follow steadily with tools for fitting the
land.

Save the moisture. It is wise not to sow the
seed before there is plenty of moisture stored. In
this connection the reader should study the preced-
ing advice upon summer seeding. Save all the
moisture you have and accumulate as much more
as you possibly can before sowing the seed. And
yet one can not safely delay sowing longer than
till about the 10th of August, and if it can be sown in
a good seedbed with sufficient moisture by the first
of August all the better. The time of sowing is a
local question. In Louisiana one can safely sow
the last of October, yet north of the Ohio Eiver late
July and early August sowing is much safer than
any later sowing.

Inoculation in Advance. — It is well to inoculate
the soil for this fall seeding, and the reader is asked
to note with care what has been written elsewhere
on this subject. One way of getting this inoculation
in a wheat stubble is to sow some alfalfa seed in
the wheat in March. If 5 pounds are then sown and
harrowed in with a sprinkling of inoculating earth,
say 100 pounds to the acre, and the soil and seed
mixed together, it is probable that a fair growth of
alfalfa will result and the inoculation spread
throughout the whole land. Then when the land is
plowed again and the young alfalfa turned under
the inoculation will be spread. Quite a little benefit

212 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

will be seen from the fertilizing effect of the young
alfalfa turned under. And further one can judge
quite well by the growth of this spring sown alfalfa
as to the state of fitness of his land, whether maybe
it needs more lime, more drainage or further enrich-
ing. The cost need not concern you, since with good
inoculation present less seed need be sown in the
fall. Indeed 15 pounds of seed sown on a good
seedbed well inoculated will give a better stand
than will 30 pounds sown on a poorly prepared seed-
bed or without good inoculation.

Ordinarily it is of no use to sow alfalfa seed with
the wheat in the fall. It usually perishes during
winter. There are soils and climates, however,
where it will succeed fairly well thus sown, and by
this means good inoculation could be had. Five
pounds of seed to the acre with about 100 pounds
of inoculating earth should be sown then.

All in all, to sow after wheat is a good prac-
tice wherever fall seeding is desired and a soil-build-
ing cover crop is not needed to prepare the land for
alfalfa growing. The one danger is that there may
not be enough moisture stored to give good fall
growth. The alfalfa must not be clipped nor pas-
tured the fall it is sown. The next year it is cut
three or four times, as would be any ordinary alfalfa
field.

Alfalfa After Spring Barley. — Spring-sown grain
has some advantages for alfalfa sowing. For one
thing the soil is more easily got ready for alfalfa
after the grain is removed. Then these grains are

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 218

not so apt to lodge if the soil is rich. Beardless spring
barley is particularly appropriate here. It ripens
very early and does not often lodge. It is almost
impossible to make the soil too rich for spring bar-
ley. It is advisable to plow the land for these spring
crops and to plow it deep. It is well always to sow
a small amount of alfalfa seed with the barley.
If it is the custom to sow 20 pounds of alfalfa seed
in the fall it will be much better to sow 5 pounds of
this in the spring at time of seeding the barley. This
will help the inoculation very much indeed and the
15 pounds sown in the fall will give a better stand
than would the whole 20 pounds sown at that time.

The same rules laid down for sowing after pota-
toes and wheat apply with equal force for sowing
after spring barley and should be studied.

The one trouble with all this scheme is that it pre-
supposes a very fertile soil and quite a little rain-
fall in late July and August. Given these things
one ought to succeed admirably following this plan.

Alfalfa After Oats. — What has been said of seed-
ing after barley applies fairly well to oats. The
field should be well plowed in spring. Five pounds
of alfalfa seed should be sowed to each acre to pro-
mote inoculation. If no alfalfa has ever grown
on the land and inoculation is doubted, soil should
also be spread or sown and promptly harrowed un-
der. Then the oats if cut off for hay will leave a
far better seedbed than if allowed to ripen. Ripen-
ing oats draw tremendously on the soil moisture. It
is a great help to mow them off for hay when coming

214 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

into bloom. Thus the land may be prepared very
much earlier for its destined crop of alfalfa.

Alfalfa After Crimson Clover. — Where the cli-
mate is mild enough to permit its growth crimson
clover forms an admirable preparatory crop for fall
sown alfalfa. The subject is mentioned in an earlier
chapter, but I will here sum up its advantages and
manner of use. Crimson clover is an annual. Sown
in the late summer it grows during the fall and
whenever it can during warm days in winter. It
makes very rapid growth in spring, blooms in May,
ripens seed and dies. It is not a good clover for for-
age unless fed off green. Half ripe crimson clover
heads are dangerous when fed to animals, making
"hair balls " in their stomachs and killing them some-
times. A fairly good crop of crimson clover will
yield to the soil as much nitrogen as would cost $15
per acre, if one were to purchase it in the bag. It
comes off or goes under early enough to make easy
the preparation of a good seedbed. There is seldom
danger of insufficient moisture when crimson clover
is the crop preceding alfalfa, supposing the land to
be well managed after the clover is ready to turn
under.

On the other hand crimson clover does not thrive
well without inoculation, and natural inoculation
seems absent except along the Atlantic seaboard.
Doubtless artificial soil inoculation would result in
great gain with this plant elsewhere. Crimson clo-
ver provides a great deal of very valuable humus.

Mr. Jack's Use of Crimson Clover. — In eastern

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 215

Virginia, under the direction of C. V. Piper, J. M.
Westgate and Nicholas Schmitz of the Department
of Agriculture, J. F. Jack is sowing what may
be well termed an alfalfa ranch. His estate consists
of nearly 2,000 acres along the Rappahannock River.
When Mr. Jack took this land much of it was in a
most impoverished condition.

The land is first plowed and planted to corn with
250 pounds per acre of raw bone meal. Sometimes
other fertilizers are used. The plowing is deeper
and more thorough than the land has ever known
before.

Next, at last cultivation of corn, crimson clover
seed is sown at the rate of about 20 to 30 pounds
per acre. A small growing wild hairy clover is
found on these fields that probably inoculates the
crimson clover and it grows well. In May this
crimson clover is knee high all over the fields. Then
it is turned under, plowing about 8 inches deep. Lime
is put on, either ground limestone at the rate of
about 2 to* 3 tons per acre or burned lime. Intensive
cultivation is given the land till August, the pur-
pose being to store the land with as much moisture
as possible.

Then men come and sow with hand labor inoc-
ulating earth. This Mr. Jack can get from Eis
own farm, though originally he had it shipped to
him from sweet clover beds along the Potomac
Eiver. Immediately behind the men who distribute
the earth walk other men with wheelbarrow seeders
and distribute alfalfa seed. Behind these men come

216 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

harrows and almost instantly the seed and inocu-
lating earth are covered up. The fertilizer is usu-
ally 400 pounds per acre of raw bone meal, though
other sources of phosphorus have been used as well.

The result is as certain as mathematics. Mr. Jack
at Belle Grove gets stands of alfalfa every time,
good, thrifty, healthy, profitable alfalfa.

It is very notable, however, that wherever Mr.
Jack has applied a little manure there he gets much
stronger crimson clover and much heavier alfalfa
as well. It is not yet proved that a man can build
successfully very poor soils without manures. Cer-
tainly the work is greatly accelerated when manures
are available.

I have treated at some length the experiences
of Mr. Jack because I know of no more impor-
tant work being done anywhere in the east. Here
one sees land taken in impoverished condition fairly
representing millions of acres of farming lands in
the older eastern states, unprofitable to farm, worth-
less as an investment unless redeemed, and by appli-
cation of plain and well tested agricultural prin-
ciples brought rapidly into profitable culture again.
Mr. Jack's success, doing this work on a large scale
and as a business venture, is a lesson in soil build-
ing and business methods in farming of illumining
importance to the whole farming world.

Rate of Seed per Acre. — There are in a bushel of
alfalfa seed about 14,000,000 seeds, more or less,
according to their size and weight. Thirty pounds
to the acre then would put about 160 seeds to the

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 217

square foot — something over one seed to each square
inch of soil. An alfalfa plant requires about 16 to
25 square inches of space. Thus use of 30 pounds
of seed is from 16 to 25 times too much, supposing
that each seed dropped made a living plant. When
sown in drills one pound of seed is enough for an
acre, and seeding in drills will be a practical scheme
in America.

One pound of seed per acre makes approximately
five seeds to each square foot. There ought to be
nine plants per square foot to make a good stand
on ordinary soil fit for alfalfa growing. That would
require two pounds of seed, sown broadcast, if
every seed made a plant. The germination of alfalfa
seeds is not usually perfect; often with the best
seed only about 75 per cent will germinate the first
year. And not every seed will be covered right for
germination. Thus if we allow half to perish for
lack of right planting we will come to a need of four
pounds of seed per acre to give an ideally perfect
stand.

As a matter of fact this amount is often sown.
Where one desires to grow alfalfa seed a thin stand
is better than a thick stand and four pounds of seed
will suffice. Of course one must be sure of his seed-
bed and of his seed if he ventures to use so thin a
seeding. And he ought to be sure that the land is
inoculated. On inoculated soil a thin seeding will
give a better stand than a thick seeding will on un-
inoculated soil.

The Ohio experiment station has made an inter-

218

ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

esting test of this very matter and the results are
herewith recorded:

The Ohio station put out a thick and thin seeding test of
alfalfa June 27, 1907, at the rates of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 pounds
of seed per acre. The seed was distributed through the grass-
seeding attachment of an ordinary wheat drill after repeated and
careful testing. It was dropped in front of and covered by the
drill hoes.

The results of this test thus far appear in the following table:

THICK AND THIN SEEDING OF ALFALFA.

SEED USED PER ACRE.

No. plants
per sq. foot
July 31, 1907.

No. plants
per sq. foot
May 2, 1908.

Total pounds hay
per acre, 1908
(3 cuttings}.

13

11

7 862

33

27

8 648

15 pounds

45

34

8 678

56

44

8 557

25 pounds

70

49

7,876

It will be noted that the maximum yield was harvested from
the plot receiving 15 pounds of seed per acre, but that 10 pounds
of seed gave within 30 pounds of as large a yield of hay per
acre. The yield from 20 pounds of seed is somewhat lower than
from 10 and 15 pounds, and the yield from 25 pounds decidedly
lower, exceeding the yield from 5 pounds by an insignificant
amount.

It should be stated that 5 pounds of seed per acre proved a
little light in so far as holding the weeds in check is concerned.
If a few large weeds had not been removed from this plot it
would have presented a somewhat ragged appearance. This
being done the quality of the alfalfa was as satisfactory as on
any plot.

This ground was in ideal condition for alfalfa when seeded,
having been plowed some eight weeks previous and harrowed at
intervals of 10 to 20 days until seeded. Under such conditions
10 to 15 pounds of seed per acre would seem to be enough. It is
to be doubted whether more than 15 pounds of alfalfa seed per
acre is needed in this state when a good seed bed is prepared,
and it is surely cheaper to prepare such a seed bed than to buy
alfalfa seed to waste among clods, or in a loose, dried out soil.

As a matter of experience extending over many
years I advise the use of 15 to 20 pounds of seed
for ordinary soils and under ordinary conditions.

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 219

While it is true that this gives a good many more
plants than are needed, yet these will crowd each
other out in time and about enough will survive to
make an ideal stand. An extra alfalfa plant is
simply a weed in the field, but it is the best weed
that can be selected, and it undoubtedly deters the
growth of other weeds to a greater or less extent.

Thick Fall Seeding Wrong. — Men have sown as
much as 40 pounds of seed to the acre in the fall.
This is a serious error. The plants standing so thick-
ly, more than 200 of them to the square foot, so
crowd each other that they can not grow as they
ought, and so no root gets strong as it should before
the winter sets in. The result is that the frost lifts
and destroys a large percentage of them all. With
half the seed sown and stronger plants more would
have been alive in the spring.

Curiously enough the better the land is adapted to
alfalfa growing the fewer plants an acre of it will
carry. I have seen wonderful alfalfa meadows with
no more than 40,000 or 50,000 plants to the acre.
Each root, however, had many stools and stems,
a hundred perhaps or more from the one root.

Solving the Seed. — If the seed is sown on freshly
harrowed land it is best. The seedbed should be
firm, well worked down, yet freshly stirred. Thus
the seed stick wherever they happen to strike and do
not roll around or get in bunches. The manner of
distribution is not very essential. Perhaps the most
even distribution is had by the wheelbarrow seeder.
Any of the commercial seed sowers on the market

220 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

will do good work in capable hands. An end gate
broadcast seeder that may be attached to any wagon
will do good work. It may be sown by hand if the
operator understands seed sowing, or it may be sown
with a drill, letting the seed fall behind or in front
of the hoes, according to circumstances and the con-
dition of the ground. The aim is ultimately to cover
the seed an inch or about an inch deep. The harrow
may follow the sower and finish the covering. Prob-
ably for this purpose the common slant-tooth
smoothing harrow is the best implement. When seed
and inoculating soil are applied together, the drill
or fertilizer distributer is the best implement to
use.

Drilling in the Seed. — The American Seeding Ma-
chine Co. has developed a drill that will sow alfalfa
seed accurately in rows 6" apart, putting it in at any
desired depth. I have seen alfalfa sown with one of
these machines, with 20 pounds of seed to the acre,
that was at least 10 times too thick. It is evident that
with a perfect seedbed and a proper alfalfa drill one
need sow no more than 5 pounds of seed to the acre.
This means a fine seedbed, firm underneath, level and
smooth. The saving of seed would pay for all the
labor of preparing the seedbed and the resultant
thrift of the alfalfa would be very fine to see. This
machine will drill in 4 pounds of seed to the acre, and
to a required depth.

Alfalfa with Red Clover for Inoculation. — When-
ever it is suspected that alfalfa may be adapted to
a soil and red clover is to be sown there in the reg-

SEEDING AND CUTTING. 221

ular rotation, alfalfa should be mixed with the clover
seed. If 10 per cent of alfalfa seed is used it will be
enough to give a good sprinkling of alfalfa plants
and later a thorough inoculation of the land. How
this inoculation comes we do not know. Certain it
is that when alfalfa is sown on suitable soil, dry and
with lime enough, it becomes inoculated in a year
or two by natural means. Thus two things are ac-
complished: One gets a good general idea of the
suitability of the soil to alfalfa and he gets it in-
oculated so that when a little later he sows alfalfa
alone it assuredly grows strong from the start.

Furthermore, the mixture of red clover and
alfalfa is a good mixture anyway. It makes more
hay and more pasture than red clover pure. It en-
riches the soil more efficiently. Alfalfa is nearly as
easily established as red clover. If sown with oats
or if the wheat is harrowed to let the seed be covered
it is certain to make a pretty good stand mixed in
this way.

Red Clover with Alfalfa. — On the other hand,
some men practice sowing red clover with alfalfa.
They claim that with the addition of about 20 per
cent of red clover seed to the alfalfa they get a heav-
ier yield of hay the first year following the seeding
and the next year pure alfalfa results which outyields
adjoining fields or plots that have had no red clover
in them. That is, the decay of the red clover roots,
they assert, enriches the soil for the alfalfa, This
is said of some soils in Pennsylvania. In my own
experience this is not a very good practice, since

222 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

it leaves the alfalfa a little thin on the ground after
the clover has died out, but I have not tried it more
than once or twice.

Alsike Clover and Alfalfa. — These sow well to-
gether and make wonderful forage either for soiling,
feeding off for pasturage or for hay. It is best, of
course, to call it an alsike field and treat it as though
no alfalfa were sown in it, since the alfalfa is much
more permanent than the alsike. Alsike, however, is
in some soils more permanent than red clover and
will sometimes last as long as four or five years. It
does not cut more than one, or at most two, crops of
hay in a year. Some of the loveliest pasturage the
writer has ever seen has been a mixture of alsike
clover, alfalfa and smooth brome grass.

INOCULATION AND NITROGEN.

Many once deep, dark mysteries are now cleared
up so that we smile at what once made men despair.
Alfalfa growing was once as deep a mystery as any
one could name. Sown in Colorado, Utah or Cali-
fornia alfalfa thrived from the start almost. Sown
in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky or New York it often
failed. When it lived it was for some months or a
year or more a feeble, unhappy, sickly plant. After a
time perhaps it recovered and made wonderful
growth.

Why This Difference? — Why should it behave so
differently in different regions? Of course there
are several answers to this query. One is that some
soils are filled with lime and phosphorus, are dry
and filled with air. Alfalfa loves such soils. But
the other and more hidden and mysterious reason
is that of the nitrifying bacteria that help alfalfa
grow. These bacteria are naturally present in some
soils. They live on more species of legumes than
alfalfa alone. Burr clover (Medicago arabica or
Medicago denticulata) carries the same inoculation,
uses the same bacteria. So does sweet clover or
melilotus. Doubtless there are other wild legumes
growing in western arid soils that use the same bac-
teria. On the other hand, in eastern soils these bac-
teria were absent almost altogether.

One of the best illustrations of the lack of inoculat-

224 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

ing bacteria was seen in Christian County, Kentucky.
A field of good limestone soil was well enriched
and sown to alfalfa in the fall. A fine stand re-
sulted and I visited it the next spring, some time
early in May. The alfalfa was short, stunted, of yel-
low color, clearly destined to be a failure. Careful
search revealed no nodules on the roots. One bunch
of thrifty alfalfa was in the middle of the field,
another at one edge, near where had stood a negro's
cabin. I dug up these plants and found abundant
inoculation, the nodules being plentiful. I dug out
the soil around these spots and threw it over the
field. Eains distributed the bacteria still further,
so that in a year the whole field was inoculated and
yielded a heavy crop of hay, about six tons to the
acre. The land had been well limed.

Vital Relation of Bacteria. — What is the vital re-
lation between bacteria and alfalfa? I make no
pretense to exact scientific knowledge on this ques-
tion. As near as I understand it the case is about
as follows : Alfalfa is a legume. All or nearly all
leguminous plants are aided in their growth by bac-
teria that associate themselves with the plants, living
on the roots or on the rootlets. With plants using
these bacteria existence without them is precarious
and often impossible.

Securing Nitrogen. — The problem of fertility, of
production of plants, of crop yield is a curious one.
Some elements going to make up plants are mineral;
these we find in the ash of plants. A large part is
water; this comes easily enough from the soil. A

INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 225

large part is carbon; carbon is taken from the air
by the leaves of the plant. There is plenty of car-
bon always for plant growth. There is usually
plenty of water. Mineral elements — potash, phos-
phorus, lime, iron and so on — are easily enough
added to the soil. The sole remaining element is
nitrogen. Nitrogen is one of the essential elements
in the proteins of food, the albumens. Nitrogen is
essential to nearly all life, animal and plant. All the
higher animals need much nitrogen in their foods.
All the grains have in them much nitrogen. Nearly
all crops taken away from the soil remove a great
deal of nitrogen. Soil waters leach it away. Since
the beginning of the world everything has preyed
upon the nitrogen of the soil. The rocks in the be-
ginning held little or none of it. Whence did the
soils then obtain their nitrogen supply?

Two Classes of Plants. — There are two classes,
very broadly speaking, of plants in the world, the
nitrogen gatherers and the nitrogen users. Corn,
wheat, the grasses, potatoes, flax, oats, nearly all
farm crops use nitrogen and can not get it except
as it is already stored for them in the soil. That
at least is as far as we know now. At any rate
soils grow poor in nitrogen when crops of corn,
wheat, hay or almost any crop except clover or some
other legume is grown upon it. Certain crops are
soil builders. Certain other crops are soil robbers.
The legumes are the soil builders. They get nitrogen
in some way. How do they do this?

Abundant Nitrogen in Air. — Nitrogen exists in

226 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

enormous amounts in the air. Nearly 80% of the
air is pure nitrogen. Why can not the leaves take
it directly in as they do their carbon from the air?
That we do not know, but they can not do it. Plants
will starve and perish for nitrogen with their leaves
bathed in that substance, with their roots surround-
ed with it as well, for in all porous soils there is
much air.

About Bacteria. — Bacteria do the work. Bacteria
are very minute plants, sometimes almost like ani-
mals in having some power of motion. Yeast is a
bacteria. They are intensely minute. It would take
5,200 of them, placed in a row, to be an inch long.
Twenty-seven million could be on a square inch of
space. A farmer can not ever hope to see one ; it
takes a powerful microscope to show one, yet any
farmer can see the work they do.

It is thought that there is really only one sort of
bacteria for all the clovers, but that habit has divided
them into varieties, similar yet unable to live on the
same plants. Thus there are the red clover bacteria,
the cowpea bacteria, the alfalfa bacteria, and many
more. Some bacteria live on several different plants,
just as the alfalfa bacteria thrive on melilotus, al-
falfa and burr clover.

These bacteria when they touch a tiny rootlet of
alfalfa have power to enter it and abide there. They
increase there and swarm in incredible numbers.
They are really parasites upon the plant, most like-
ly. The plant attacked puts out a protective cover-
ing, thus forming a swelling nodule on the little

INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 227

rootlet. This nodule is filled with these bacteria.
Nodules are not all alike ; some look like little seeds,
some like bunches of grapes. They vary in size and
shape very much. Nodules on alfalfa plants are
rather smaller usually than alfalfa seeds. They
exist only on the root hairs. Evidently these bac-
teria prefer the new fresh roots.

The Work of Bacteria. — What do the bacteria do
for the plant! In some way they digest nitrogen
and assimilate it. In some way the plant gets it.
How? We do not know that. Maybe they die and
decay and the plant absorbs them. Maybe the plant
assimilates part of them before they get old enough
to die. Anyway we know that they get hold of the
nitrogen that exists in the air and that comes down
into the soil through its pores, get hold of it, use it
and give it to the plants. That is the miracle that
lets life exist on this world of ours. A happy chance !
Yes, or a thought of God. It is certain that were it
not for this "chance," human life, and animal life as
well, would ultimately perish from the face of the
earth. On such tiny beings as these bacteria does all
life on the world hang for its ultimate existence.
Thoughtful men have long felt alarm over the state
of the world as far as the food supply of the people
was concerned, all because of this very drain of nitro-
gen from the soils by crop growing. Dr. Cyril Gr.
Hopkins says:

But a short time ago Sir William Crookes predicted that
within thirty or forty years England would experience a wheat
famine, due to the exhaustion of nitrogen in the soil, that would
be appalling in its effect; and Prof. Bela Korasey's warnings to

228 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Hungary have been even more emphatic. Indeed, Liebig, more
than fifty years ago, in speaking of one of the most common
methods of destroying sources of available nitrogen, said:

"Nothing will more certainly consummate the ruin of Eng-
land than the scarcity of fertilizers. It means the scarcity of
food. It is impossible that such a sinful violation of the divine
laws of nature should forever remain unpunished, and the time
will probably come for England, sooner than for any other coun-
try, when, with all her wealth in gold, iron, and coal, she will be
unable to buy one-thousandth part of the food which she has
during hundreds of years thrown recklessly away."

To produce good crops of alfalfa without the nitrogen gather-
ing bacteria requires exceedingly rich soil and liberal applica-
tions of barnyard manure or other nitrogenous fertilizer. Even
the rich black prairie soil of Illinois does not furnish sufficient
available nitrogen for maximum crops of alfalfa. No other crop
grown in Illinois requires such large quantities of nitrogen as
alfalfa.

Applications of available nitrogen to Illinois soil produce
crops of alfalfa which yield from two to four times as much hay
as crops which obtain all of their nitrogen from the natural
supply of the soil. The inoculation of Illinois soil with the
proper alfalfa bacteria enables the alfalfa to feed upon the in-
exhaustible supply of free nitrogen in the air and the inoculated
soil produces just as large crops of alfalfa as soil which has been
heavily fertilized with commercial nitrogen. Nitrogen costs
about 15 cents a pound in commercial fertilizers, and about 50
pounds of nitrogen are required to produce one ton of alfalfa
hay and the weight of the free nitrogen in the atmosphere is
equal to about 12 pounds to each square inch of surface of the
earth.

In Summary. — Nitrogen i's constantly being
drained out of the soil by growing crops. Wheat,
maize, oats, hay, nearly all farm crops take out nitro-
gen. It is gathered together in the grains; a grain
elevator represents the fertility of many a field. It
goes to the cities ; it becomes the food of man. Ow-
ing to our wasteful practice, hard to reform in mod-
ern civilization, the nitrogen waste is poured into
the sea. Soon would the soils of the world become

INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 229

barren and mankind starve and perish if the Cre-
ative force of the world had not provided this means
of renewing the nitrogen of the soil. The tiny bac-
teria do it. All clovers gather nitrogen from the air.
Alfalfa gathers more than any other known clover
unless perhaps the sweet clover be an exception. Al-
falfa powerfully enriches the soil on which it grows.
Bacteria make it" possible to grow alfalfa. It will
not grow long without the bacteria.

How to Get Bacteria. — How are we to get them,
how make them most healthful and vigorous? Many
schemes have been tried for getting the bacteria in
the soil. They can be reared artificially in cultures,
and the seed treated with the culture, when each
seed ought to be coated with a film of these bacteria.
Each seed sown o-ught to produce a plant abundantly
inoculated. These are the so-called commercial cul-
tures. The theory is good. Unluckily some influence
that we do not understand, maybe the action of di-
rect light, usually destroys the vitality of the germs
and the cultures do not work. There is hardly any
evidence that these cultures are successful. It is
too bad that it should be true: the theory is so
plausible, the results, could they be secured, would
be so delightful. I believe the thing could yet be
brought to work, only that with the advance of
good farming it will not be long till the demand for
such cultures will cease, at least as far as alfalfa is
concerned. Curiously enough these bacteria are
very pervasive. Once a man begins to grow alfalfa
on his farm and to use manure from alfalfa hay,

230 ALFALFA FLEMING IN AMERICA.

very soon he has the land all inoculated so that he
can not sow a field anywhere that the bacteria do
not find the young plants. And when once alfalfa
has grown on a field the inoculation persists for
several years after it is plowed up. We do not
understand these things yet. Maybe we never will.
It is mysterious that even the use of manure not
made from alfalfa hay, 'on a farm where alfalfa has
never grown, should often result in inoculating the
soil with alfalfa bacteria. There is no doubt of this
fact. I have seen it repeatedly.

Inoculation with Soil. — Soil from a field where al-
falfa has grown, or sweet clover (melilotus) has
grown, or burr clover has grown, distributed over
the new alfalfa field, is a safe and sure inoculation.
Some suggest the danger of infecting the new field
with weeds or with diseases by this practice. That
danger is remote. One hundred pounds of soil will
inoculate an acre quite well if it has good distribu-
tion. That much soil is taken from a small place
of only a few square feet. It would contain few
seeds. A few sweet clover seeds in the soil do no
harm to the alfalfa anyway. No other weeds are
likely to be found where good clover or alfalfa is
growing.

Method of Using Soil. — How to best manage this
soil inoculation! Take the soil from the surface
down as deep as the land is well filled with roots.
Dig it and carry it home and put it on the barn
floor. Spread it, not too thin, and work it over
from time to time to help it dry and make it fine

INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 231

for sowing. Do not let thj^&un strike it even for
a moment; sunlight destrd^J^ese bacteria. When
you have it fine enough for sowing you' can either
mix it with the seed and sow both together, say 100
pounds of soil and 15 or 20 pounds of seed, sowing
them on an acre, or you can sow the seed and soil
separately. If you have only a small field or plot to
sow, do it late in the day after the sun has ceased
to shine, and then harrow it at once. If you must
spread it while the sun is shining let the harrow
follow immediately behind the soil sower.

One can put the soil in a fertilizer drill and drill
it into the land. That is an excellent way. Anyway
will do so that the inoculating soil is not exposed to
sunlight, but is covered up in the ground.

Coating Seed ivith Earth. — The Illinois experi-
ment station has developed a very successful way of
inoculating alfalfa seed, requiring comparatively
little soil for its complete success. Water is heated
and enough glue dissolved in it to make the water a
trifle sticky. It is then cooled and the seed is well
wetted with this water. E arth taken from a good al-
falfa field or sweet clover patch is made fine and run
through a sieve to take out lumps, roots and stones.
It is better if the earth is dry, but it ought to be dried
in a dark place, at least not exposed to sunlight. The
earth and seed are mixed together till each seed is
coated with a film of this dry and inoculated earth.
No surplus earth need be used, so each seed is coated.
The seed is immediately sown and covered as fast as
sown in some manner. Perfect inoculation seems to

232 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

result. Some farmers who have adopted this plan
maintain that it is not even necessary to add glue to
the water, though that would doubtless make it some-
what more effective.

Conditions Favorable to Bacteria. — Now to make
those bacteria most healthful, most active, consider
their tastes. Acids in the soil promptly kill them
off. Much lime in the soil makes them very vig-
orous and active. So make the soil sweet with lime,
alkaline with lime, not sour. And they feed on air.
So let the water out of the land and the air into it.
Drain and subsoil or plow deep. Then the soil is
ready to work miracles for you. Then one sees com-
ing from the land rich crops of alfalfa, many times
as much nitrogen as was originally in the soil, feed-
ing his animals, feeding the soil if the manure is
put back.

Inoculation in Advance. — If one plans to sow al-
falfa in a year or two he should begin by getting a
source of inoculating soil on his own farm. Let
him prepare a narrow strip of land across a field,
lime it, drain it, enrich it, inoculate it and sow it
to alfalfa. Do not say, "I will experiment here
with alfalfa." Alfalfa is no experiment any longer.
It is sure to grow on sweet dry rich soil with in-
oculation. There is no chance of failure. But on
this strip you will get indication of the readiness of
your field for alfalfa. If it grows there vigorously
all along, and stands the winter quite well, you
know that your soil is dry enough, sweet enough and
rich enough for alfalfa. And from this land you

INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 233

will get inoculating earth for all the rest of the
farm. It may perhaps be necessary to ship in
enough, for the first strip, though it is today a rare
neighborhood that does not have in it either some
sort of an alfalfa field with inoculated plants or a
sweet clover patch. Once you have the strip of in-
oculation on your farm you are independent; you
can go on and enlarge as fast as you please. An
acre of inoculated alfalfa would give soil enough for
inoculating at least an entire county.

Searching for Inoculation. — It is astonishing how
few farmers have ever seen a nodule on a clover
root. They are easily found, especially on some
sorts of clovers. One can pull up almost any thrifty
red clover root and find nodules in place, looking
like little white seeds. On the red clover they are
found on the larger roots, as well as on the finer
root hairs. The little creeping white clover has
nodules in plenty and they are easily found. Alfalfa
has nodules only on the smaller finer root hairs.
Thus they are not to be seen when one pulls vio-
lently a plant from the soil, especially if the earth
is hard and clayey. The little nodules remain in
the earth. They are very easily dislodged from their
hold on the roots. One must take the roots out with
some care and perhaps will need to wash the earth
away to find the nodules the first time. After he
has seen them once and knows what to look for he
will find them more easily the next time.

Appearance Reveals Inoculation. — After one
knows alfalfa well he can tell at a glance whether

234 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

a field or plant is inoculated. If it is of a rich
green color, if it is growing fast, if it looks healthy
and happy, be pretty sure that it is inoculated,
whether you did it or Nature did it. If, on the other
hand, it looks pale and yellow and unhappy and is
crowded by weeds and altogether miserable, be sure
that it is not inoculated.

Inoculated Soil a Fertiliser Laboratory. — Consider
what is doing in an inoculated soil where conditions
are right and alfalfa is growing thereon. Take the
yearly growth at only 4 tons per acre. Four tons
of alfalfa hay contain about 176 pounds of nitro-
gen, 40 pounds of phosphorus and 128 pounds of
potash. Nitrogen is sold for about 15 cents per
pound in various forms, often for a much higher
price. Phosphorus is sold at a low price for 5 cents
per pound. Potash is worth about the same price.
Thus in the crop of 4 tons of hay we find nitrogen
largely gathered by the bacteria worth $26.40,
potash worth $6.40, phosphoric acid worth $2 — all
these from one acre yielding only 4 tons of alfalfa
hay. The total is $34.80. The manurial value of
this yield is vastly more than this amount, since the
humus contained is worth more to the soil than one
can well estimate. And the value to the soil is nearly
double this estimate since we take no account of the
root growth, also stored with nitrogen. Prof. Voor-
hees estimates the fertilizing value of an acre of al-
falfa well grown to be about $65, in comparison of
course with commercial fertilizers bought.

Soil Building with Alfalfa.^QnQ must not rashly

INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 235

conclude, however, that alfalfa used in any way is
a soil builder. There is reason to suspect that al-
falfa is one of the mo>st energetic searchers after
potash and phosphoric acid known to the soil. The
roots go deeper, penetrate more, dissolve more than
those of most plants.

Thus if the alfalfa is all sold off from the farm
it may become steadily poorer and poorer. It is
certain that it would be poorer in mineral elements.
There have been instances under the writer's ob-
servation where the land 'has grown alfalfa continu-
ously for some years and nothing returned, where
after a time it would not grow alfalfa any longer,
nor anything else very well. Exhaustion of avail-
able phosphorus would seem to be the most rea-
sonable explanation of this phenomenon. In some
instances where alfalfa has grown well for some
years and then failed it has been impossible to re-
establish it on the same land. This has occurred
where hay 'has been sold off and nothing returned
to the soil.

Alfalfa is a vigorous soil enricher, provided the
forage is fed on the farm and the manure religiously
returned to the land, not necessarily to the very field
where the alfalfa grew, but to some adjoining field.
Thus the one field builds another, the two> may be
set in alfalfa after a time and they will build a third
and in this way through the magic of alfalfa roots
a whole farm may be redeemed from the scourge of
poverty and barrenness. Thus may vast stores of
nitrogen be gathered. One may need to buy p'hos-

236 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

phorus, possibly potash, often lime, but nitrogen,
that most costly and most vital of all soil ingredi-
ents, he is getting every day in immense amounts by
the magic of alfalfa roots and their tiny allies the
alfalfa bacteria.

ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION.

With some men alfalfa is the best money crop
that can be grown. Naturally these men desire to
keep their land continuously in alfalfa. They prac-
tice something like the following system : After the
last crop of hay is cut in the fall the alfalfa stubble
is plowed deeply and fitted and sown back to alfalfa
in the spring. Or the alfalfa is mown off in May
or early June, again in July, and is at once broken
and sown to alfalfa in late July or early August. In
some parts of Maryland alfalfa winters well the first
year but kills the second winter. Thus they sow it
each year and declare that no crop pays so well as
forage for dairy cows.

There may doubtless be instances where this is
good practice for a time. It is true, nevertheless,
that soils are better off to have a change of crops
now and then, and crops are certainly better for
fresh soils. While alfalfa is a soil enricher in the
sense of adding stores of nitrogen it is a soil deplet-
er so far as phosphorus and potash and lime go.
More than that, there are hidden influences that we
do not understand that make soils unfriendly to
plants that have grown in them too long. It is not-
able that some of the very oldest books on agricul-
ture in referring to alfalfa say: "It endures for
many years and afterward may be plowed up and
the land sown to corn. Land should not be sown

238 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

again to lucerne (alfalfa) till it has rested for some
seasons." It is safe to assume that the ancients
had seen signs that alfalfa best liked fresh land.

Alfalfa culture is too new in America for us to
know much about this question. It is the practice
on Woodland Farm to grow alfalfa for four years
on a field, sometimes for a longer time, then to plow
and plant twice to corn (maize), after which the land
is sown again to alfalfa. Some of our fields have
had alfalfa on them for about 12 years all told. We
do not think that w<e see any signs yet of deteriora-
tion. In some instances we see that the alfalfa is
much more vigorous than it ever was. We feed the
soil, however, with phosphorus when growing alfalfa
and with manure when growing corn. It is doubtless
better to let a crop of some cereal or roots intervene
between the crops of alfalfa and if two years inter-
vene it may be wiser ; we do not know.

There are yet no serious diseases of alfalfa preva-
lent. On soils well stored with carbonate of lime
alfalfa seems so vigorous and healthy that it resists
disease most markedly. Yet there are illusive and
hard to determine causes that make soils sicken of
plants of one order and produce more vigorously
of plants of a different order in rotation.

Alfalfa in the Rotation. — It is often objected that
alfalfa does not fit well into a rotation, that it is too
long in getting established, too feeble an infant, and
demands too long a use of the land.

On land well suited to alfalfa growing it establishes
itself as soon as does red clover. The following

ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 239

year after being sown it will make a half more hay
than will red clover and the hay. is -of better quality.
It may then be plowed under as red clover would be,
or it may continue another year with more profit,
while red clover can not, since that plant is almost
biennial in its nature. So it is certainly not true
that alfalfa can not fit into a rotation, no matter how
short it is.

Even as a catch crop in corn I found when I
mixed red clover, alfalfa and crimson clover to-
gether and sowed at last cultivation that I got more
plants through the winter of alfalfa than of either
of the other clovers. Doubtless on good lands, filled
with lime, alfalfa as a manuring crop to be sown in
corn would be more profitable than almost anything
that could be sown. The difficulty in the way of
this use is that usually the seed is too dear and when
one gets a stand of alfalfa he sees too much profit
in leaving it to let him desire to plow it under.

How Long Should Alfalfa Stand? — This is very
much a local question. We have instances of alfalfa
fields 10, 20 even 40 years old that have never been
re-seeded. I have walked over fields that were said
to be 40 years old and they were yet in vigorous pro-
duction. This was in Texas, near San Antonio.
This book is not written for men who can grow al-
falfa in that way; they need no books save pocket-
books. The fact that alfalfa is such a long-lived
plant in dry regions with well drained soils and dry,
warm winters has worked to mislead men living far-
ther east or north. If they could forget that alfalfa

240 ALFAL.FA FARMING IN AMERICA.

in some countries lives ten or a dozen years or more
the men of Iowa, Illinois, Ohio or New York would
be better off. The simple truth is that after the first
year alfalfa is in its prime. It may yield as much
the third year or may not. It will often begin to de-
cline somewhat on the fourth year and may be not-
ably less productive on the fifth year. By the sixth
year the owner begins to wonder whether, after all,
alfalfa is as valuable a crop as he had supposed and
his neighbors begin to say "I told you so!"

Now 'had this man turned under his alfalfa after
it had given him 3 or 4 years of cuttings he would
have had some twinges of conscience and pangs of
remorse at what he was doing, and his neighbors
would have called him a fool for i l killing the golden
goose, ' ' but he would have in the long run made more
money and alfalfa would never have gone into dis-
repute.

Suggested Rotations. — In Ohio, Indiana and Illi-
nois maize (corn) is king. Nothing else pays so
well as corn and alfalfa, with animals to eat the stuff
they pile up. Hence the most profitable rotation
here will likely be, corn two years, alfalfa with bar-
ley one year, alfalfa alone three or four years, ac-
cording to soil, then corn again, two years, and thus
on around in regular rotation.

Rotation for a 300 Acre Farm. — Corn two years,
barley and alfalfa one year, alfalfa three years,
means a 6-year rotation. Let us see what one would
get in that rotation each year. Say the fields are of
40 acres each ; then he has 80 acres in corn on alfalfa

ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 241

sod, after the rotation is once under way. This corn
ought to yield at least 85 bushels per acre, and may
yield more than 100 bushels. One field will be on
alfalfa sod simply, the other field will be corn stubble
heavily manured. Thus there will be about 7,000
bushels of corn, shelled measure. The next field will
be a 40-acre field sown down to alfalfa with barley,
either fall-sown alfalfa on barley stubble or spring-
sown alfalfa with barley as a, nurse crop. In the one
case there will be about 1,000 bushels of barley grain,
maybe more, and no hay from 'this 40. Then there
will remain three fields of 40 acres each in estab-
lished alfalfa, one of them sown last year, one the
year before, one the year before that. These fields
will yield about 4 tons of hay per acre, maybe more,
or say 450 to 500 tons of hay.

We have left about 60 acres for permanent pas-
ture, orchard, barn lots, woodland and so on. Now
let us sum up what we have as a yield from the
300 acre farm: corn, 7,000 bushels; barley, 1,000
bushels, or else, barley hay, with some alfalfa in it,
50 to 75 tons ; alfalfa hay, 450 to 500 tons. Pasture
left 60 acres, which will keep the work teams, cows
and pigs during summer and give a good place for
animals to run and exercise in cold weather when
it will not do to let them step on the alfalfa field.

As working horses need little or no grain in winter
when they have good alfalfa hay it seems clear that
the 7,000 bushels of corn will about balance the 450
tons of hay. If there is need of more corn to feed
out the pigs it can be bought. If cattle or sheep are

242 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

to be fed, or dairy cows kept, one can hardly have
too much alfalfa,

The cash value of these crops would be about as
follows : The farmer oould not sell all of the 7,000
bushels of corn since his horses must be fed. He
could sell 6,000 bushels, for say 50 cents per bushel or
$3,000, or he could sell of his hay, 400 tons, by feed-
ing his com stover to his cows and work teams ; the
hay would be worth about $8 per ton as an average
low price, or $3,200 or more. The 1,000 bushels of
barley would be worth say 60 cents, or $600. The
gross returns then from the 300 acre farm devoted
to corn and alfalfa would be around $6,800. And if
one bought what phosphorus his crops took out of
his soil it is probable that he could keep on selling
off these crops for some years. It would certainly
be far better to feed the crops, and the profits ought
to be larger in proportion.

Crop Failures. — "Hold on!" I hear the reader
say, ' * do you not allow for crop failures in this esti-
mate of yours!"

One has occasionally a poor year in corn growing.
A crop failure in corn grown on well drained, well
enriched land, on alfalfa sod, has yet to be recorded.
A crop failure with alfalfa has not yet been recorded.
Certainly some years produce more than other years.
Alfalfa is the safest and surest of all crops when
established on kindly soil. The risk is very slight,
only one has always the labor of harvest, not the
labor of preparing the land each year, of eternally
seeding.

ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 243

Saving of Labor Cost in Alfalfa Growing. — Note
in this example that on the 320-acre farm only 80
acres are plowed each year for corn, and 40 acres
more plowed and sowed to alfalfa, only 120 acres
of plowing in all. The rest of the land needs neither
plowing nor planting; 60 acres of it in permanent
pasture, 120 acres of it in alfalfa, already sown,
already set, needing only the sun and showers to leap
into joyful harvest. The saving of labor is tremen-
dous on an alfalfa farm rightly managed.

A Shorter Rotation. — One can use this rotation
with corn and alfalfa; Corn one year, wheat one
year, the stubble plowed and sown to alfalfa, al-
falfa two years, then corn again. This takes four
fields and is in many ways a good rotation, and a
labor saver, too. How would it figure out on a 300-
acre farm!

Sixty acres are devoted to corn and as this is al-
ways on alfalfa sod and must also have manure, we
can not well escape a yield of 90 bushels per acre, or
anyway 5,000 bushels. Corn stubble well prepared
is a good place for wheat. The 60 acres of wheat
then we will say produces 25 bushels per acre, or
1,500 bushels. The wheat stubble is plowed instantly
when the wheat is harvested and sown to alfalfa
which is mown for two years. This gives 120 acres
in alfalfa each year which will produce 480 or 500
tons of hay. Then there are 60 acres of pasture,
orchard and woodlot, as in the preceding example.
Summing this up we have 5,000 bushels of corn, and
selling 4,000 bushels at 50 cents gives $2,000. The

244 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

1,500 bushels of wheat may bring $1 per bushel and
may not ; call it that and we have $1,500. By utiliz-
ing the corn stover the alfalfa hay could mostly be
sold; say we sell 400 tons of it at $8, we have $3,200.
Adding up we have gross sales in this instance of
$6,700. The thing works out about the same. In
some ways this is the better rotation. For one thing
corn following corn, even for two years, suffers
somewhat from insects. In this rotation corn is al-
most absolutely sure as it is always on alfalfa sod
and is manured as well. It sho.uld never yield less
than 100 bushels per acre under such treatment.

Work for this Rotation. — In this rotation one finds
this amount of work to do each year : 60 acres of
alfalfa sod to break. This should be mown off four
times as the late mowing for some reason makes the
roots easier to break. One good three-horse team
of heavy horses will break the 60 acres, taking it in
a leisurely fashion from October till spring, when-
ever there is open weather. Alfalfa sod fits easily
for corn. The wheat is sown in the clean corn
stubble by simply disking and drilling in. It should
have additional phosphorus to start it vigorously
off before cold weather. The wheat stubble should
be plowed very swiftly after the wheat is taken off,
and here is the worst feature of this scheme; at the
same time one may need teams in the corn field and
in the alfalfa meadow. It may be necessary to ar-
range to hire additional teams at this time to get this
seeding well and promptly done. It will greatly help
if the wheat stubble is thoroughly disked the mo-

ALB1 ALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 245

ment the wheat is cut and shocked ; this will conserve
moisture and make the plowing easier. Or on some
soils and in some climates the disking alone will be
all that is needed for alfalfa seeding, so it is very
thoTOugh. And again there are places where when
the land is once well inoculated with bacteria alfalfa
may be sown in the wheat in the spring with first
rate stands resulting. If this is done the seed
should not be sown early; the land should get dry
enough to harrow and in April should be thoroughly
harrowed, not enough to destroy the wheat, but
enough to make a good seedbed, and the seed sown
and dragged in. This often increases the yield of
wheat and is pretty sure to result in a good stand of
alfalfa. It is not safe to try this method of seeding
except where wheat stands up well and Where the
land is thoroughly well inoculated with bacteria.

What Is Alfalfa Land WortM— Carrying these
two examples to their conclusion, what is good al-
falfa producing land in the cornbelt of America
worth as an investment!

Everything depends upon the management. Here
is an estimate of the cost of carrying on this farm :

EXPENSES.
Labor of 4 men for a year ..................................... $1,600

Interest on and deterioration in farm teams ................. 500

Extra labor in harvest, threshing: bill ....... ................ 400

Depreciation in machinery, repairs, fertilizer ............... 400

Taxes and repair of fences .................................. • 50°

Total ....................................................... $3,400

INCOME.
From sales of corn, wheat and alfalfa ...................... $6,700

From colts, pigs, poultry, veals, (pasture) ................... 30°

Total ....................... :

Less expense .............................................. • 3,400-

Net income ............................................... *3'600

246 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

This is 6% interest on $60,000. Thus the land
yields return on a valuation of $200 per acre.

Are these fanciful figures? Not at all, but plain
matter of fact business. And while we are estimat-
ing profits by sale of hay and grain, we do this only
because it is the easily-done thing, urging all along
that the hay and grain be fed on the farm and the
manure returned to the land, when net profits will
often be much greater than indicated above.

Such Profits in Actual Practice. — And are there
many farms now ready to yield corn and alfalfa in
this fashion? No. Most farms need thorough un-
der-draining first. Hardly any of Illinois is well
enough drained for alfalfa, neither is much of In-
diana or Ohio. Iowa has more dry land, perhaps.
Nearly any farm that a man might choose to make
into an alfalfa and corn farm would need much work
before he could safely expect any such returns. He
can find an acre, or a field that is all right; let him
then determine that ere he is thro-ugii with the thing
it will all of it be good enough. Make it a legacy to
the children to leave them a farm so well under-
drained, so well limed, if lime is needed, so fertile
that they can realize these results. It is easy; there
is no step to be found out ; the way is clear and plain
and the land will pay for the work as you go on.

Rotation in the Dairy Region. — In northern Ohio,
Illinois, Wisconsin and New York dairying is a great
business. Here alfalfa is especially desirable and
so is silage corn. Here also potatoes thrive and are

ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION. 247

profitable. Let us see what sort of rotation is
adapted to this region.

A considerable amount of land will naturally be
devoted to permanent pasture. Supposing we take
160 acres of land to be put under the plow. We will
begin with a field <of potatoes, 40 acres, planted early,
thoroughly well cultivated, dug early and marketed,
say 200 bushels per acre. This is 8,000 bushels a,t
50 cents, or $4,000. Alfalfa is sown after the pota-
toes. This remains two years after the first year,
thus 80 acres will be mown, or 320 tons of hay.
Forty acres will be turned under each year for corn,
part for the silo, part for the crib. .On the alfalfa
sod the corn will need no manure; this may all be
applied to the corn stubble and the land planted to
potatoes and thus back again to alfalfa.

How Many Coivs? — Fifty cows will consume in six
months about 100 tons of alfalfa hay. Letting them
have a ration of it, as is wise, at milking time during
summer, spring and fall they will get away easily
with 150 tons. Horses will take a lot more and there
will evidently be a surplus unless some good heifers
are raised. Fifty cows will consume 200 tons of si-
lage in six months. That will take the corn from 20
acres or less of the 40 devoted to it and leave approxi-
mately 20 acres to be ripened and put in crib.

Profit from the Coivs. — As to the profit of keeping
the 50 cows I prefer to let the experienced dairyman
make the estimate. There are cows that yield as
much as $125 in a year, and even much more than
that, and others that drop far below $100. It is safe

248 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

to leave the question with the dairyman, merely
pointing out to him that with corn and alfalfa he
needs buy no protein ; all that the old cow gives him
will be his and will come from his own soil. And
steadily, if he cares for the manure, will his farm im-
prove in fertility.

The Labor Cost. — The labor co-st of this farm will
not be very heavy, aside from the dairy work. Forty
acres of alfalfa sod will be plowed each year for corn,
40 acres sown to alfalfa after potatoes; the rest of
tillage work will be simple and easily managed.
Should more than 50 cows be kept more of the corn
will be made into silage, which may cause a need of
some dry grain not produced on the farm, mainly
for horse feeding,

YIELD OF ALFALFA.

I desire to raise no hopes in the reader's mind
that can not be realized and I have thus sought to be
moderate in my estimates of what alfalfa would
yield per acre. It is a most interesting question to
study, the possible yield of alfalfa in various soils.
In California, with a very long growing season, we
are assured that as much as 12 tons of dry hay has
been harvested per acre. This of course was done
by irrigation in a soil peculiarly well fitted to alfalfa
growing. It may fairly be taken as the extreme
limit of possibilities. There are alfalfa fields that
because of unfitness of soil, do not yield more than
one or two tons per acre. What then, ought we to
get?

Moisture the Limiting Factor. — Given plant food
in the soil and proper bacterial relations alfalfa
ought to grow about as well in one place as in an-
other. The limiting factor in almost all crop pro-
duction is water. Alfalfa usually does not have
moisture enough to make a maximum crop. Even
on wet soils, and chiefly on undrained soils, it does
not have water enough. That is because its roots do
not work in undrained soils so it must forage only
on the surface. All plants drink their food ; they do
not eat as animals do. Given water enough in a deep
pervious soil that the roots can use, and plant food,
alfalfa will do its best.

(249)

250 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

There is hardly any other plant that will so thor-
oughly pump the moisture out of soils as alfalfa.
Its roots reach down deep, its leaves transpire a
vast amount of water every day. For that reason
alfalfa is not usually very beneficial to a young
orchard, as it dries out the land too much. The
writer has seen a thick stand of Kentucky blue grass
so dried out by the alfalfa growing with it (the grass
an intruder) that it killed it out, root and branch.
This of course is most unusual; as a rule the grass
lives long enough to choke the alfalfa.

Amount of Water Used. — Unfortunately no one has
determined the amount of moisture used by alfalfa
in making a pound of dry matter. Taking the red
clover plant as a guide we may assume that it re-
quires from 400 to 500 pounds of water for each
pound of dry matter made. Guessing that it takes
450 pounds of water to make one pound of dry mat-
ter we reach the conclusion that to grow six tons of
alfalfa hay will require about 2,500 tons of water.
That is equivalent to about 25 inches of rainfall, if
none of it were lost. There is beside a considerable
loss by evaporation from the soil. To balance that
we know that we have a store of subsoil moisture
gathered during the winter and early spring rains.

Now, the rainfall during the 18 weeks that alfalfa
makes its hay crops (in the cornbelt region) is sel-
dom more than 18 inches and is often very much less
than that. So it is clear that lack of moisture is
often the limiting factor in alfalfa growing. For
that reason the writer, while he has grown six tons

YIELD OF ALFALFA. 251

on one acre on Woodland Farm repeatedly and has
known of much heavier yields elsewhere, has not
estimated that even good alfalfa would yield more
than five tons to the acre, and in fact advises grow-
ers to be grateful if they get four tons — grateful,
but not satisfied, as they should begin at once to con-
sider in What way they can bring up their average
yield.

It is unfair to the alfalfa plant to assume that it
has no greater producing power than red clover,
given the same amount of moisture. It probably
makes much better use of its water than does red
clover. And some varieties of alfalfa can do more
with a given amount of water than can other varie-
ties. Unfortunately we do not yet find any variety
specially adapted to dry soils and hot climates that
is at home in a rainy land or will do as much there
as common alfalfa.

Increasing Water-Holding Capacity. — In what
way can the water-holding capacity of the land be
increased? By deep draining, first, since that lets
the alfalfa roots feed down deep. By deep plowing
next. By use of the subsoil plow. The latter is in
many soils a very potent factor in increasing the
yield of alfalfa in dry years.

Yields Under Irrigation. — In irrigated regions
rainfall is of course not a limiting factor. There
soil fertility, length of season and systems of man-
agement control the yield very largely. I feel cer-
tain that I have grown nearly 10 tons of dry alfalfa
hay per acre on good land in a valley of Utah, under

252 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

a very hot sun, with, abundant water and a long
growing season. The practice was to flood the land
immediately before mowing off the crop; this made
the alfalfa start vigorously into new growth as soon
as it was raked off. In a week another flooding was
given, the earth taking all the water it could absorb.
As this land was beautifully drained by being under-
laid with sand and gravel of great depth and no un-
derlying moisture it never suffered from too much
moisture; thus growth was extremely rapid.

Furthermore, in that arid region the subsoil is
quite as fertile as the top soil. There is little differ-
ence in texture o,r soil content whether one takes soil
from the surface or from a depth of 20 feet or more,
and doubtless the alfalfa roots penetrated quite 20
feet in that soil.

I. D. O'Donnell once pointed out to the writer
near Billings, Mont., an irrigated farm of exactly
160 acres, all in alfalfa except a small lot around the
house and barn, maybe two acres in all, and from
which he had bought the hay one year. It amounted
to fully 1,000 tons, or a little more than six tons per
acre.

Irrigation is impractical under eastern farm con-
ditions, as a rule. There are farms, however, near
the mountains, in what might be called the Piedmont
sections of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Virginia and the Carolinas, where irrigation would
be quite easily arranged and some day this will be
done. Irrigation would pay richly in the East as well
as in the West. It is much practiced in humid Eng-

YIELD OF ALFALFA. 253

land, in France, Italy and other lands where farm-
ing is carried to a high pitch of perfection. Irriga-
tion of alfalfa is only practicable where soils are
permeable so that any excess of moisture will read-
ily sink away, or else are thoroughly well under-
drained.

Poverty of Soil a Factor. — After all the most fre-
quent limiting factor in alfalfa production in the
eastern states is soil fertility. There is not enough
phosphorus in the land, or it lacks humus and bac-
teria, or it lacks abundant carbonate of lime. On
Woodland Farm I once applied phosphorus to an
alfalfa meadow set about three years, using acid
phosphate at the rate of about 250 pounds per acre.
Strips were left with no phosphate to test the effect.
Where additional phosphorus was given the land the
yield of hay was nearly doubled. Thus about $2
worth of fertilizer made a growth of about two tons
of hay per acre. This astonishing profit from the
use of phosphorus on alfalfa was the beginning of
regular use of phosphate fertilizers on new meadows
and old on Woodland Farm.

The plain truth seems to be that along the 40th
parallel, in the region of the corn belt we ought to
mow at least four tons of alfalfa hay per acre and
could, by making our soils right, get six tons with
favoring seasons.

DISKING AND CULTIVATING.

In some regions it is a practice to disk alfalfa once
or more each year. In Kansas and Oklahoma it is
often practiced to disk once in the spring and again
after each cutting as soon as the hay can be removed
from the ground. It is believed that disking con-
serves much moisture and otherwise promotes the
growth of the alfalfa. It has often been asserted
that the disking splits the crowns and thus thickens
up the stand. This is as though one were to split
down the tree trunks in his orchard "to thicken the
stand. ' ' The splitting of alfalfa crowns can do noth-
ing but harm and often starts a decay of root that
ends in the death of the plant. However, the result
of disking is often beneficial when done in early
spring, before growth sets in; It certainly deters
weed and grass growth and lets air and water into
the soil. Later diskings help in some regions and
soils and do mischief in others. The main beneficial
effect of disking is the conservation of moisture and
destruction of weeds or gra'sses.

In Louisiana disking alfalfa seems beneficial on
the whole. In Kansas it is much practiced and some
think it very helpful, while others declare that ex-
cessive disking materially reduces the yield. On
Woodland Farm disking when fertilizer was sown
at the same time has done wonders; disking alone
has in some instances decreased the yield.

(254)

DISKING AND CULTIVATING. 255

Disk with Care. — Disking of alfalfa must be done
with care and discrimination. If alfalfa roots are
cut off by a disk harrow or any other instrument
the plant dies. Old and tough roots are not in much
danger of being cut off. Young alfalfa, with more
slender roots, is easily enough injured or killed.
Thus the disks should not be sharp as knife edges
and should be set straight enough not to cut off the
crowns. It is well for the owner of the field to drive
the disk. Dig up the land as thoroughly as you
please, but do not cut off many crowns. One may
disk and immediately cross-disk in early spring,
burying up the alfalfa crowns somewhat, and no
harm will result as they will come through pretty
soon. After this disking I think it much of a local
question whether one should disk more or not. If
blue grass has run in, or any perennial grass, it may
be wise to dig it out or it may be wiser to turn it all
under, plant corn, then re-seed.

Prevention of Grass Best. — As a matter of fact, a
dollar spent in buying carbonate of lime and phos-
phorus, with drainage, will do more toward keeping
weeds and grass out of alfalfa than two dollars
worth of labor spent in disking. Where plantains
come and weedy growths the soil is wrong; remedy
that and the alfalfa will smother all else. Where
crab grass troubles, as it does in the South, an abun-
dant supply of carbonate of lime in the soil will
make the alfalfa too much for it, unless perhaps it
may come very late in the season, when it is not
worth noticing.

256 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

The Alfalfa Harrow. — There is a special alfalfa
harrow made like a disk harrow only with circles of
sharp spikes that are supposed to penetrate the
ground and loosen it, throwing out the grass
roots without injuring the alfalfa. The theory of
this implement is good but in practice it does not
work so well. There is difficulty in getting it to
penetrate deeply and if it throws out grass it is
speedily wound up on the axle so that I am not at
all certain that the machine will supersede the ordi-
nary disk harrow.

The Spring Tooth Harrow. — Where Kentucky
bluegrass is coming in, or bermuda or other grasses,
after all the best thing probably to rake them out is
the spring toothed harrow. One needs a strong har-
row, not too wide, and weighted well, when if the
alfalfa is well established and strongly rooted it
will be relieved of its encumbering grasses without
being materially harmed itself. Or the spring tooth
harrow may be used after the disk harrow.

A Deep Tilling Machine. — The Spalding deep till-
ing machine is the invention of a Californian and
was first used there in plowing heavy adobe soils. It
is essentially a very large and strong disk plow hav-
ing two 24" disks set to run in the one furrow. With
this plow one can readily plow 12" to 16" deep. The
forward disk throws down the upper surface soil,
with its trash and weed seeds. The following disk
throws over this top earth 8" of the subsoil, bring-
ing up earth free from weed seeds. All the soil
turned is very efficiently pulverized. In certain soils

DISKING AND CULTIVATING. 257

where the subsoil is well stored with lime and the top
soil somewhat lime-hungry this machine will do in-
calculable good. It is probable that in almost any
soil meant to be devoted to alfalfa this machine will
very greatly increase the yield. It is easy to get a
stand in the clean earth thrown up from below. The
deep stirring, the aeration, the reservoir for moisture
all help make the land fit for alfalfa, To deepen sud-
denly the plow furrow to 16" might on many soils be
injurious to corn, but it could hardly be anything but
helpful to alfalfa and corn after the alfalfa would
reap the benefit.

The three good purposes secured by use of this
machine are first, the loosening and aeration of the
soil, next the turning up of a fresh and unexhausted
supply of carbonate of lime (which would not be
found in all subsoils), and third, the making of a
clean seedbed of fresh earth from the subsoil and the
burying deep down of weed and grass seeds.

WEEDS AND GRASSES.

Much ado is made over the fact that in some
regions weeds and grasses trouble alfalfa. It has
been proposed to plant it in rows and cultivate it in
order to subdue these intruders; indeed, this very
thing is practiced in some regions. In alfalfa grow-
ing sections little thought is given to the question of
weeds or grasses in the fields. The alfalfa seems
able to subdue almost every intruder. There are a
few exceptions ; some weeds persevere in even good
alfalfa soils. It is true, however, that when the soil
is made right and a good stand of alfalfa secured
one need give weeds little thought. It is ten times
better to spend effort making soil conditions right
than to spend it in fighting weeds.

Some Troublesome Weeds. — Some of the weeds
that trouble in certain sections and not in others are
crab grass (an annual grass), wild cress, chickweed,
(an annual that makes most of its growth in winter),
lamb's quarter, pigweed and ragweed. Crab grass
and sheep sorrel seem never to trouble alfalfa seri-
ously when the land is full of carbonate of lime. Not
that the lime kills the crab grass, but when there is
lime enough in the land with fertility, the alfalfa is
so vigorous as to distance and smother the crab
grass. Cress comes only in winter and usually
makes no trouble except in fall-sown alfalfa when it
may injure the first cutting if intended for market.

(258)

WEEDS AND GRASSES. 259

Afterward, if the soil is right, it will not be seen.
Chickweed is not a serious disturbance to alfalfa and
when present may be harrowed out with a spike-
toothed harrow in early spring. Lamb's quarter
succumbs to mowing, as does pigweed, both being
annuals. The same is true of ragweed, which totally
disappears from a field with soil made right and
sown to alfalfa. Sheep sorrel, that vile pest of old
eastern farms, disappears the instant alfalfa is sown
among it on land filled with carbonate of lime and
made rich. So disappears that pest ox-eye daisy;
nothing is surer to take it out than alfalfa, if the soil
is made right. Wild carrot is out when alfalfa
comes, and the Canada thistle retreats, to be seen no
more.

The terror of many eastern farms is found in
sheep sorrel, wild carrot, daisy and Canada thistles.
If alfalfa would do no more than to exterminate
them it would be richly worth while. Very great ef-
fort is yearly expended in fighting these weeds. If a
little more effort was put with that already spent,
and wasted, in unavailing conflict, in the way of put-
ting the soil right, making it dry, filling it with car-
bonate of lime, filling it with humus, giving it phos-
phorus and then alfalfa seed, the battle would be
won, the weeds exterminated and at no cost at all, as
the alfalfa alone would far more than repay the
farmer for all his effort and expense.

There are other weeds that are exceedingly
troublesome that alfalfa causes to disappear. The
bindweed or morning-glory, sometimes called wild

260 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

sweet potato, an exceedingly troublesome pest in
corn fields in the Middle States, is exterminated al-
most completely when the land is put into alfalfa.
So of many other troublesome things that might be
mentioned.

Weeds that Kill Alfalfa. — There are weeds, how-
ever, that get the best of the alfalfa. Quack or
couch grass is one of these. This grass fills the soil
with a dense mat of roots, each one a burrowing,
creeping underground s;tem armed with a 'sharp
point. Wherever it gets a good foothold it is usual-
ly too much for the alfalfa and I am unable to out-
line any good and easy system of destroying it.
When it first appears upon the farm it should be
fought and exterminated before it gets much foot-
hold. It is possible that alfalfa could be sown in the
fall and so stimulated with phosphorus that it would
start very vigorously in spring and thus get ahead
of the grass and smother it out. It is well worth
experiment at any event. And it may be that by vig-
orous use of the disk harrow, followed with the
spring tooth harrow the roots could be so disturbed
that they would give it up, and the alfalfa yet re-
main practically unhurt.

Kentucky blue grass is another grass that is too
much for alfalfa. It creeps in and thickens up till
after a time the alfalfa is seriously weakened. It is
hardly worth while to fight so good a thing as blue
grass though it can be torn out with a spring-tooth
harrow. Blue grass does not usually come in before
three or four years, and by that time it is well to

WEEDS AND GRASSES. 261

plow the alfalfa in regular course of rotation any
way. Later on I will tell of what good may come
of using blue grass and alfalfa together.

Plantains are a serious annoyance in alfalfa fields.
Drain the land where they appear, enrich, and if need
be lime, re-sow and plantains will be a thing of the
past. Canada thistles have been mentioned; alfalfa
is the best known eradicator of these.

Sweet clover is often mentioned as a weed in al-
falfa fields. It is usually introduced through the
presence of sweet clover seeds in the alfalfa seed.
Often the unfortunate seedsman is blamed for this.
Sweet clover is not often intentionally added .to al-
falfa seed. Sometimes, in fact, melilotus seed sells
higher than alfalfa seed. The seeds are nearly ex-
actly alike; only an expert can tell them apart, and
no machine in the world would separate them. The
sweet clover seeds get in when the alfalfa seed is
harvested, through accidental admixture in the west-
ern fields, where it quite frequently grows along the
edges of the fields. A 'seedsman who is quite care-
ful to get the best western seed is very likely to sell
a small amount of 'sweet clover seed, quite against
his desire.

Sweet clover in the alfalfa, however, is not at all a
serious pest. At first it makes its bravest showing;
the frequent mowings cause it to disappear and
being a biennial it is soon gone with no harm done.

Russian thistle comes in new seedings of alfalfa
from western sources. This promptly disappears
with mowing. Docks in alfalfa will probably persist

262 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

till they are taken out with the spade, though some-
times the frequent mowings exterminate them.
Spearmint disappears with cutting.

Foxtail grass is really the vilest weed that
comes in alfalfa in the cornbelt region. It is an an-
nual grass that comes up each spring or some time
during the summer. It loves an alfalfa sod. Mow-
ing it does not destroy it, and it will seed if no more
than an inch high. Fortunately the seeds readily
germinate and one can take advantage of this fact
to eradicate it practically the year before the alfalfa
is sown. If he will put the land to .corn or some
other^ cultivated crop and so carefully cultivate all
the season that not one head of foxtail grass goes to
seed, the thing will be eradicated from that field. It
does not seem to have power to carry seeds over in
the soil as do so many weeds. They all seem to ger-
minate in one year if lying in the soil or in contact
with it, and if the seedlings are destroyed without
chance of maturing seed again that weed is eradi-
cated from that field. This has been the experience
of the writer and his brother on Woodland Farm,
where a 60-acre field once alive with foxtail grass
was made clean in one year except some places along
the margins where cultivation was not so thorough
as it should have been. In order to accomplish this,
however, one must go through the field with the hoe
at least twice after cultivation has ceased, else there
will be estrayed plants maturing seed to become cen-
ters of future infection.

Yellow trefoil is a small, low-growing clover with

WEEDS AND GRASSES. 263

a small yellow bloom. Its botanical name is ,Medi-
cago lupulina. It would not be classed as a weed
only that it is so often used to adulterate alfalfa
seed. It is a cheaper seed than alfalfa and much
imported seed is adulterated with this, and some
unscrupulous seedsmen bring the seed over espe-
cially for purpose of mixing with alfalfa seed. It
is a good pasture plant and in Europe is often sown
with other clovers to make a good bottom for cattle
to bite. It has no especial value with us, but is in no
sense dangerous. It is a biennial.

We have reserved the worst for the last. Dodder
is the arch enemy of the alfalfa grower. Dodders
are parasitic plants that begin life -from seeds
dropped on the ground, developing slender, nearly
leafless twining stalks. These stems wherever they
touch plants of their liking send out roots that pene-
trate the host plant and suck its juices. Afterward
the parasite does not again send roots into the soil,
but twines from stem to stem of the unfortunate host
plant until it is tied together in a tangled mass. Ulti-
mately the host plants are usually destroyed. Dod-
der has usually bright yellow or orange colored
stems, nearly leafless, with very small flowers close
to the stems and many seeds. There are dodders
that attack various species of plants, including red
clover and alfalfa.

Dodder always starts from seed which is found
mixed with clover and alfalfa seed. At first there
will be a very small spot infected at each center
where a seed dropped; later it will be a spot as big

264 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

as one's hat, then soon it will be 2' across, and thus
rapidly it spreads till there is a circle of dodder sur-
rounding a devastated and dead center, the circle
rapidly enlarging. Prevention is the best remedy,
and is easy enough, since by exercising care one can
buy alfalfa seed free from dodder. The seeds are
not impossible to separate from alfalfa seeds and
careful seedsmen do not send out badly infected
alfalfa seed. It may be possible, however, with the
best intentioned and most careful of seedsmen that
an occasional dodder seed will get through. There-
fore the grower should be on his guard and nip the
threatened evil in the bud as soon as it is seen.

Eradication of dodder is easy if it is taken soon
enough. Eemembering that as it has no root system
of its own it is only necessary to cut down the alfalfa
at this spot, cutting close to the ground, leave the
stuff lie where it grew and as soon as it is thoroughly
dry place an armful of dry straw on it and set on
fire. This will usually destroy the thing completely.
There will not be any loss worth mentioning. The
fire may kill a few alfalfa plants, but it is probable
that they will start again from their roots. Under
no conditions should the infected patches be raked
and the dodder put in with the hay. This distributes
seed over the farm, and besides one forgets the exact
location and size of the patches if they are raked.

If through buying inferior alfalfa seed one gets
a field badly infested with dodder he may find it
best to plow it up, grow a cleaning crop for a year,
and then re-seed.

WEEDS AND GRASSES. 265

It is little less than a crime to cut seed from a
dodder-infested field and put it on the market.
While it is true that most of the dodder seed can
be taken out, yet unfortunately most seedsmen are
too careless to do this and thus the pest is wide-
spread and immense damage results.

There is a clover dodder that operates just as
does the alfalfa dodder, another one seen on mint,
and one on flax. I do not think these dodders able
to grow on other plants than the one species they
select.

To avoid dodder get samples of alfalfa seed from
your dealer and submit them to your experiment
station, or to the Department of Agriculture for
examination for dodder. If it is present in any-
thing more than an infinitesimal amount inform
your dealer and choose seed from another bin. It
may not help to choose another seedsman, and then
again it may.

ALFALFA DISEASES.

Mention has frequently been made to the appear-
ance of rust on alfalfa leaves. It will appear in
almost all parts of the humid states after alfalfa has
grown about 40 days. During hot and humid
weather it will be worst. On poorly drained soils it
will be worse than on dry soils. When alfalfa suffers
lack of inoculation it will be worst of all, and incur-
able till inoculation has been given. There is no cure
for the disease unless one can remove the inducing
causes. If the land is wet, drain it. If it needs in-
oculation, attend to that. Lack of lime is an inducing
cause. When the soil is fit rust troubles hardly at
all. It appears on lower leaves slightly at time when
the crop should be cut and made into hay. By the
time rust appears again it will be cutting time again.
It is worth mention again that too early mowing in-
duces rust.

Alfalfa Root Rot. — Alfalfa roots can not endure
submergence in water in warm weather. If the land
fills up and stands full of water for a time when the
sun is hot the alfalfa will die. If it stands not quite
full, but with the subsoil full the roots will decay at
the water line. Thus the field will suddenly begin
to fail and the owner may wonder why. I have had
fields on Woodland fail in this manner when tiles be-
came obstructed and rainfall was excessive. I have
observed similar instances in Louisiana and other

(366)

ALFALFA DISEASES. 267

states. This is not the true "root rot." It is not
contagious ; drainage will stop it, but once rotted the
field had better be plowed, planted to other crops
or resown.

The Cotton Root Rot. — This is a most serious
proposition, fortunately not yet widespread. It is
found to some extent in Texas, Mexico and some
other cotton-growing states. "When root rot attacks
cotton the plants die in a circle, ever widening. If
alfalfa, is planted in a field infested with this disease
the plants die in similar manner, all dying, usually,
leaving a round spot of dead alfalfa.

There is no known available remedy. If a field is
badly infected with root rot it should be plowed and
devoted to other crops for a time. It is not now
known how long the land will remain infected. Land
known to be infected with cotton root rot should not
be sown to alfalfa.

SEEDING GRASSES.

Usually alfalfa grows best to be alone. There is,
strictly speaking, no other plant that matches it very
well to be sown with it. Nothing else matures at
just the same time or makes so many cuttings as
alfalfa. However, there are places where it is well
to mix other seeds with it.

Red Clover and Alfalfa. — In some parts of the
eastern states red clover is sown with alfalfa, about
5 Ibs. of red clover to 15 Ibs. of alfalfa per acre.
The result is said to be very good. Where the red
clover is sown there are heavy crops of the mixture
for one year or more after seeding, then when the
clover has died out the alfalfa is said to grow with
more vigor than on adjoining plots where it was
sown alone. I have seen this mixture in use in
France and with it some grasses — I think rye grass,
orchard grass and perhaps timothy. Certainly the
wealth of herbage yielded by this mixed meadow in
Fiance was astounding. It was not intended t-o re-
main long, being in a scheme of comparatively short
rotation.

It has already been mentioned that alfalfa ought
at all times to be added to red clover when sown on
land that may be suspected of having quality enough
to permit its growth

Timothy in Alfalfa. — In some instances when al-
falfa is meant for horse feed it is not a bad plan to

SEEDING GRASSES. 269

sow a small admixture of timothy with it. This
may be done in the fall, not at the same time that
the alfalfa is sown, but later, in September, when
the timo'thy may be lightly harrowed in. Timothy
takes very readily in alfalfa, if sown the first fall
or at any later time. When fields are established,
if there happen to be any thin places where from
wetness of soil or any other cause the alfalfa does
not thrive or is not thick enough, timothy may be
sown there and will grow well. The first cutting of
hay will be a mixture of mainly timothy and alfalfa,
the succeeding cuttings will be nearly pure alfalfa.
It is astonishing the burden of timothy that will
result when alfalfa is mixed with it. Bed clover in
timothy is usually a detriment, since clover is some-
what dusty for horse feed ; alfalfa and timothy make
a mixture hard to equal, since the two balance each
other.

In cutting this mixture attention should be given
to compromising times for cutting the first crop. It
will not do to cut the crop when the alfalfa is per-
fectly ready, since that will be too early for the
timothy, nor will it do to wait till the timothy is
just right, since that will be too late for the alfalfa.
Timothy cut early is far more nutritious and diges-
tible, in any case, than when cut, as it usually is, with
see'd formed.

Alfalfa and Alsike Clover.— I have seen marvelous
fields of mixed alfalfa and alsike clover. This mix-
ture makes especially good pasture. When alfalfa
is sown for mowing, or for enduring several years,

270 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

it is doubtful if this admixture is good, but when
alsike clover is sown for meadow or pasture it is
evident that on suitable soils, well drained and sweet,
alfalfa makes a good ally. A mixture of equal parts
of seed will give a stand of alsike with a lesser pro-
portion of alfalfa plants. Or the mixture may be
in proportion of 2 of alfalfa to 1 of alsike clover,
which will give a pretty evenly divided meadow.
Cattle and pigs love to graze on such a field as this.

Alfalfa and Brome Grass. — Brome grass (Bromus
inermis) is a good grass for pasture and in some
places makes pretty good meadow. It is a cold-re-
sistant, heat-resistant, drouth-resistant grass, very
vigorous on good soil. It makes a dense growth of
leaves down close to the earth and the stem or top
is not very important, being light and feathery.
Animals like brome grass exceedingly well as a
pasture grass. The writer knows of no other grass
so palatable to sheep and cattle. It is probable that
it is the best pasture grass yet introduced into
America, where it is adapted to the soil. It likes
rich land and when grown alone with no clovers in-
termixed it seems soon to suffer for nitrogen and
falls off greatly in yield of forage. When mixed
with alfalfa or red clover it seems to receive fer-
tilization from association with its sister plant and
yields very much more heavily.

Brome grass loves to grow in alfalfa. It is prob-
ably the best plant to sow with it when the alfalfa
is to be grazed with cattle or sheep. Alfalfa is not
always a safe pasture for cattle or sheep when sown

SEEDING GRASSES. 271

unmixed with grasses. In some regions it is almost
deadly in it effects. It causes bloat or hoven. In
other regions it seems a safe enough pasture. It is
very noticeable, however, that where it is safe pas-
turage there is usually found a considerable admix-
ture of grasses with the alfalfa. Animals grazing
alfalfa get a superabundance of protein in their diet.
This makes them long for some grass or other car-
bonacQous diet. When grasses are mixed with al-
falfa the animals will eat alternately of each. Thus
a more healthful ration is compounded by the very
instincts of the animals.

In using an alfalfa pasture that had in it a con-
siderable admixture of brome grass I never had a
serious case of bloating with either cattle or sheep.
On other alfalfa pastures with no grass I had more
or less trouble and some loss from death. Further-
more, I saw very remarkable results in growth and
fattening of animals grazing these plants, better
than I had ever seen on any other pastures in the
world, considering the areas of land used.

Brome grass is not broom sedge, as some southern
readers might infer ; it is a grass coming to us from
eastern Europe.

Brome grass thickens up fast by underground
stems or roots, very much as Kentucky bluegrass
does. A thin stand of it soon becomes a thick stand
if the soil is fit. It ultimately crowds out alfalfa,
yet for a few years they grow well together and
make an immense amount of grazing. All animals
relish it exceedingly. Even Kentucky bluegrass is

272 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

untouched if brome grass is available. For that rea-
son it does not thrive when sown in mixed pastures
with other grasses. So far as I know there is no
other grass that animals will eat as readily as they
will brome grass.

Seed of brome grass is often seriously adulter-
ated and of low germinating quality. Fresh seed
grows well. Seed may be grown in any northern or
middle state; it seeds right heavily. The usual
sources of good seed are the Dakotas. Brome grass
seed ought to be sown in the spring. To get it in
an alfalfa pasture one can either sow with the alfalfa
if that is spring sown, or he can harrow the fall sown
alfalfa in April or earlier and sow the brome seed
then. If it is a thin stand at first no matter ; it will
presently thicken up. It must be sown by hand,
broadcast. Twenty pounds of seed is enough for
an acre when used as a partner with alfalfa.

Brome Grass as a Pasture Grass. — After alfalfa
and brome grass have grown together for some
years there will remain little else than brome grass.
Ultimately the yield of forage will be much de-
creased because of depletion of soil nitrogen. Then
it may be disked vigorously in the spring and more
alfalfa seed, or seed of one of the clovers sown in,
with a liberal application of phosphorus. The re-
sult will be to quadruple the yield of forage. This
grass is destined to come into wide use on the better
soils of the eastern part of the United States. It
is an efficient soil binder and stops erosion. It is a
little hard to get out of soils but not especially so.

SEEDING GRASSES. 273

The writer and his brother have worked with it for
more than twelve years with no especial difficulty in
its eradication when the land was plowed and
planted to corn and well cultivated.

Winter Grain in Alfalfa Fields. — J. M. Westgate,
of the Department of Agriculture, is sponsor for
the subjoined:

In the Southwest the mild winters and the occurrence of
much of the rainfall during the colder months make it possible
to seed wheat or barley in a stand of alfalfa after the last cutting
and harvest it at the proper stage for hay the next spring with
the first cutting of alfalfa. The presence of a crop of small
grain during the winter months prevents the growth of trouble-
some weeds, which sometimes almost ruin the first cutting of
alfalfa. This practice has the further advantage of giving a
mixed crop of alfalfa and grain hay, which is regarded as superior
to pure alfalfa, owing to the scarcity in that section of feeds rich
in carbohydrates or starchy matter. This method is also com-
mendable when for any reason the stand has become thin, as
through the action of field mice. The amount of grain to be
seeded and disked in depends on the thickness of the stand of
alfalfa. This practice has been followed for many years in cer-
tain parts of the Southwest, although its value does not appear
to be recognized to the extent that it apparently deserves.

Alfalfa and Kentucky Bluegrass. — Kentucky blue-
grass (Poa pratensis) loves alfalfa exceedingly well.
When soil is made right for alfalfa, it is just right
for bluegrass. Both love lime, both love fertile
soils, both love well-drained soils. Alfalfa also
fills the land with nitrogen, thus the bluegrass
crowds in. Usually it is classed as a weed. In a
meadow devoted only to mowing it is a hindrance,
though it will make a very heavy cutting of hay at
the first cutting. The mixture also makes exceed-
ingly good hay, especially for horses or cows.

After bluegrass has run into the alfalfa it makes

274 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

wonderful pasture. Perhaps it does not yield as
much forage as does the mixture of brome grass
and alfalfa, but it is a close second, and bluegrass
is indigenous to a large part of our country. Thus
it comes in usually of its own accord because of the
seed latent in the soil.

Of this mixture Robert Giltner, of Henry Co., Ky.,

wrote :

I find that alfalfa thrives well with us when we have used
enough lime and have sown it on fairly well drained land, made
fertile. After a few years the bluegrass comes in thick and I do
not know but we get the most profit from it then. It makes the
most wonderful pasture that I have ever seen. It is little less
than marvelous what fat lambs come from these pastures and
how the calves thrive and the colts grazing on it. After the pas-
ture has been used about two years it is nearly all blue grass,
thicker and richer than ever seen before on the land. Then we
plow it, put it to corn and resow to alfalfa again.

Some men have exploited alfalfa and bluegrass
pasture and have made great profit from the use of
this mixture of plants. It seems especially desirable
as a cattle pasture. Very great gains from such
pasture are reported. When it is desired to improve
an old bluegrass pasture hardly any better plan
could be suggested than to plow it in fall or winter,
setting the furrows on edge, harrowing in April and
sowing to alfalfa. If the land needs lime it should
be given ; in fact everything that alfalfa likes should
be done and the instructions previously given should
be carefully followed in order to get a good stand.
The grass will come thinly the first year and thicker
the next. The yield of forage will be quadrupled
by the addition of the alfalfa and when ultimately
the grass has again regained possession of the soil

SEEDING GRASSES. 275

it will be much more vigorous and productive than
before it was plowed.

This is a most practicable scheme that deserves
wide application. There is plenty of profit in good
pasture. England is a land of grass and grazing;
there is found more profit in grazing than in grain
growing. The same conditions are rapidly ap-
proaching in America. Millions of acres of our best
lands will be laid down in permanent pastures be-
cause of the failure of the pastures of the West and
the advancing prices of beef, mutton and hoTses.
Then should be remembered that the way to stimu-
late bluegrass is to associate with it a legume, and
alfalfa seems the best one for that purpose on the
best soils. It is very easy to get a stand of alfalfa
on a bluegrass sod. One can plow, disk, sow the
seed, harrow and the thing is done, though it will be
safer to sow some inoculating soil with the seed and
immensely profitable to sow some phosphorus with
it as well.

Lime usually helps bluegrass and carbonate of
lime or unburned ground limestone is the best sort
of lime to choose when it is to be had.

Alfalfa and Orchard Grass. — Orchard grass grows
well with alfalfa and the mixture of the two makes
much forage and good hay. It is not so palatable
a grass as brome grass, but is easily established and
really its forage is better than men believe. When
using orchard grass pasture animals should not at
the same time have run of a pasture of a different
grass; then they will eat the orchard grass very

276 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

well. The taste of alfalfa gives them more appetite
for orchard grass too. Orchard grass does not run
and thicken up as does Kentucky bluegrass and
brome grass and will not so soon crowd out the
alfalfa.

English bluegrass (Festuca elaitor) is the tall
fescue grass growing from 2 to 4 feet high, and is
a nutritious grass, and animals like it. It mixes
admirably with alfalfa when it is to be grazed. It
does not spread rapidly and in fact is not in its
prime for several years after sowing. It thrives on
the dry prairie lands of Kansas and Nebraska. It
may be that there is no better grass for mixing with
alfalfa than this. It has no bad qualities that the
writer has seen.

GROWING BY IRRIGATION.

Alfalfa is a desert plant and thrives best when un-
der desert conditions — dry, clear air, plenty of sun
and much moisture applied by means of irrigation
water. All the greatest alfalfa growing regions in the
world are irrigated countries. The great civilizations
of the world first grew up in arid regions where men
must irrigate or perish. It is a curious fact that civil-
ization, and especially organized communal civiliza-
tion, did not first spring up in rainy lands, where
one would think that life would be easiest, but in
the dry, burning, half -desert lands, such as Persia,
Babylonia, Egypt, and in our own land in Arizona
and New Mexico and Colorado. In these old dry
lands where men must toil to make dams and canals,
to distribute water and rescue plants from death by
thirst, there grew up cities and civilizations per-
taining to cities ; there stood the farm house of sun-
dried bricks, alike in Babylon and in Arizona ; there
stood the communal mass of dwellings, the palaces;
there developed written language, priesthood, civic
conscience, communal spirit and the genius of
organization that brought to its present-day develop-
ment has girded the world with steel bands, built
great cities, canals, railways, steamships and all the
modern machinery of a complex life of civilization.
The forest-dwelling man in a land where it rained
seemed to have things all his own way. He dwelt

(277)

278 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

apart from his fellow men, he learned independence,
nor ever developed much of the spirit of interde-
pendence that came with the man living where ir-
rigation was practiced.

After all, in the long run, the forest-dweller over-
threw the civilizations developed by irrigation, and
now in the marvelous shifting of peoples of these
frantic days we find Dane and Norwegian, Scot and
Yankee, all jostling each other in the arid West,
learning the ancient and honorable art of guiding
water over a thirsty land, learning to redeem des-
erts, to replace sage brush with alfalfa, cactus flow-
ers with roses; to make grapes grow where thorns
were yesterday.

Fertility of Irrigated Lands. — Irrigated lands
have all the advantages after all, for they are so
fertile. Lands where rain falls have been leached
for centuries of their lime, of their potash, of their
phosphorus. Desert lands have all their mineral
wealth yet untouched. No matter if they look gray
and infertile, just moisten them, sow the seed, and
watch the miracle unfold. Soon overspreads the
arid dusty plain a tender green. Little shining
streams course between furrows, the hard clods melt,
the earth gives up of its treasures, the green deepens,
thickens. A meadow has come ; it blooms, bees hum,
butterflies play in the sunlight, humming birds seek
the nectar of the bloom, along the cool depths of the
placid canal trees spring up, a little house is soon
hidden with fruit trees, alfalfa stacks hide the corral,
the desert is forgotten.

GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 279

Irrigation is the modern miracle of the West and
Southwest. It has built railways and towns and
cities and states. And the first thing to follow the
irrigator's shovel is the alfalfa plant.

Alfalfa Loves Desert Soils. — Alfalfa loves new
desert soils. They are not always fertile to the
touch of wheat or maize or potatoes. Sometimes
indeed they spurn such things and the poor settler
would be in sorry plight were it not for alfalfa.
Nearly all desert soils love alfalfa. After it has
grown for a time, then will grow grain or beets or
vines or orchards or any other good things.

The only desert soils that refuse to grow alfalfa
are those that have in them too much of a good
thing, too much alkali — that is, too much of sulphate
of soda, carbonate of soda and other salts. Even
these soils can be brought into alfalfa by right man-
agement. Drainage with tiles laid deep under the
ground will drain off the excess of alkalies; some-
times they can be freed of injurious excess by flood-
ing over the surface and dissolving and washing
away the excess of alkalies that have risen to the
surface by the evaporation of the soil water.

It is simply marvelous what desert land will do
after alfalfa has grown on it. The writer has seen
potatoes grown after alfalfa in the valleys of Utah
yielding as much as 1,000 bushels per acre. Wheat
on alfalfa sod in the San Luis valley of Colorado
has yielded more than 100 bushels per acre.

Alfalfa in Arid Agriculture. — Alfalfa is the
foundation stone of all the agriculture of the arid

280 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

West. Alfalfa hay feeds the teams, the stock mares
and foals, the family cow, the calves, pigs, bees,
poultry. In Utah at one time half the Mormon
population in certain southern valleys was saved
from starvation by the use of alfalfa greens in
early spring, before gardens could be grown, and
after a season of grasshoppers the year previous.
The writer can testify that alfalfa greens are good ;
nothing is any better, cooked as one cooks spinach,
taken when fresh and tender and growing rapidly.

Starting Alfalfa loy Irrigation. — There are various
soils in the irrigated sections and each may need a
somewhat different treatment. Soils differ im-
mensely in their physical character and in their
slope, and regularity of slope as well. I can not
here give all that I know should be given to the sub-
ject of irrigation of alfalfa. Alfalfa should be pre-
pared for irrigation in such a way that the water
can be put on in large volume, the more the better,
so that it will run quickly over the field and then all
of it drain away. This can be accomplished in one
way on one soil and with one slope, another way on
a different soil and on a different slope.

Irrigation by Contour Levees. — There are lands in
California so level and irregular in contour that the
most practicable system is to flood them all over.
To do this long dams or levees are built up, running
along contour or level lines. Each levee is so high
that when the water is turned in above it fills that
part of the field till it has backed up to the foot of
the next levee above. Thus it makes a little lake all

GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 281

over the field. When it has soaked for an hour or
day, according to the soil and the season, the gate is
opened and all the water not absorbed by the soil is
rapidly run off to the check below which is filled in
like manner. After this is soaked well the water
passes in rotation to the next lower check, or if a
number 'of them are filled at one time passes again
into the canal and on down to 'another field at a lower
level.

This is the system of irrigation by contours. It is
not a good system when the land has a, strong slope,
as it is evident that all the levees would have to1 be
very high and very close together, thus the field
wo-uld be much cut up and of irregular shape. But
where there is slight fall, say of 6" to 100' and where
the land is not of a very smooth surface it is a very
got)d way.

Land may be irrigated very rapidly and at slight
expense and labor when once laid out in contour ter-
races or checks. One laborer can turn the water, no
matter how large the volume, into the upper check,
may watch it until that has soaked long enough, then
may open the way for the water to flow into the next
check below. It is the best system when the land is
infested with ground squirrels or gophers. They
are all forced to leave their burrows and come out
where they can be destroyed.

There* are a few well-defined principles that ought
to be borne in mind in laying out land with these
contours for flooding. The contours should not be
too far apart, else the dams or levees will need be

282 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

too high and strong and the water will be ponded too
long in a check. There ought to be no more than
about 12" difference in the levels of the upper and
lower sides of these contours. The earth for mak-
ing the levee should all be taken from below it. This
will avoid making the inequality of the land more
than it need be. The levees ought to be strong, high,
at least 6" higher than ever needed, and better if 12",
and of easy slope so that the mower can run over
each one and thus save what alfalfa may grow
thereon and at the same time prevent weeds growing.

There should be large volume of water, so that
the checks may be rapidly filled. A small stream
will not serve at all since it will put water on the
lower parts of the checks long before it will reach
the upper sides, and thus one part of the field will
get too much water while the other part will get not
enough. If only a small stream of water is available
the land should be prepared for flooding rather than
for ponding, or preferably be irrigated by the fur-
row method, if the stream is very small.

Irrigation ~by tlie Furrow Method. — This is
adapted to certain types of soil that soak well. On
coarse, sandy or gravelly soils it will not serve,
since the water sinks and will not penetrate side-
ways very far. Nor will it serve well in hard clays,
since there it penetrates too slowly. It is in good,
loamy soils that the furrow method works best.
There furrows 6' apart, or even at wider distances,
will moisten all the land between them. The furrows
ought to flow nearly in a direct line down the slope,

GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 283

since if they run in a direction across the slope there
will be danger of their filling and the water fail
of reaching the points aimed at. The furrow method
will do more with a small amount of water than any
other except subirrigation by means of tiles.

The Flooding System. — The most common way of
irrigating alfalfa in our West is by flooding. To
prepare land for this system one puts in ditches on
contour lines, the upper one to bring water to the
field, below another to catch the waste water and
collect it for the part of the field below.

The distance apart of these head ditches, as they
are called, is determined by the nature of the soil,
slope and the amount of water to be had. Usually if
they are from 400' to 1,000' apart it will be well,
with an average distance perhaps of about 500'.
Much here depends on the nature of the soil. There
are soils where it is well to have these ditches as
near as 200' feet or even closer together. Much
of course depends upon the head available. If there
is not much head the leading ditches should be closer
than if there is a flood of water. The ditches while
following contour lines rather closely ought to have
enough fall so that the water will flow freely in them.

Preparing the Land for Flooding. — The contour
ditch is made first, strong, with a good bank. Be-
low it a lesser ditch, close up ; this to distribute the
water. The field should be leveled as well as pos-
sible. Upon this leveling will depend a lot of the
later success or failure of the alfalfa. Work in mak-
ing the land level is work well spent. It should next

284 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

be plowed deeply and made mellow. It is then laid
off in furrows parallel to each other and spaced ac-
cording to the soil from 12" to 2' or 3' apart. Vari-
ous implements are in use for opening these furrows.
It is often done with a common plow, making rather
shallow furrows as close together as may be neces-
sary, or a special implement with several large
shovels affixed to a frame is used; this opens fur-
rows exactly parallel. A roller with ridges turned
to fit the furrows sometimes follows these plow
shovels and makes very smooth, even furrows down
which water may flow very nicely.

The reader may wonder why these furrows are
made if the land is to be flooded. It can not be
flooded until the alfalfa is well established.

Sowing Alfalfa on Irrigable Land. — The next
thing to consider is sowing the seed and getting a
stand. Here one may as well foTget all that he has
known of alfalfa in the East. None of the condi-
tions are the same. In the arid regions one need not
trouble to inoculate; as a rule inoculation comes of
itself, we do not know how. He can sow in the early
spring to good advantage; later the sun is rather
hot and irrigation more difficult, though if that can
be effected it is as well to sow late as early.

Fertilization is unknown, as the desert soils are
rich already in lime, some of them having in them
as much as 4 per cent of carbonate of lime, or as
much as 75 tons to the acre in the top foot of soil
alone. They are also rich in phosphorus, in potash,
in nearly everything that alfalfa desires.

GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 285

In hard alkali clays, hgwever, I found it very use-
ful to mulch the land carefully with a thin layer of
manure when starting alfalfa. This shades the land
and prevents the forming of an alkaline crust that
would destroy the young seedlings. After the al-
falfa had become strong enough to shade the land it
grew well with numerous irrigations, needing water
oftener to keep it thrifty on these clays than on more
open sandy soils.

After the land is leveled it is well to soak it thor-
oughly. This may be done by making temporary
furrows which need not be so carefully made as the
permanent ones will be. It may be filled with water
before it is plowed, and again watered after plowing,
if it has much dried out. Then give the final level-
ing and make the last set of permanent furrows.
These furrows should go straight down the slope.

The seed should now be sown broadcast. If sown
at once as soon as the furrows are made it is likely
that it will need no covering, since the wetting will
make the earth crumble enough to cover the seeds.
Or if it is a soil that will not crumble the land may
be brushed with a brush harrow which will cover
the seeds deeply enough.

Next the water is turned in, and here lies all the
secret of success after all. Can any man tell another
on paper how to irrigate young alfalfa for the first
time? If now one can find an old experienced Mor-
mon irrigator he will find him worth nearly his
weight in gold.

The First Irrigation. — The principle of the thing

286 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

is to turn out a part of the stream in the large cross
or head ditch, letting it into the lesser ditch below.
This ditch has been carefully opened into each fur-
row. Now the water is to be carefully divided, so
that each furrow will have its share and not a drop
more. There is needed the least trickling stream in
each furrow. If too much is turned in the land will
wash, the seed be carried away, the land spoiled for
later irrigations. If too little is turned in it will not
reach through the rows. Thus the lower end of
the field will make a poor stand. It should be so
regulated that in about 24 hours water will be
trickling through each row at the lower end and run-
ning clear, with no cutting or washing anywhere. In
some hot countries it is well to leave the water flow
till the plants are germinated and rooted. In other
lands to soak well once will suffice to bring the al-
falfa up, and it will root and grow for some weeks
with the water already stored in the soil.

Nurse Crops in Irrigated Regions. — As a rule it
is better to use no nurse crop when sowing alfalfa
in the dry country. I have sown with oats, however,
and secured a fairly good stand. I have known it to
be sown with spring wheat with good results. It is
usually better, however, to sow alone.

How Often to Irrigate. — Usually once the alfalfa
is up well it is good to let it get somewhat dry
before giving the second irrigation. This sends the
roots down well and to a degree deters the growth
of weeds. The alfalfa ought never to suffer seri-
ously for water before it is given, however.

GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 287

The second irrigation is much more easily given
than the first. More water may be used and there
will be less danger of washing. The little alfalfa
plants check the flow of the water and distribute it.
The land soaks better too. When it needs the third
irrigation usually a good deal more water may be
turned in with no danger of wasting. Finally when
the plants are strong and branched and the crop has
been once mown off one may turn a young river over
the field with no harm.

The practice then is to turn out all in one place a
strong stream, and let it flow till it has reached the
cross ditch below, then shutting off the flow at that
place to open it a little further along the ditch. It is
allowed to flow in at this point till that strip is
soaked, when it is again moved farther across the
field, and so on till all the land is wet.

These heavy irrigations cause the furrows to level
up a great deal, so that a field that seemed rough
and ridged for mowing will be all right after being
flooded a time o/r two and one will even wish that
he had made his furrows deeper and the ridges more
pronounced if he has not his land well leveled. This
is the system in almost universal use in our western
states.

When to Irrigate. — Alfalfa should never be al-
lowed to get very dry in winter time. It is well to
irrigate thoroughly late in the fall, when it will go
through winter in good condition. Watering it in
winter will not do any harm if the soil is pervious,
and any excess of moisture can readily drain away.

288 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

In fact winter irrigation is often a very good thing.
It saves water, for one thing, that might otherwise
be lost for lack of storage, and no one ever heard of
there being enough water to satisfy all needs in
summer time.

Care must be taken, however, not to let the alfalfa
be flooded in cold weather, which might cover over
the crowns and freeze into a solid sheet of ice which
would destroy the plants entirely. In truth in ir-
rigated regions there is no easier way of destroying
alfalfa than to let it be flooded in winter and freeze
solid to the ground. This makes it much easier
plowing in the spring.

Alfalfa does not want to be too wet when growth
starts in spring, since that makes the ground cold
and retards growth. One or two waterings will
usually be sufficient before the first crop is cut.

It is usually well to water alfalfa shortly before
cutting, as this starts off the second crop promptly
and vigorously. In irrigated lands one should get
the hay off the land as quickly as he can, since
growth is usually very prompt and very rapid after
cutting. One watering when the crop is about half
grown is usually advisable. Here, of course, one
must be governed by his soil and water supply, and
somewhat by climate as well. There are soils that
respond to double the water that other soils require.
Loose sandy or gravelly soils will use vast amounts
of water, and when this can be given the yield may
be splendid.

As a rule the yield of hay is nearly proportioned

GROWING BY IRRIGATION. 289

to the amount of water available. A yield of 6 tons
per acre actually needs 30 inches of water an<J cer-
tainly there will be some loss by evaporation from
the surface of the soil and by percolation through
into the subsoil. The Utah Agricultural Experi-
ment Station in co-operation with the United States
Department of Agriculture made numerous tests of
water used, with varying amounts and varying fre-
quency of application. Briefly, it was learned that
frequent applications gave much larger returns than
infrequent, and that the yield was somewhat directly
in proportion to the amount used.

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS IN IRRIGATING ALFALFA IN UTAH.

Inches of water Number of Yield per acre,

applied. irrigations. in tons.
17.058 3 3.125

17.33 4 3.468

24.97 4 6.017

25.002 2 1.55

61.465 12 6.243

Penetration of Roots in Irrigated Soils. — Soils in
the arid regions are quite unlike those of humid
regions. There is often little difference in physical
texture or fertility between the surface soil and sub-
soil. Furthermore they are usually more permeable
than soils in humid regions ; both water and air can
enter them readily. Thus alfalfa roots penetrate to
great depths in such soils. Roots have been traced
to a depth of 30' and even farther. And all down
in that soil will be found air, nodules, bacteria; it
is a vast factory of nitrogen-gathering, wonderwork-
ing plant life. No wonder the " deserts blossom as
the rose" when water is applied to them.

Grassing the Ditch Banks. — It is a convenience to

290 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

have ditch banks covered with sod. This prevents
their washing away from too great heads of water
and facilitates irrigation. Brome grass is good for
this purpose, or Kentucky bluegrass.

Alfalfa Growing and Irrigation in Mexico. — The
following letter from Alf Kessler, once of Utah,
now of southern Coahuila, Mexico, is interesting as
showing the progress of alfalfa culture in our sister
Republic :

When I was very young, in the small seventies, about the first
things that happened that made an impression on my mind were
the Chicago fire, the killing of Jim Fisk and the planting and
growing of alfalfa in Utah (and as everybody knows, Utah was
the first territory to be successfully reclaimed by irrigation). I
have been in the thick of the conflict from the beginning to the
present time, and since I have become grown, have traveled all
over the principal western country from Kansas City to the
Pacific, and from northern Alberta to Southern Coahuila, Mex.,
where I am at present engaged in raising alfalfa. I have care-
fully studied alfalfa conditions wherever I have been and this
beats them all for raising the weed, as the natives call it.

First in selecting a locality for raising alfalfa here, be sure
that you have plenty of water; then pick land that is on the
order of a nice deep sandy loam with not too much alkali; it
all hay enough lime; then plow it good and deep, level nicely,
and be sure it is level to save future trouble, but should have
a gentle slope, and sow 16 Ibs. of seed per acre broadcast with
machine. This we find sufficient. Then we irrigate in the fur-
row system. To make these furrows we have what we call a
drum roller. The drum part is about 36" high, and with two
plows (Center Busters) 26" apart from center to center, at-
tached just ahead of the roller. It has also two flanges the
same distance apart which fit the plow furrow and leaves your
small drills or ditches 26" apart up and down over the whole
field. Then we cross-ditch the field and leave these small ditches,
or irrigation furrows, 600' long and you are ready for the water.
This takes some patience for the first few irrigations, or until
the alfalfa is up about 6" high and well started all your trouble
is at an end. In your first few irrigations be careful and not
use too much water, in fact, just as little as will run through

GROWING BY IRRIGATION.

291

the 600', and it should come out below clear. If muddy, you
are cutting the land somewhere down the line, and losing some
of your seed, besides putting the land in bad condition for your
mowers. The land should be irrigated until it looks black, which
it will with sub-irrigation from one furrow to another; then
keep it nice and moist so that the seed will all sprout and come
up. If old land is used there may be trouble with weeds, which

IRRIGATING ALFALFA IN MEXICO.

will have to be mown off, and if this is not sufficient, they will
have to be pulled out by hand. In irrigating always irrigate
enough to keep the leaves wide and a beautiful green color.
Should they look a dusty color and a little pinched, they lack
water and the alfalfa will soon bud and bloom, perhaps 6" or
8" high, where if given sufficient water your alfalfa will grow
at the rate of an inch a day, and be ready to cut when about
one-fourth or one-half in bloom, about every thirty-five or

292 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

forty days after the alfalfa gets into the producing stage. A
mistake may be made and too much water given it. In that
case it will stop growing, turn yellow and have small brown
spots on the leaves. Stop irrigating; cut once in eight or ten
days for two or three times; irrigate quickly and not let the
water stay on too long and it will come out all right again.

We have about 400 acres in alfalfa here and it is doing fine
except where we have dry spells and run short of water. We
have had some of the leading men of the Republic here to look
at our work, besides Prof. Alfred Burbank of California and
others. They all congratulate us on our success, and have no
fault to find. In curing the hay, we cut it one day, rake and
cock it the next, then leave it in the field to cure a day or two
according to the weather. We put it in the stack just a little
moist and use a little salt, about 10 Ibs. per ton. This keeps
it a nice green color, and it holds its leaves when baling. But
should the weather be damp or misty, we put it in the stack
dry.

These Mexicans all want to irrigate under the contour sys-
tem, but by so doing they flood the entire surface of the ground,
and the sun is so hot here that the land bakes hard so that the
young plants cannot come through, or very few of them. Then
they want, to continue ponding the" water, which should always
be avoided, for the hot sun soon makes the water warm enough
to scald the plants and kill them, or the water stands too long
and drowns them, and turns the meadow into grass and weeds
and then they say, the peons, "We don't want alfalfa anyway."
But people here with energy do want alfalfa, and everything
else.

About here this alfalfa will grow 36" in thirty days, and start
to bloom nicely if cut at that stage. It can be cut eight or nine
times a year, but if let stand a little longer or until it gets a
little more firm it will have more food value, and produce more
tons of dry hay. By doing this it can be cut easily six times
a year, and the plants can rest through the months of Decem-
ber, January and February. In the first instance we cut a little
over a ton, and the second about two tons per acre, each cut-
ting. The hay is baled on the ranch. We have an engine and
steel press, and the hay is sold in Torreon, Monterey and the
different cities and is usually worth about $40 or $50 per ton
(silver) by the car load, but recently it brought $75, single ton
at Filipinas.

TIME OF GUTTING.

Alfalfa ought to be cut whenever it needs cutting,
whether in meadow or pasture. It is the life of al-
falfa to cut it now and then. It disappears and is re-
placed by other plants in eastern soils when not cut
occasionally. In the west this is not so true, yet in
almost any region alfalfa is healthier and better to
be cut now and then.

Time to Cut. — One knows that alfalfa needs cut-
ting when he sees a cessation of growth, an appear-
ance of bloom, a dropping off of the lower leaves and
especially when he notes shooting out near the sur-
face of the ground small new 'sprouts or buds, as
though the plant was about to make a new growth.
As soon as these shoots appear, cut the crop as
promptly as possible. The earlier it is cut after
these shoots start the better the hay will be and the
more nutritious, also the stronger will be the new
growth. Thus the total amount of forage produced
by a field of alfalfa is very directly proportioned to
the promptness with which it is cut after it is ready.

It has already been pointed out, however, that it
is dangerous to mow alfalfa too soon. To cut it
before these basal -shoots have started may weaken
it and in the case of newly-sown alfalfa may also
destroy it.

Bloom not a Test. — One can not safely judge of

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294 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

the fitness for mowing by the state of bloom. Usu-
ally when alfalfa is ready to* be cut it will be partly
in bloom. Sometimes it will be much more ad-
vanced in blooming than at other times. Some-
times there will be few blooms showing, and yet a
pronounced condition of readiness to be mown off.
Whenever it is ready to make new growth, cut it as
promptly as you can, regardless of the state of
bloom.

It is better, however, to cut it a few days too late
than a few days too early, that is, better for the al-
falfa.

Late Cutting Damaging. — There is another law
that sometimes collides with this : alfalfa ought nev-
er to be cut late in the fall anywhere east of the
Missouri River. It very seriously weakens it to cut
it late in the fall. There ought always to be left a
growth of alfalfa at least 12 inches high to serve as
protection to the crowns. Therefore it is well to
cease cutting by the first week in September, or
earlier, according to climatic conditions. It takes
some nerve to do this at first. One may leave in
the field a ton of hay to the acre sometimes. He
will get so much finer alfalfa with so much less
death of individual plants in it the next year that he
will be glad however.

The First Cutting. — Along the 40th parallel one
can cut alfalfa usually about June 1 and find it in
prime condition ; sometimes it may be cut a week or
two earlier. It is essential to get this first cutting

TIME OF CUTTING. 295

off as promtly as possible when once it is ready.
I. D. O'Donnell, Billings, Mont., is so impressed
with this truth that he mows down 400 acres at one
clip when it is time to mow it down for the first
cutting.' As he has little or no rain to trouble him
he can do this without fear. Once cut down he
hustles to get it off the field as soon as he can. Thus
his second crop comes on quickly.

The Second Cutting. — Supposing the first crop to
be mown off June 1, the next crop will be ready in
about 30 to 36 days. When weather conditions are
good it will be ready in 30 days. Say the second
crop is taken off July 4, the third crop will be slower
to mature because of hot and dry weather; it may
come off in 45 days or by Aug. 20. It is probable,
however, that if there is a large amount of alfalfa
to make into hay one will not find it possible to do
it all as promptly as he would like, so that it will be
the first of September or a little later when the
third cutting is taken off. This will not permit a
safe removal of a fourth cutting.

No Universal Rule. — No rule of universal appli-
cation can be laid down. Almost anywhere in Amer-
ica it can be cut three times. In Ontario it has
been cut four times, though it is probable that to cut
it three times would be better. There are situations
where it will make but two crops, where the altitude
is high. In the state of Coahuilla, Mexico, where
I was instrumental in establishing a large alfalfa-
growing hacienda, it may be cut every 30 days, dur-

296 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

ing which time if it has had water enough it will
have grown 36 inches. It may there be cut eight or
nine times in a year, but even there it is better to cut
it only about six times in a year, letting it rest during
the months of December, January and February. In
that climate on suitable soil the yield is about a ton
to each cutting.

Let me repeat with all possible emphasis, in re-
gions where 'alfalfa is not very strong and is apt to
winterkill, do not cut too late in the fall. Leave al-
ways a good growth to protect the crowns and to
catch snow. Do not graze late in the fall.

Western readers will wonder at this caution. I
have had 2,000 cattle on a 90 aicre alfalfa meadow
most of the winter, coming and going, and have seen
no injury in Utah. There the soil was dry, no ice
formed on alfalfa crowns and alfalfa was markedly
at home. A similar treatment in Ohio would have
spelled certain ruin to the alfalfa.

Keep off the Fields in Winter. — Anywhere east of
the Missouri River it is very bad practice to go on
the fields at all in winter with animals or wagons.
Wherever horses tread or wheels go will be lines
of dead or dying alfalfa plants. The alfalfa field
should be a sacred place after October and until
May, no animal should be permitted to set foot
within it. No matter just what it is that kills or
weakens the plants, the truth is so well proved that
it admits of no argument; so let us emphasize the
rule never under any avoidable circumstance go

TIME OF CUTTING. 297

into an alfalfa field with wagon or animals in late
fall or winter time. Especially do not let hogs run
on the alfalfa in winter.

Winter-killing of Alfalfa. — There are several
things that destroy alfalfa in winter time. One is
the freezing of ice over the crowns. If this lies
close and for some time it will destroy the plants.
It is more apt to do this if the alfalfa was late
mown. It is not known just why this ice destroys
the alfalfa. When snows suddenly melt in Minne-
sota and Wisconsin, finding the earth hard frozen
the water can not sink down and so freezes into a
glare of ice that may destroy the alfalfa. In that
case it is best to plow, plant to corn or some other
crop and re-seed. There is no loss in one sense; it
only interferes with a man's rotation.

There is another form of winter-killing, that in
clay soils not well drained when the repeated freez-
ings and thawings lift the alfalfa roots out of the
soil. This may happen on very good alfalfa land.
On Woodland Farm it is a common occurrence for
a good deal of alfalfa to be lifted the first winter.
If it goes through that it will be too well rooted to
be lifted very much the second season.

The remedy is good drainage, deep plowing, and
probably subsoiling. These things will take out
surface water and also let alfalfa roots penetrate
deep enough to be strong enough to escape this lift-
ing.

Spreading with Manure. — There is another thing

298 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

that will help and that is to run the manure spreader
over the land and cover it lightly with manure. Do
not bury it too deep, though alfalfa will in the
spring come up through quite a little litter. This
mulching should be done in November, though it
may be done later if it is not done then. This is the
one permissible intrusion into an alfalfa field, to
spread lightly over it manure for protection of the
crowns. When I say lightly I mean a layer thick
enough to cover the land about so that one can not
see the earth through the litter. Some men's ideas
of a light covering are airy in the extreme. This
manure will do no harm in the hay next season.
The rain will have washed it clean, it will have lost
most of its weight and anyway will have settled
down so close to the earth that the rake will not
gather very much of it. What is taken up will not
damage the hay.

HARVESTING HAY IN THE WEST.

To make alfalfa hay a man needs wide-cut mowers,
a supply of rakes, forks and men, then unlimited
faith and hopefulness. Especially is this true in the
humid East. In the West it is not so much a matter
of dodging showers as it is of economizing labor. In
the East it is a struggle to get the hay dry enough, in
the West a struggle to keep it from getting too dry
and thus losing its leaves.

When Ready to Cut. — Before starting the mowers
the farmer should get down on his knees in the field
and examine the stage of growth of the plants. It
is not possible to judge accurately by the state of
bloom or any other external sign. He must part
the stems and look down close to the earth to see if
the little shoots have formed, the shoots that sucker
out from the bases of the stems and that are to make
new growth. If these shoots, some call them "buds,"
have not appeared, then one takes risk of injuring
his second crop by cutting. He had better as a rule
wait a few days. It is hard to explain the injury
that sometimes comes to alfalfa when mown off too
soon. The succeeding crop may be lessened by half
or more if the alfalfa is mown off too early.

Nor can a man delay long after these buds ap-
pear without injuring his alfalfa. This injury
comes from two sources: for one thing the stems
become woody and the leaves are lost; then the

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300 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

shoots if they get long will be clipped off by the
mower and thus growth retarded again. So as soon
as these basal shoots appear one should begin cut-
ting. Thus several mowers may be a good thing.

The keynotes of success in making alfalfa hay in
the arid West are to mow off promptly when it is
time to mow; to rake before the hay is dry enough
to lose its leaves; to let it dry somewhat in the
windrow and then cock in large cocks, or bunch with
the rake if labor is too dear or scarce for hand cock-
ing, and then to hurry it into mow or stack.

Alfalfa leaves are worth about the same as wheat
bran, a little more, in truth, and one must struggle
always to manage so as to save them ; therefore the
early raking, and also careful handling afterward.

In the arid West one can bale alfalfa hay right
from the fields if he so desires. This he can seldom
do in the East,

Curing for the Mow. — A simple test of dryness
will seldom lead a man astray. It is to take a wisp
of the most moist hay he can find in the windrow or
cock and twist it hard as one would make a hay
rope, twisting it nearly to the breaking point. If
he can see no moisture whatever exude from the
stems he may put the hay up, no matter if it is
tough. If any visible moisture exudes he had better
dry it further else it may mold.

Making Green or Brown Hay. — In the West it is
often possible to cure hay that will come from the
mow or rick with a lovely green color, as fresh and

HARVESTING HAY IN THE WEST. 30l

green as it had when growing in the field. This
color can not often be secured in the East. When
hay is so dry before put in mow or stack that it does
not heat nor steam the green color will be preserved.
In order to have this in its perfection the hay should
not be cured altogether in the sunlight, nor ever ex-
posed to dew or rain, but should be cured in part in
the swath, raked before the leaves crumble, cured
somewhat in the windrow (side delivery rakes are
best for this purpose) and the curing process fin-
ished in the cock.

This green hay has a distinct market value. There
is a demand for it for horse feed; it has no mold on
it, has not been heated, is not dusty and is no doubt
the best that could be found for horses. It is in
favor among eastern dairymen because they con-
sider it the real alfalfa. It is really no better for
cows than the brown alfalfa, but it often outsells it in
the market.

For making into alfalfa meal the green alfalfa is
far better than the brown, because it looks better in
the bag and is recognized in the market as being
the true alfalfa meal. Thus it is made up into cow
feed and poultry feed by grinding and perhaps mix-
ing in some other ingredient.

Also, and this may seem like a jest, green alfalfa
hay ground into very fine meal has been used to make
into bread, sweetcake and muffins for classes of col-
lege boys. They have eaten of it and declared it good,
have subsisted upon it and done athletic feats.

HAYING TOOLS.

The helps of the western man who makes much
alfalfa hay are the wide-cut mowers, the side deliv-
ery and wide two-horse rakes, the sweep rakes that
gather the hay together and carry it with no handling
to the stack or mow and the big forks or slings that
by the aid of derricks or pitchers lift the hay to the
stack top or put it in the barn with no fork handling
whatever till it comes to hand of the man in the mow,
or the stackers on the stack.

The Side Delivery Rake. — This is a tool not in
universal use as yet. It has indeed its limitations
and imperfections. It is slower to gather the hay
than the wide two-horse sulky rake. It is more com-
plicated, so more apt to get out of order. It costs
more. On the other hand it lcan do many good things
that the common rake cannot do at all. It can sin-
gle out and rake the driest hay, and can turn it up
loosely so that air can penetrate it and yet further
dry it. It can be used to turn these windrows over
if need be to dry them further. Hay may be cocked
after the side delivery rake to good effect, or it may
be taken up with the hay loader. On the whole, the
writer does not see how a farmer making much al-
falfa hay can avoid using each of these machines.
The side delivery rake when everything is working
nicely, weather, men and tools; the wide two-horse

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SIDE-DELIVERY RAKE (TOP) AND HAY TEDDER (BOTTOM).

TWO STYLES OF HAY LOADERS.

HAYING TOOLS. 303

rake to hurry with when showers are coming and
much hay needs to go at once into cock, or for
gleaning the field after the hay has been taken off.
The side delivery is not a good rake for gleaning.

The Hay Loader. — Concerning the usefulness of
the hay loader in the alfalfa field there may easily
be two or more opinions. It saves labor, sometimes.
It may crumble and waste the leaves. It may cause
the hay to be left in such shape that it is ready to
take every drop -of sudden springing showers. This
is indeed the worst difficulty with the hay loader.
It cannot take hay up unless left in the swath or
windrow. It is not practicable to leave hay in the
swath for it loses its leaves if exposed too long to
the hot sun. Windrow loaders do not sacrifice so
many leaves, but the hay is ready to be wet by every
passing shower. On the other hand if one wishes
to use ignorant and unskilled labor to put hay on
wagons he may find the hay loaders an economical
way to get it there.

There are various types of hay loaders. For al-
falfa hay the best have endless aprons or strap car-
riers to take up the hay. The ones that push it up
by aid of spiked wooden strips are not very effi-
cient and knock off many leaves.

Siveep Rakes. — A better thing in nearly every way
is the wide sweep rake for gathering the alfalfa to-
gether and conveying it for short distances to the
barn or stack. These sweep rakes are operated
each by one man. He goes afield, gathers his load

304 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

whether in swath, windrow or cock, brings it un-
aided to the mow or rick, leaves it there and with-
out waiting for it to be unloaded goes afield for an-
other load. Thus one man with a pair of horses
will bring as much hay to the barn or rick if the
haul is short as would four men and four horses
with the hay loader. Furthermore these rakes
gather the hay with the least possible loss of leaves
since it is simply lifted up, pushed together and
carried to the unloading place.

Hay Sleds. — The eastern farmer may not have
use for either hay loader or sweep rake, because of
the small size of his fields. He can use a simple
hay sled to good advantage. These sleds are best
made of boards 1/2" thick of some hard wood if in
the hard wood country, or they may be of ordinary
%" stock boards. A size of 6' wide and 12' long is
good. Make exactly as you would a barn door.
Hitch a horse to the front end. It is well always to
let these sleds rest when not in use with the front
end supported on a stake about 24" high. This
makes it warp or curve a little and thus it draws
easier.

On these simple and inexpensive sleds an ac-
tive man will load an incredible amount of hay in a
day, and a small horse can easily draw it to the stack
or barn if the distance is not too great. There it is
either unloaded by simply pushing it off, or the
horse stops while the forks lift the hay.

Lifting to Stack or Mow. — Getting the hay from

HAYING TOOLS. 305

the ground to the top of the stack or mow
is ever an engineering problem that one must
study. There are several ways of attacking it.
One can arrange to take up very large bunches at a
time and thus economize time. Under this system
one must use two horses to elevate the hay, his ropes
and lines wear out rapidly and the men on the stack
are embarrassed by too much hay all at once. Or he
may waste time by an inefficient fork and carrier
that is forever getting out of repair and never takes
up very much at a time. A happy medium between
these is desired.

After some thirty years of haymaking I think that
to lift drafts of about 500 Ibs weight at a haul is
about right, and I would rather go under that weight
than over it. This gets the hay up rapidly enough
and yet the men in the mow can handle it easily.

There are many forms of efficient derricks for lift-
ing hay to the rick. We present illustrations of sev-
eral types and there are others nearly or quite as
efficient.

Grapple Forks. — How to lift the hay is one prob-
lem, how to get hold of it to lift it is another
quite as important. I like the Jackson California
fork for use in the field when stacking This will
grasp an incredible weight of hay, as much as the
men care to handle on the stack. It disturbs the
hay very little and leaves it on the stack in good
condition. Double harpoon forks do not work so well
in the field as they do in the barn. There are effi-

306 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

cient grapple forks made that will take loose hay
and deposit it nicely on the stack.

Unloading Hay. — In unloading at the barn the
problem is rather different, especially if the hay has
been loaded onto wagons. It is then compacted
so that forks have go'od opportunity to get hold of it.
In barns, too, it is possible to arrange ideal tracks
for unloading machinery. Good apparatus cost lit-
tle more than poor. It is economy to put in the
best.

I would always build hay barns in such manner
that there would be no cross-ties through the middle
section, thus nothing to make it necessary to lift
the hay to the peak in order to swing it in to the
mow. There are carriers made that do not ever lift
the load higher than will clear the level of the hay in
the mow when it swings in. It swings in at any height
desired, thus will put the hay clear into the peak, or
will swing it in at the level of the mow floor. These
carriers use either slings or forks.

Slings. — Slings are arrangements of ropes form-
ing a sort of large net that is laid in the bottom
of the load on the wagon rack. Pulley blocks with
hooks in them are attached rapidly to each end of
the sling and when it is lifted everything comes up
clean from the rack. There is nothing swifter,
cleaner or more efficient than the sling.

Curiously enough slings are not in common use.
Perhaps the reason is that commonly men have
sought to take off a whole load by putting in several

AN EFFICIENT HAY SLING.

TYPES OF HAY FORKS.

HAYING TOOLS. 307

slings and lifting them in succession. This scheme
ought to work well but troubles because men loading
hay rapidly in the field forget to put their slings in
at the right time, or else in unloading get hold of the
wrong slings, getting one of the slings at the front
end another sling at the rear. Thus each is drawn
out and no hay lifted.

I avoid all this trouble by using only one sling,
that placed in the bottom of the load. It would not
do of course to attempt to lift a ton or a ton and a
half of hay with one lift. Therefore the top of the
load is lifted with forks. Two of these are used at
the same time, one in each end of the load. As they
raise they take off a layer of hay over the whole load
just as a sling would do. A second layer is taken off
by aid of the forks, and then the rest -of the load is
cleaned up by use of the sling.

By aid of these slings one can elevate alfalfa hay
very rapidly. I have repeatedly taken off loads in
five minutes, which would, if that rate be held, put
in barn or stack 100 tons in a day. Of course men in
the mow or on the stack could not care for hay at any
such rate.

Care of Machinery. — A good deal of the success
of any hay unloading machinery is dependent on
the care of the apparatus. It pays to use large
pulleys of the strongest make. It pays to buy the
best rope. It pays to keep the carriers and pulleys
well oiled. Nowhere else is intelligence and care
better worth while than in the looking after hay un-

308 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

loading machinery. A hitch here and the whole
work is delayed and often many men made idle.

The Open Center Hay Barn. — There are several
advantages of building hay sheds and barns with
open centers. There is time saved for one thing,
since the hay is never lifted to the peak of the roof
till the height of the mow makes it necessary. Then
the hay never is dropped from a height, thus there
is not such hard packing of the middles. This pack-
ing often results in a good deal of spoiled hay, espe-
cially if it is put away rather moist. It is easier
on the men in the mow since they can push the hay
one way or the other as it drops and thus do quite a
little toward distributing it where needed.

HAY MAKING IN RAINY
COUNTRIES.

Probably most of the readers of this book will
dwell where showers come during hay harvest. I
remember what terror filled the hearts of haymakers
during my childhood, spent in Ohio. It was consid-
ered a calamity to have hay out when it rained and
every energy was put forth to get the last forkful
up before the storm came. Afterward when I began
the growing of alfalfa it came over me with a feeling
of dismay that with much alfalfa to harvest it would
be impossible to avoid getting a lot of it wet. Later
when my brothers and I had as much as 100 acres or
more to harvest I learned that they would have al-
falfa cut, in swath or in cock, during nearly every
storm that fell in the entire summer. From observa-
tion and habit we at last learned the secret of making
hay with no material damage in a land where rain
often falls.

Not Hard to Cure. — Alfalfa is not a hard stuff to
make into hay. It dries easier than red clover, for
example. There is a principle to be observed in
making alfalfa hay that applies to making hay from
all clovers. If it can be so managed that the leaves
are not at once burned and dried to powder the
moisture from the stems is the more easily removed.
Leaves are natural evaporators of sap; stems are
not. Therefore, while the leaf has yet pliancy and

(309)

310 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

some semblance of its natural condition it is most
efficiently carrying away the sap of the stem, but
when it has dried up it no longer aids in drying
the plant at all. Therefore, the best hay in all re-
spects is made partly in the shade, in loosely turned
windrows, in narrow cocks.

Raking the Hay. — This indicates the use of the

side delivery rake. It is an admirable tool for help-

.ing cure hay. One can lay it up in loose windrows,

hidden in part from the burning sun, yet penetrable

by the air and do a good deal of curing there.

We do not make much use of the tedder. There
are times when it should be used in very heavy hay,
when very green and the earth wet underneath. The
danger with the tedder is that one will use it too late
and knock off showers of leaves. Careful use of the
tedder is helpful; indiscriminate use of the tedder
may do great injury.

The rake should always be started before the
leaves are dry enough to crumble. Alfalfa leaves
are worth about $25 per ton. They are worth as
much, pound for pound, as wheat middlings. One
must plan to save them.

There are occasions when unavoidably parts of
the field will become too dry to rake without losing
most of its leave-s. Then let it alone till the sun has
gone down. Almost instantly the leaves will regain
their elasticity, and one can rake without losing
them. The writer has done this several times and
secured beautiful hay with nearly every leaf, giving

HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 311

the man who worked so late extra pay for his over-
time. In raking such hay, which is of course very
dry, it is best to make the windrows large.

Usually small windrows are best. We follow
about this practice: The mowers are run when
there is leisure to run them, paying little attention
to time of day. Usually several of them are started
at one time, when teams can be spared from other
work. It is well if the dew is off the alfalfa before
it is mown, but convenience sometimes makes us
disregard this practice.

Cocking the Hay. — As soon as the hay is tough
and the le-aves as dry as it is safe to allow them,
the rakes are started and small windrows made.
At once men follow with fo>rks and cock the hay up
in the old fashioned way. Care is taken to make
the cocks small in diameter, and as high as they can
be safely piled. The workmen are shown how to
take the hay in small forkfuls and lay it up, one
forkful squarely above another, till the cock is made.
This with a little practice is rapidly done. It seems
a costly thing to one not accustomed to this sort of
handling of hay, yet a skillful and energetic man will
easily cock up ten tons or more in a working day.
So the added labor cost is hardly more than 20 cents
per ton from cocking up. And when the hay is later
taken up it is handled so rapidly that some credit
must be allowed for that.

Hay cocked thus green is tough so that the stems
naturally droop from their own weight. The result

312 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

is that should rain come that night it would hardly
penetrate the hay at all. And being yet somewhat
green and hardly dead as yet rain would not do
much injury if it did penetrate.

Loading on Low Wagons. — Towards evening it is
probable that there will be found some hay dry
enough to go to mow or stack, so a number of wagons
will be loaded and run into sheds as the last cere-
mony of the day.

This last item is of more importance than one
would at first think. In a showery country it is ex-
ceedingly useful to have facilities for rapidly as-
sembling a lot of hay and putting it in shelter as
night closes. The Woodland Farm hay wagons are
assembled with low wheels and broad tires and have
platforms tightly boarded over, each platform 1'
wide and 16' long. At each end standards help the
loaders. On such a low platform wagon it is not at
all difficult to place two tons of hay, taken from the
cock, or 3,000 pounds from the windrow. On the
wagon platform is laid the one sling that goes un-
derneath the load. If care is taken to have this
right side up no other mistake can well be made
with it. On Woodland Farm seven of these wagons
are used. Some might suppose this a costly prep-
aration, but really such a wagon with low broad
iron wheels and simple running gears, with the plat-
form built on it, costs only about $40 and may be
had for less and be nearly as good. The advantage
of them is that they enable a man to hurry in away

HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 313

from approaching storm or nightfall a lot of hay,
and this can be all unloaded at leisure next morning
when dew is on the grass, or it may be showering.

Opening the Cocks. — The hay in the cock will be
left unopened till the dew is well off and the outside
of the cocks well dried, say till 9 or 10 o'clock.
One can never lay down cast iron rules for
hay making. The hay in the cock may not
need opening at all, but the chances are that it
will if it is to go in at once. Sometimes it can be left
for a few days in hot, dry weather and it will per-
fectly cure in the cock. I do not often do this ; it is
taking too much chance. By 10 o'clock, if the day is
fair, men are busily opening the cocks that were laid
up the evening before. With timothy hay one tears
it all apart and scatters it as much as possible when
he opens it. With alfalfa, on the other hand, one lifts
it tenderly and puts it out in three, four or more
large flakes, just as the cock was laid up — this to
avoid loss of leaves. These flakes lying under the
midday sun soon dry. After dinner maybe they will
need turning over once. This is very rapidly done.
Then one man go-es along and lays them in cock
again, just as he would pile up buckwheat cakes.
This is done very fast indeed, and the hay laid up
again goes right on drying. Wagons follow and it is
taken as fast as possible to- the barn. Late in the
day there may be more hay to rake and cock.

This is the system followed on Woodland Farm,
and almost no hay is lost no matter how it rains.

314 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Keep Hay from the Air. — As soon as alfalfa is
half dry it ought to be kept from the air except in
dry weather. That is, if it should happen to rain
and the hay is lying in the swath it will be much
injured ; if it is in windrow it is less hurt, and if in
cock it will probably be hurt none at all. So keep it
away from the air as soon as it is getting dry and
dews or rains -are coming. This lesson can not be
too well learned. Alfalfa once thoroughly dry, then
wetted, is much more injured than if it is only half
dry when rain falls. While I am always rejoiced at
dry weather during 'alfalfa harvest yet I expect to
see hay in the field during almost every rainstorm
of the summer.

Degree of Dryness. — Our rule is to dry hay as dry
as we can. How dry is that ? Seldom as dry as we
would like, certainly. Our test is to take a wisp of
hay, choosing some of the moister part, and twist it
hard to see if we can wring any moisture from the
stems. If we can not we put it in the mow or stack
as fast as we can get it there. One can put in hay
with some moisture in the stems but moisture of
rain or dew is sure to spoil the hay. We learn that
the larger a body of hay is put in in one place the
moister it may be and not spoil ; that when only one
o>r two tons are put in a small mow together the
hay can hardly be too well cured when it is put in,
but that mows with 50 or more tons together will
keep well even if the hay is pretty tough when put
in. The heat generated by the hay in curing dries

HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 315

out the large mass and no doubt destroys the germs
of mold as well.

Brown Hay. — This heating in the mow destroys
the green color of alfalfa and makes it brown or
yellow. It does not therefore appear so attractive
yet most animals eat it all the more greedily for
this heating that it has undergone. It has not really
been injured except that it has lost a little in weight.
Storer very nicely says of this brown hay :

Besides the plan of having hay undergo in the making some
slight fermentation, in connection with the true sweating, there
is another much more emphatic conception put in practice in
the process of making brown hay, so called. This is a process
which is dependent upon decompositions that are a good deal
more incipient; but which has nevertheless found favor in many
districts, especially in countries where the weather can never
be depended upon for making hay by the usual process.

In making brown hay, most of the water of the grass is
driven off by the heat of fermentation, only about a third of the
original moisture being dried off by sun and air in the first
place. Far from seeking to bring the hay into contact with the
air, the chief care in this process is to exclude air from the hay.
For making brown hay, grass that has been wilted to such an
extent that the leaves have shriveled, although the stalks are
still plump, is heaped up either in rather large masses or in
smaller heaps that have been trodden in such wise that the
air shall be well-nigh or altogether excluded from the interior
of the heap. Under these conditions, fermentation soon sets
in and proceeds with a good degree of regularity. In the course
of it the heap becomes very hot, often as hot as the temperature
of boiling water, the hay takes on a deep brown color, and gives
off an odor of caramel or burnt sugar.

In point of fact, some of the constituents of the hay undergo
the well-known fermentation which chemists distinguish as the
alcoholic, the lactic and the butyric; in other words, a consid-
erable part of the carbohydrates in the hay, notably the sugar
and the dextrin, are changed to alcohol, carbonic acid and lactic
and butyric acids. Of course, a considerable proportion of the
carbohydrates are destroyed by these changes. The large amount
of heat that is developed comes from the destruction of these

316 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

things. Some persons have thought that enough heat is de-
veloped to kill the germs of hurtful fungi which may have ex-
isted upon the grass, and that the hay is thus protected from
moldiness and from putrefaction. More probably it is the copi-
ous evolution of carbonic acid during the fermentation and the
lactic acid formed which hinder the development of the mi-
crodemes that cause putrefaction.

Brown hay that has been properly prepared is greedily eaten
by cattle, and readily digested and utilized by them. Since the
fermentation destroys a larger proportion of the carbohydrates of
the grass than of the albuminoids, it follows that brown hay
must be a somewhat more highly nitrogenized food than ordi-
nary green hay.

There is a certain analogy between brown hay and black tea.
Black tea is made from the same kind of leaves as green tea,
and the leaves are plucked at the same stage of their growth.
But for making black tea the leaves are fermented in heaps
before drying them, while for green tea the leaves are dried
directly.

The real justification for making brown hay is that the farmer
becomes independent of climate, and that even very weedy grass
may be saved in this way in the worst of seasons. Much labor
is required, of course, in raking up and carrying the heavy
green grass. The loss of dry organic matter in making brown
hay is large. Probably it is never less than 14% or 15% of that
originally contained in the grass, and the proportion is fre-
quently much larger than this.

Management in the Mow. — The hay mow is a hard
place, especially when one is rolling in tough alfalfa
at the rate of a ton every ten minutes. Therefore
it needs good men and plenty of them. In order to
have the hay cure nicely in the mow it ought all to
be moved, or nearly all. The practice of letting the
hay pile up in the middle as it falls from the car-
rier, rolling to each side, is a pernicious one. It
makes the hay very hard to get out of the mow and
there will 'be more mold and damage in the middle
than there would if the hay was kept level in the

ALFALFA GOING INTO THE HAY MOW.

HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 817

mow, or a little higher on each side than the center.

There ought to be no beams or ties or anything
in the mow for hay to rest upon. Where it is held
up by cross beams some of it may damage.

Curing Green Alfalfa. — In a small way hay can be
made by mixing quite moist half-cured hay with
bright dry straw or last year's hay. I have often
done this, laying down first a layer of straw, then a
layer of alfalfa, another layer of straw and thus on
till the mow is full or the supply of dry material is
exhausted. Shredded corn fodder is a good ma-
terial to use in this way and it is notable that when
the mixed foliage is fed out the animals will eat both
the alfalfa and the other material mixed with it.
Perhaps some of the flavor of the alfalfa is im-
parted to the other material.

Stacking Out of Doors. — In the West little care
is taken in building alfalfa ricks. They are often as
wide as 25' and the tops very flat and poorly adapted
to shedding off rain. In the East this will not do ;
the whole stack would become rotten. Alfalfa keeps
all right in stack or long rick, but there are certain
things 'to bear in mind. Grood foundations should
be built high enough off the ground so that 'air cir-
culates under them freely. They ought to be no
more than about 16' wide at the base, with a good
bulge higher up, and built as high as practicable.
We build them on Woodland Farm 25' high. They
should not be too hastily finished, as they will settle
unevenly and it is better to put the top on the

318

ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

second day after building. The tops must be of wild
hay, timothy or some such material that will shed
water. Alfalfa alone will not shed water at all well.

MODERN METHOD OF STACKING HAY.

There are covers made of wide boards that serve
well. These boards are held in place by use of spe-
cially constructed chains in which the boards are
slipped. The boards ought to have two good coats

HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 319

of paint before being used; a light colored paint is
best. Canvas stack covers are of use. They de-
cay rapidly when left on the stacks for a long time.
Steam arises from the stacks and condensing on the
canvas covers keeps them constantly moist and
warm, favoring decay.

Use of Hay Caps. — Hay caps of stout cotton cloth
or light canvas are very useful. They may be about
48" square and should have weights at each corner.
A convenient way to make these weights is to make
them of balls of moist cement. By putting a hole
as large as a cent piece in the corner of the square
and squeezing the ball of cement so that it will
surround the corner of the fabric and pass through
the hole it will become very firmly attached. If the
cement is as large as an orange it will do no harm
and hold on the covers all the more securely if the
wind blows, which it usually does before rain.
These weights are far better than cords and pegs
which get inextricably tangled in handling covers.

The objection to the covers is the trouble of using
them, gathering them up again and taking care of
them. However, where hay is as valuable as it is
in the Atlantic states I advise their use by all
means. There is one danger; it may lull the user
into a feeling of security that will prevent him has-
tening as he ought. Thus the new growth may
spring up and be turned white beneath the cocks.
Hay caps or no hay caps, make it a rule to make hay
while the sun shines.

320 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Salting Hay. — An old practice is that of adding
salt to hay as it goes in the mow with the idea of
better preserving it and also making' it more pala-
table to the animals. There is something in each be-
lief. It is not true that enough salt may safely be
added to keep very wet hay. I have tried this dur-
ing wet seasons and am now satisfied that if salt
enough is added to make hay keep, it will not be
safe hay to feed to animals after it has kept. How-
ever, when hay is only a little moist there is no
doubt that adding a portion of salt abstracts some
moisture and helps its preserving qualities. Ani-
mals too relish hay better if it is slightly salted, and
no doubt they thrive better to have their salt mixed
with their food. As to the amount of salt that
should be put on the hay, I would not advise more
than 10 or 12 Ibs. to a ton of hay. Hay that has been
slightly salted is tougher when taken from the mow
and loses its leaves less and is therefore better to
handle and better to bale.

Do Not Dry Hay Too Much. — Alfalfa hay may be
dried too much in the field. If this is done it will
not handle well nor will it pack well in the mow.
Thus one will not get nearly as much hay into his
mow as it ought to hold. Perhaps no one can de-
scribe to another how dry hay ought to be. It takes
experience to teach this, and one must learn to know
the feel of it. If the hay is harsh and brittle it is
too dry. If it is damp and limp it is too moist. If
any moisture from rain or dew is on it it will spoil.

HAY MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES. 321

Internal moisture from the stems and leaves will not
do half the harm that dampness of rain or dew will.

The Sweating of Hay Mows. — When one puts in a
mass of alfalfa hay in the right condition it is sure
to become hot and this heat makes vapor, almost
steam. This rises and condenses on the top layer of
hay, making it moist. Thus there may be a little
moldy hay on the very top of the mow. It is well
to put on a layer of very dry hay at the last, if this
is convenient. One need not feel troubled or anxious
about his hay merely because he finds it sweating
and some condensed steam on the top layer.

Spontaneous Combustion in Hay. — Alfalfa hay
put in with considerable moisture in the stems be-
comes intensely hot in the mow. It may be only hot
enough to cure nicely or it may, if put in too green,
become hot eno-ugh to ignite. I once stacked hay in
October when because of humid weather I could not
get the hay dry. At length in despair it was put in
the stack in a very moist condition. A large rick was
built of it, only half cured. This rick heated to such
an extent that part of it was charred, some was made
into excellent silage and, with the exception of a
very little mold, the rest was excellent brown hay.
It is notable that 'Stock like better this brown hay
than hay that is dried so that it cures with the
green color. The fact is the great 'heat developed in
curing under-dried hay partly cooks it; there is a
loss in carbohydrates, but the hay is richer than ever
in protein and no do>ubt more digestible.

322 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

This rick of silage and charred hay would have
burned had we helped it by opening it and admitting
air at the right time. By leaving it alone it died
from smothering; there was not oxygen enough in
the mass to make it burn. There are, however, a
good many instances of spontaneous combustion oc-
curring in alfalfa ricks and mows in Kansas where
the very rank growths are often put up without suffi-
cient drying. It is notable that in many instances
recorded the fire breaks out after the farmer be-
comes alarmed at the hotness of his mow or stack
and goes to open it out, when it gets air, takes fire
and burns. It is doubtful if there would often occur
a case of spontaneous combustion if the barn was
fairly tight and no air was let in by braces or beams
running into the mow. The best thing usually
when one fears spontaneous combustion in mow or
stack is to watch it and carefully avoid opening it
or doing anything to let the air into the mass.

I once put green oat hay into the mow, a great
many tons of it, and spontaneous combustion set in
in this mow, and steam filled the lower story for
days. We kept adding hay above and thought little
of it. The mass cooled down, but when the hay was
taken out there were tons of charred hay that could
not be handled with the fork. It seems that had we
dug into the mass we would have lost the barn.

There is practically no danger of spontaneous
combustion unless the hay is put in much too green
and moist.

SOILING AND PASTURE.

There is great advantage in soiling cattle rather
than letting them run on the land and eat at will.
An acre of land will carry three times as much stock
if the crop is cut and taken to the animals as it will
carry if they are allowed to run upon it. When al-
falfa is the soiling crop an acre will carry about the
same number of animals that five acres will pasture.

There are good reasons for this. Animals grazing
tread down and injure both the soil and the plants.
Alfalfa is not perfectly adapted to being depastured.
Grasses are natural pasture plants. They make
growth from the lower end of the blades. Thus
when the upper ends are eaten off the new growth
pushes them on up 'again. However, even grasses
are weakened by being eaten too clos-e. Alfalfa grows
from buds and if these buds are eaten off then no
growth can take place till new buds have started
again. Thus it is clearly much more advantageous
to let the alfalfa mature and cut and carry the for-
age to the animals than to feed it off by depastur-
ing.

Advantages of Soiling. — There are other advan-
tages in this manner of feeding alfalfa. It seldom
or never bloats animals when it is cut and taken to
them, even if fed very green or with the dew on
it. For some reason, perhaps because when eating

324 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

cut alfalfa they eat the stems as well as the leaves,
animals rarely bloat on cut alfalfa. I have prac-
ticed feeding it to steers and ewes and have never
seen a case where it gave trouble. Certainly no ani-
mal eating alfalfa either green or dry should ever be
allowed to get very hungry before getting its feed.

Further, alfalfa is so rich a feed that no other
soiling crop that can be mentioned is as good, and
it is so very easily grown. One can grow as much
as 25 tons per acre of green alfalfa on any good,
deep soil, and this forage is richer in elements going
to make growth and muscle and milk than almost
any that may be named.

Tests of Soiling. — The Nebraska Station reports
that in an experiment conducted there it required
.71 of an acre to keep a cow for a given time by
soiling, while by pasturing it required 3.63 acres.

In New Jersey Prof. Voorhees said that the first
cutting of alfalfa yielded nine tons per acre, the
second 7.73 tons, the third 4.89, fourth 2.75 and fifth
2.23, or a total yield of 26.60 tons of green forage.
About 30 to 50 Ibs. per day of this green forage will
be consumed by a cow. At the maximum rate an
acre of alfalfa would feed 36 cows one day, first cut-
ting, and to feed that number of cows safely through
the season from the middle of May until late October
would take about 40 acres only of alfalfa, Allowing
something to give good margin, one can feed splen-
didly 36 cows on 50 acres of alfalfa and have chance
to make quite a little hay as well from the field.

SOILING AND PASTURE. 325

Double System Best. — But this would hardly be
the most profitable way to use either the cow or the
alfalfa. A partial system of soiling in connection
with a good pasture is the better way. Thus if the
cows were put daily in the .stable, or fed in racks,
with 20 to 25 Ibs. of green alfalfa and then given
access to a good pasture of almost any sort of nutri-
tious grass the results would be much better. For
making beef I found that when racks are placed in
the bluegrass pasture and are filled daily or once
in two or three days with green alfalfa, the cattle
made splendid growth. When in addition a small
amount of corn was fed them they made probably
the most rapid and cheapest gains possible.

Early Cutting Hurtful. — Alfalfa makes early
growth for soiling, but it is bad for the plants to be
mown off too early. In England where alfalfa is
chiefly used as a soiling crop for horses the alfalfa
is much weakened where it is cut too early, along -the
top of the field where cutting begins. On Wood-
land Farm, where alfalfa has often been cut for soil-
ing sheep, it has been observed that where the cut-
ting was premature the alfalfa soon became unpro-
ductive and weeds and grasses came in.

If therefore it is desired that the field endure
for a number of years it is well to wait till near the
time of bloom before beginning to cut, even for soil-
ing. Or it may be felt to be cheaper to sacrifice a
little of the field in order to take advantage of the
first available growth. In this case the strip mown

326 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

too early may be plowed and resown in late July
after being cut two or three times.

Repeating the Mowing. — Once one gets started
over the field cutting for soiling he ought to manage
to come around with his second cutting in about 35
days. This is not very difficult to manage. Suppos-
ing the normal time for alfalfa harvest to be June
1, if he begins cutting for soiling on May 15, which
he very easily can do, and cuts a strip each day till
June 20, he will not find the crop very woody, and by
that time his first cutting will be ready to go over
again and so on in rotation all summer long.

Soiling for Dairy Cows. — Doubtless the dairy cow
relishes green food most of any farm animals, and
needs it most. There is something about green sap
that makes milk. Dry that sap and it never is so
good again. Then dairies are often situated in re-
gions where feeds are dear. A man keeping cows
near any of our eastern cities can find immense profit
in growing alfalfa for feeding green as well as dry.
There is not a dairyman with a little farm land who
can not grow alfalfa with splendid profit. He has
the manure for starting it, he has the market in his
own animals for the forage. If he can make a living
at all in the dairy business he can make money, and
plenty of it, with the aid of alfalfa and soiling.

Soiling on Pasture. — I have already mentioned a
system of feeding that combines practicability with
economy and gives good results, that is the feeding
of green alfalfa in racks on pasture. These racks

SOILING AND PASTURE. 327

should be large, so that they will 'hold at least a
day's supply of forage, and they may just as well
hold enough for two or more days. They ought to
be on runners so that they can be readily moved by
attaching a team of horses. Thus the racks need
not stand in any one spot long enough to kill the
grass there. And wherever they stand the grass will
be wonderfully thickened and improved.

Cows will give more milk and make it cheaper to
have the run of a grass field in connection with al-
falfa soiling than when they are soiled on alfalfa
in the stable. There is also a great economy of labor
in this practice since there is no manure to handle,
and if the racks are moved often the spread of fer-
tility over the grass field will wonderfully improve
the pasturage.

In cutting alfalfa for soiling one ought always
after the first cutting to be governed by the growth
of the buds or shoots at the base of the stems as al-
ready directed. Thus the vigor of the plants will
not be disturbed and the yield will continue un-
diminished for several years.

In the San Joaquin Valley, of California, are
many very great alfalfa ranches and farms. I have
seen there large dairies fed on green alfalfa and on
alfalfa <silage, it being found better to ensilo the al-
falfa in order to soften the prickly beards of the
wild grasses infesting the fields. The more common
practice throughout the San Joaquin Valley, how-
ever, is to pasture the alfalfa in summer and feed

328 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

in winter cut alfalfa that has been moistened and
sprinkled with barley meal, about four pounds of the
meal to thirty pounds of alfalfa, or even a less
amount is often used and fed to steers, dairy cattle,
and in fact to all sorts of live stock.

Green Alfalfa in Dairy Rations. — New York has
made valuable experiments to determine the cost of
milk from alfalfa and from other sources of succu-
lent forage. Concerning alfalfa on the Geneva sta-
tion farm, Bulletin (No. 80), says:

Alfalfa has grown well on the station farm, although the soil
is a rather heavy clay. A field of alfalfa of 2.28 acres, sown in
1890, yielded this season (1894) for the first two cuttings — the
first during June and the second about August 1 — at the rate
of 24,500 pounds of green forage per acre. On account of very
severe drought the third cutting was very light and only part
of the field was cut for the fourth time. Another field of al-
falfa of 1.3 acres, sown in 1893, yielded at the rate of 33,800
pounds of green forage per acre, as the total for four cuttings.
The last two cuttings were very light on account of severe
drought. The first two cuttings, from May 11 to 31, and from
July 9 to 28, yielded at the rate of a little over 12 tons of green
forage per acre. These fields had been steadily cropped and
not well manured for some years before sowing to alfalfa, and
were not in condition to produce heavy crops.

The importance of feeding leguminous crops has led to many
inquiries concerning the value of alfalfa as forage for milch
cows, for the alfalfa is mueh liked by cattle and other animals
and contains an unusually large proportion of nitrogenous con-
stituents. The rapid growth of the plant, which can be cut
three times during the season, and often four times, makes it
especially worthy of consideration where soiling methods are
practiced.

Then follows an account of very careful and accu-
rate experiments with cows, feeding various grain
and hay rations, with green peas and oats, clover,
corn silage and sugar beets. In every instance the

SOILING AND PASTURE.

329

comparison was in favor of the alfalfa, taking into
account the ease with which it was grown and har-
vested and the improvement to the soil that follows
its use. N v- r * * %

The whole bulletin is well worth study, but I re-
produce only the general observations :

These feeding trials here reported, though many of them for
periods necessarily rather short, were repeated for several sea-
sons and are the average results from a number of different
cows, so that the indications which they all give of the value
of alfalfa can hardly be considered accidental.

The average of all the analyses made of the fourteen lots of
alfalfa used in these feeding trials will give an idea of the gen-
eral composition of alfalfa forage. The average composition of
three lots of mature corn forage might be considered beside that
of the alfalfa for comparison as follows:

Alfalfa forage.

Corn forage.

Per cent of moisture

75.10

71.80

Per cent of ash .

2 28

1 20

Per cent of protein

4 48

2.27

Per cent of true albuminoids

3 53

1 97

Per cent of crude fiber

6.59

5 17

10 26

18 46

Per cent of fats . ....

1.29

1.10

In determining the cost of milk, for purpose of comparison,
for each period reported in the preceding tables, the cost of the
food only was considered. The manurial values of the foods
were not taken into account, although under favorable condi-
tions the net cost to the farm of milk would be much influ-
enced by the fertilizing values of the foods. The manurial
values of rations containing alfalfa and of those containing
highly nitrogenous grain foods would be much greater than of
most rations, but except where especial attention is given to
careful handling of manure, only a small proportion of the
possible amount would be recovered.

When alfalfa forage was substituted for some other food or
the amount of alfalfa in the ration increased, there followed, in
ten instances a decrease in the cost of the milk, in two in-
stances a very slight increase in cost, and in two instances the
cost of milk was practically the same. There was an increase

330 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

in the yield of milk in seven instances, a decrease in four in-
stances of about what might normally be expected to occur
without change of food, and little change in yield in three in-
stances.

When the change was from a ration containing alfalfa to one
containing less or no alfalfa, there followed an increase in the
cost of milk in ten instances and there was about the same cost
once. There was a decrease of the milk yield in nine instances,
and an increase of the milk yield in two.

When alfalfa was substituted for other foods in the ration or
the amount of alfalfa increased there followed a decrease in the
cost of fat in seven instances and an increase of the cost in six
instances. There was an increase of the amount of fat in six
instances, a decrease in five instances, and little change in
amount twice.

When the change was from a ration containing alfalfa to one
containing less or none, there followed an increase in the cost of
fat in nine instances, a decrease in cost once, and there was
about the same cost twice. There was an increase of the amount
of fat in three instances, a decrease in three, and about the same
amount of fat in five.

When the change in the ration was to more alfalfa., or to
alfalfa in place of some other food, there followed a decrease
in per cent, of fat in milk in six instances, an increase in three,
and little change in per cent, in four instances. When changed
from a ration containing alfalfa to one containing less or none,
there followed an increase in per cent, of fat in six instances and
a decrease of per cent, in five.

There has been usually an increase in milk yield accompany-
ing the use of alfalfa, although there was often at the same
time a decrease in the per cent of fat. With alfalfa forage,
rated at the same cost as other forage, there was generally a
decrease in the cost of milk when the alfalfa was fed, and not
much change in the cost of the fat produced.

Corn forage (fully matured), in the results accompanying its
use, has compared most favorably with alfalfa; but except in
the form of silage it is only available for a short time in the
fall before frost. Alfalfa is ready for the first cutting about the
time of planting corn, and about as early as rye forage can be
cut. The proportion of constituents also differs so widely be-
tween alfalfa and corn forage that these plants can not well be
considered as substitutes for each other, but as supplementary.
For making rations like those usually fed, coarse fodder and
grain foods, in general cheaper than those used with corn forage,

SOILING AND PASTURE. 331

can be used with alfalfa. The more highly nitrogenous grains
and hays fed with corn silage or forage, however, have a much
higher manurial value, which is often of wide importance.

The palatability of alfalfa or of corn (maize) is greater than
of most other forage plants of rapid growth that will yield heavy
crops. This is a matter of the greatest importance.

From my own experience I believe that there is
hardly anywhere a farmer who< could not use a small
field of alfalfa, profitably in summer as a soiling
crop. There are always dry times when grasses
fail and cows shrink in milk; there are pigs and
lambs and horses, all of which relish green feed and
particularly if it is the delicious alfalfa forage.
It is an insurance against drought and an acre of
good alfalfa cut and fed green to stock will give as
much as ten or more of average pasture grasses.

Alfalfa for Soiling Horses. — In all Europe much
reliance is placed on fresh-cut green feed for horses
in summer time. Sometimes it is vetches and rye,
sometimes grass, sometimes alfalfa. And alfalfa
or lucerne is the most prized and best relished of all
the forage plants cultivated over there for feeding
green to horses. Horses fed a daily ration of green
stuff keep in far healthier condition than when fed
on dry hay throughout the summer. With green al-
falfa available the grain ration may be considerably
lessened. The alfalfa should not, however, be cut
for horses till somewhat mature, at least at the stage
when it would be cut for hay. Working horses may
go to pasture at night in which case soiling is not
so necessary. They may have the run of an alfalfa

332 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

pasture and will do well on it. ' However, the same
truth applies to pasturing horses on alfalfa as ap-
plied to other animals — an acre cut and fed to them
will go as far as three or more acres pastured.

When there are mares, foals and idle horses on
pasture it is an excellent plan to give them a daily
ration of green alfalfa as has been suggested for
the cows.

Alfalfa for Soiling Sheep. — I was struck by the
great use made of soiling crops in France. There
one would sometimes see a large flock, consisting
may be of 2,000 head, all kept during great part of
the day in some fine old stone stable or shed, there
eating green clovers with the bloom on. And a great
part of these clovers would be alfalfa, mixed no
doubt somewhat with sainfoin or red clovers. What
fine, healthy flocks, they were! How free from all
traces of stomach worms ! It made me feel that we
in America know very little yet about keeping sheep.

The ruin of American flo<cks usually is the hateful
parasite. It gets in its work when sheep are pas-
tured for successive years on our old bluegrass pas-
tures. When sheep are soiled on alfalfa, or on al-
most any cultivated crop for that matter, the para-
site can not gain entrance and the animal remains
in health. A healthy sheep is pretty sure to be a fat,
contented and profitable sheep. The labor of soil-
ing sheep is the one objection to the practice. It is
well repaid, 'however, in most instances, since the re-
sults are so very good.

SOILING AND PASTURE.

Method of Soiling. — One ought to have barns or
sheds well adapted to the practice and more or less
dry straw is needed. If he has airy sheds that he
can drive through with wagon or cart, arranged
with racks on either side in which he will place his
green alfalfa or other forage, a flock can be fed in
very few minutes. A man with mower, rake and
team would easily feed and care for 1,000 sheep. A
lesser number would be a little more costly to feed,
certainly. When one has a flock of pure-bred ewes
and wishes to grow the best of lambs he had better
try this soiling system, with a little dry hay and
grain in addition to what alfalfa they wish. It is
a joy to see such lambs as will grow up under such
a system. It has been often tried on Woodland Farm.

Keep Sheep from Small Pastures. — It must be
borne in mind when soiling sheep for prevention of
parasites that they ought to have no run to grass.
There should be an absolutely clean lot, with no
weeds, no grass; then the airy, cool shed, the
feed racks, the water and salt. If there is a small
grass lot on which they also run it is certain that
they will pick up myriads of parasites there and then
the owner will say in disgust, "Soiling sheep will
not keep them healthy. ' ' It will keep them in health,
if they cannot get the parasites from the vegetation
springing up from where their droppings have been
deposited at some former time. Lambs kept in
yards absolutely clean, fed on soiling crops, grain
and hay, will be as big at six months old as they

334 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

would at a year given the run of pasture infected
more or less with stomach worms.

Sheep Husbandry in the Cornbelt. — How can we
have a great and successful sheep husbandry in the
cornbelt? By first building wide sheds, with room
to drive through easily, and hay storage above.
Feed the sheep in these sheds during the winter and
give the run of pastures. There is no danger then,
with chance to* glean corn stalks or what not. In
April confine ewes and lambs to the sheds, feed
them green alfalfa and other green crops, with a
little dry hay. Do this and failure is nearly im-
possible. Do it in a large enough way, with 500 ewes
in charge of a good man 'and it will pay well. If
you have had stomach worms among your sheep and
lambs, try for one year keeping them in a cool, airy
barn basement, with no grass whatever, nor weeds,
in their small yard (they need no yard at all for that
matter) and see what splendid lambs you will get.
Of course there is the fear that the ewes may get too
fat to breed so treated. This may be overcome by
taking the ewes from the lambs when the latter are
weaned and putting them out on rather poor pasture
for a time, or in some way naturally reducing their
flesh if they are inclined to be heavy and lifeless.
Lambs never get too big or fat ; growth takes care
of that.

Alfalfa for Soiling Swine. — When a rancher I had
my first experience with soiling swine. I kept a few
old sows in a log pen and each day cut a few swaths

SOILING AND PASTURE. 335

of green alfalfa and threw over to them. With no
other food during summer the sows and pigs thrived
quite well. They did not fatten at all, but the sows
gave milk and the pigs grew. Later in the season
when corn ripened they were given corn or squashes
in addition to their alfalfa and then they fattened
off readily.

When hogs must be kept in pens they should have
green stuff abundantly supplied. There is prob-
ably nothing else so good for them as green alfalfa,
It should not be allowed to get woody. It is probable
that it is more profitable to 'cut the alfalfa green
and feed to the hogs than it is to let them run on
it when land is worth $100 per acre and alfalfa hay
commands $10 per ton. Where land is cheap and
hay is cheap and alfalfa is a plant easily established
it is no doubt better to pasture than to soil.

Alfalfa for Poultry. — When fowls are confined
to yards they thrive much better when fed green
stuff and there is nothing they relish more than
green alfalfa. It is, moreover, an exceedingly rich
and well chosen food for -them, especially for laying
hens and growing chicks. It may be fed to them
whole or cut into very fine bits, when they will con-
sume nearly all of it,

AS A PASTURE PLANT.

It may almost be said that alfalfa is unfitted for
pasturing. Grasses grow by the increase of the
lower parts of their stems and blades. They there-
fore do not suffer from being nipped off, as 'they can
yet push up from below. Alfalfa, on the other hand,
grows from terminal and lateral buds. If these are
bitten off, growth must cease until new buds can
form and growth starts anew. Again, grasses are
safe pasturage and alfalfa a risky one, because of
the danger of animals, in their greed, so gorging
themselves that they suffer from indigestion and
consequent bloat.

Notwithstanding these facts very many farmers
pasture alfalfa with great profit and almost every
man growing it will desire to pa&ture it more or less.
The brief study of the conditions under which it
may be most safely pastured will be profitable.

Care in Pasturing. — For the good of the alfalfa,
animals must never run on the field when it is
frozen nor when it is soft and muddy. To tread on
frozen alfalfa crowns is to destroy them in most
instances. Therefore, as soon -as a hard freeze
comes all stock should be taken away from the al-
falfa field, and the gates locked.

Animals must not be permitted to gnaw it too
close. A small field of alfalfa thrown into a large

AS A PASTURE PLANT. 337

grass pasture will soon be destroyed, without afford-
ing a great amount of feed, because stock will hardly
eat any other thing while they can get the alfalfa,
and it will have no chance to grow at all. It is
hardly safe for a man to attempt to pasture his
alfalfa while it is in the experimental stage. He
should wait until he has established fairly wide
breadths of it; then he can set aside portions of it
for that purpose.

Pasturing and Mowing. — A combination of pas-
turing and mowing off is most economical and
satisfactory. Divide the area to be pastured into
three lots. Turn out stock on one, and when they
have eaten a part of it, turn them to the second en-
closure and mow off the first, taking away what they
have left. There are always parts of the pasture
more palatable than other parts ; animals thus graze
unevenly; the mower evens it up, and what was
discarded in summer proves to be acceptable in
winter. After grazing down the second enclosure
sufficiently, the animals will be turned to the third
part, while the mower will finish cutting the second
lot. Then after a time they will come back to the
first enclosure, which will be all evenly grown up
and about at the blooming stage. Managed in this
way, alfalfa will endure grazing for many years
without injury, while if allowed to be eaten close in
spots and not eaten at all in other spots, it soon
becomes weakened and grass invades it and the
good stand is lost.

338 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Danger from Bloat. — There are stages in the
growth of alfalfa when it is much more apt to bloat
stock than at other times. When the soil is moist
and the weather warm and growth rapid, when the
soil is very rich also, there is induced a very rank
growth that is quite apt to cause trouble. This
danger is worst when the alfalfa is young and ten-
der ; increasing safety comes with advancing matur-
ity until, when it is thoroughly in bloom, there seems
little danger to animals accustomed to its use.

Perhaps there is never absolute safety in pastur-
ing sheep and cows on alfalfa, yet the writer has for
many years pastured valuable sheep all summer on
alfalfa, with a run on grass when they wished; and
in some years his loss has been so trifling as to
be not worth considering, while occasionally it has
been necessary to take the sheep off for a time to
allow the alfalfa to harden up. In several years '
experience with cattle he has lost but one, and
that one from permitting it to graze very im-
mature alfalfa that had been mown about two weeks
and that, owing to the nature of the soil, was mak-
ing a very rank growth. There is never danger with
pigs so that they are not too hungry when first
turned on the alfalfa, nor with horses if it is not too
watery and immature.

It is, however, an art to accustom animals to eat-
ing alfalfa in pasture. The plants should have made
a considerable growth, almost having reached the
blooming stage, before being turned on.

AS A PASTURE PLANT. 339

Turn on Full. — The animals, whether sheep, cattle
or swine, should not be hungry when turned on.
They should be allowed to fill themselves completely
with bluegrass, should have a ration of their usual
grain, if they are eating grain; then at about ten
o'clock, when they do not care to graze longer, they
should be introduced to the alfalfa pasture. It is
well to stay with them until they have eaten what
they will of the new forage and laid down to digest
it; there will not be much tendency to bloat, but
should there be it is well to be on hand. Being
turned on at this time of day and stage of repletion,
they will not consume very much alfalfa at first, and
this is what you desire. Once filled up, the subse-
quent treatment is charmingly simple: they must
never again be taken away from the alfalfa, night
or day, rain or shine ! The philosophy is that treated
thus they never become hungry and thus take in but
a little alfalfa forage at a time.

The usual practice of turning in for fifteen min-
utes the first day, half an hour the second day, an
hour the third day and so on, is the worst possible
to conceive, as it brings the cattle every time hungry
to the field, and in fifteen minutes they can pack
an immense amount of alfalfa into their stomachs.
We have permitted sheep to leave the alfalfa fields
during the heat of the day and come to the barn
for shade and water. About ten in the morning,
earlier during very hot weather, they would do this,
and then at three or four in the afternoon they would

340 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

be driven. back to the field. Thus they were on al-
falfa all night and most of the day, and often with
alfalfa hay in the barn to eat dry while sheltering
fcom the sun.

Advantages of Grazing Alfalfa. — The advantages
of alfalfa grazing for sheep are great. Grazing
high they escape all sorts of intestinal para-
sites that so afflict sheep in America. The deadly
stomach worm, once a scourge on Woodland Farm,
has almost completely disappeared since alfalfa pas-
ture has become our reliance. These parasites find
ttieir way to the ground from the droppings of the
ewes; the germs develop there somewhat and per-
haps by entwining about the moist grass are again
taken into the stomachs of the flock, this time to dis-
tress the lambs. Intestinal parasites have very nearly
ruined the sheep industry of the east. The old pas-
tures become deadly. Alfalfa pasture has certainly
been proved to be a remedy.

In a flock of a hundred ewes with their lambs, it
has been usual to lose, presumably from alfalfa
bloat, from one to half a dozen sheep and lambs
during the summer. From stomach worms it was
once my experience to lose twenty, and half the
others to be seriously injured by the presence of the
insidious scourge. The nodular disease afeo seems
held in check by alfalfa pasture, and tape worm is
unknown in our flock, for no other reason that I can
see than that of the grazing of alfalfa. Of course,
when grazing alfalfa one should be careful that the

AS A PASTURE PLANT. 341

sheep do not infect themselves in other small grassy
lots where the short, sweet, rich grass may tempt
them to bite close, for in these places infection
lodges.

Curing Alfalfa Bloat. — Very often animals slight-
ly bloated recover unaided. If, however, there is
considerable distress the attendant should go at once
to their aid. With sheep, take a stick about two
inches in diameter, or a large cob, insert it between
the jaws, thus keeping the mouth open, raise the head
and gently press the sides between the knees. This
will usually result in causing the gas to be belched
off. A half pint of raw linseed oil, with a teaspoon-
ful of turpentine added, is a relief, and the same
mixture in larger doses relieves cattle. Sweet milk
is said to relieve bloat in sheep.

Tapping With Trocar. — When it is evident, from
the extreme tension of the paunch, that this will not
be enough to save the animal, recourse must be had
to the trochar. At a point on the left side the walls
of the paunch and the skin unite in the cow and are
close to each other in the sheep. Here an insertion
may be made without causing the animal much pain,
and a tube put in to allow the gas to escape. When
pasturing either alfalfa or red clover, a trocar
should always be at hand, for there is no telling
when it may be needed. The trocar is better than
the knife, as it opens a small hole and there is no
danger of opening one too large; then, when the
point is withdrawn the tube remains in the open-

342 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

ing, through which the gas escapes. In using any
improvised tube one must hold to it or it may slip
completely within the paunch and be lost, perhaps
to the serious injury of the animal, though the
writer once lost a piece of cane reed six inches long
in the paunch of a sheep with no ill effect that he
could ever discover, but what became of it has
been always a mystery to him. After using the tro-
char, one should liberally disinfect the wound with
turpentine or some carbolic disinfectant.

Cold Water or Ice. — In cases of bloat there is
always considerable heat about the paunch, and
indeed the rapid fermentation must produce an en-
tirely unnatural heat which if it can be reduced may
of itself cure the complaint. I learned from a Mor-
mon ranch woman many years ago that ice heaped
on the distended back of a bloated cow, with some
kneading and keeping the head up hill, was a ready
relief. This occurred when the ranch cows used to
graze on frosted alfalfa in the fall and ice was at
hand in the irrigating ditches. I have cured bloated
ewes by pouring cold water on the region of the
paunch.

This much space has been given the subject of
bloat, not because it is so very dangerous, but be-
cause when one has a case of it on hand he
is anxious to know at once what to do. The writer
has noted that in years when he has had trouble
from bloat on his alfalfa, his neighbors have had as
much trouble and more loss from bloat on their red

AS A PASTURE PLANT. 343

clover, and what is good treatment for one instance
is f or the other.

Alfalfa Dangerous After Frost. — There is a time
when succulent alfalfa may be frosted and afterward
become very indigestible and dangerous to pasture
off green ; in fact, not the best food when made into
hay. It is therefore a safe rule to take all stock off
the alfallfa pastures after a hard frost at once and
for the rest of the year. It is well to leave a growth
of twelve inches to catch the snow and protect the
crown and the greatly increased yield the next year
will much more than offset the small loss from not
eating every bit of the crop in the fall.

Mixing Grasses With Alfalfa. — Eeference has
previously been made to the value of grass mixed
with alfalfa pasture when it is to be grazed, and in
my experience certain alfalfa fields that have in them
considerable bluegrass and brome grass have never
given one case of bloated stock. Alfalfa sown thinly
is also much less apt to bloat stock.

Grazing Spring Lambs on Alfalfa. — I have for
some years made a practice of growing winter
lambs. All the ewes would not yean early enough
to get their lambs off on the early markets, so those
born in March and April would be left to go to pas-
ture. It has been my practice to put these ewes
and their lambs on alfalfa pasture about the first of
May, some years a few days later, and feed the
lambs ear corn in creeps. These lambs have made
astonishing growth thus treated, averaging above

344 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

80 pounds in June, and the ewes without grain have
fattened while suckling their lambs. Lambs eating
corn and suckling their mothers have never suffered
from bloat in my experience.

Grazing Pigs on Alfalfa. — Alfalfa is the natural
food for swine. The pregnant sow on alfalfa pas-
ture generally needs no grain at all, at most but a
trifle of corn should she be in a thin condition when
turned to pasture. Pigs born from sows pasturing
alfalfa are unusually fine and strong. After they
come the sows need a little more grain than before
and suckle profusely. The little pigs enjoy the
sweet, tender herbage and thrive on it, but they too
should have a daily allowance of grain. This is not
absolutely necessary, as in Colorado, Western Kan-
sas and Nebraska many hog ranches are found where
no grain is produced or fed winter or summer, only
alfalfa hay dry in winter and alfalfa pasture in sum-
mer, but the pigs are often sold to farmers in the
cornbelt to be fattened. It is economy to feed corn
on alfalfa pasture. Alfalfa alone is too one-sided a
ration ; it is too rich in protein and too poor in starch
and fat. It builds the pig long and lean unless corn
is added, but the amount of corn should be very
much less than is needed on other pasture. In Kan-
sas the state agricultural college has found that
"at this station, pigs were pastured throughout the
summer on alfalfa with a light feeding of corn.
After deducting the probable gain from the corn, the
gain per acre from the alfalfa pasture was 776

AS A- PASTURE PLANT. 345

pounds of pork. One lot of fattening hogs was fed
all the corn they would eat, another lot all the grain
and dry alfalfa hay they would eat. The lot hav-
ing alfalfa hay made a gain of 868 pounds of pork
per ton of alfalfa hay."

Pasture for Horses. — There is nothing else so
good for horses as» alfalfa pasture. Working horses
keep in good flesh and work well, with a trifle of
grain added to their daily run on alfalfa ; especially
is it good for mares and their foals. The mares
give a great abundance of milk when having alfalfa
green and the colts make a growth and development
that is surprising. When visiting the great ranches
along the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys in
California, I was constantly astonished at the size and
quality of Thoroughbred and standard-bred horses
and colts running on alfalfa pasture in summer and
wintering on alfalfa hay. There is such an abun-
dance of flesh and bone-forming material in alfalfa
that colts develop naturally and to their utmost
when fed upon it. No ill results whatever have ever
been observed by myself from depasturing alfalfa
by horses, though I would not put them on it too
early in spring nor when too hungry.

As a Bee Pasture. — In California, Nevada, Utah
and Colorado, alfalfa honey is a staple article of
commerce. I have seen some marvelous things in
the way of alfalfa-fed bees. At Gov. John Sparks'
ranch, at Reno<, Nev., the bees took possession of the
space between the weatherboarding and the plaster

ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

of the dwelling. From this they were dislodged from
time to time and robbed, at one time yielding near
a ton of honey. At the Chowchilla ranch, near Mer-
ced, Cal., bees inhabited a hollow wall of a granary
and their store yielded 3,000 pounds of honey at one
time. Stranger still, in the peak of the roof of a
farm building there hung pendant a mass of comb
and honey at least twelve inches thick and eight
feet long, hanging down three feet or more. This
was about to be removed for fear it would fall of its
own weight.

In Colorado-, the production of honey has fallen
somewhat in the sheep-feeding district, since alfalfa
has been cut earlier, before it has oome mutfh into
bloom. This fact of necessary earlier cutting will
prevent the bees making so much use of alfalfa in
the east a-s they do in the pastoral regions of Cali-
fornia.

Experiments made by the Kansas experiment sta-
tion showed that bees were very necessary to the
development of alf-alfa seed. Whether there may
not be other insects than the honey-bee that assist
in this work is a question yet to be definitely de-
termined. It is certain that alfalfa seed is abun-
dantly produced only in dry seasons. Possibly in
dry seasons there is more honey in the blooms and
therefore more to entice the bees.

Alfalfa for Cattle Grazing. — Reference has been
made already to the practices of ranchmen in Cali-
fornia where it is not uncommon to see thousands

AS A PASTURE PLANT. 347

of cattle grazing on rich alfalfa pastures. There is
little bloat among these cattle, partly because of the
presence of annual grasses in the alfalfa and partly
because of the system of management. It is a cus-
tom with these ranchmen when bringing hungry cat-
tle to an alfalfa field to mow down a block of about
40 acres, turning the cattle in as soon as it has wilted
somewhat. When once the cattle are stuffed full of
the half -dry alfalfa hay they are permitted to begin
eating the green stuff, and will, it is said, eat al-
ternately of the green and the dry. Or sometimes
they are turned in a field that has been all mown
down and eat of the dry till the green comes up
through, when they eat of whichever they choose.
The losses of Henry Miller, who annually pastures
many thousands of cattle on alfalfa, are reported
to be less than 1% from all causes, bloat included.

The danger of bloat increases according to region.
There are places where cattle bloat badly, other
places where there is little if any bloat from feeding
off green alfalfa. The reason for this is not under-
stood. It is certain that pastures containing a mix-
ture of alfalfa and grass are much less dangerous
than those composed of pure alfalfa.

ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA.

It is in South America that alfalfa grazing has
reached its greatest development. From the special
report of Frank W. Bicknell to the United States
Department of Agriculture in 1904 and from letters
I summarize the following information :

Alfalfa has redeemed to profitable use millions of acres of
Argentine land that would otherwise be unproductive. Alfalfa
sends the Argentine steer to market a year younger than when
the native grasses were relied upon exclusively. In many parts
of the country, especially in the north, it has made money for the
small colonists or farmers who have cut it and sold it for export
or for domestic use. Cattle raisers have learned its value in a
dry cold winter when the pastures have failed, and but for the
alfalfa hay, put up by the provident against such an emergency,
hundreds of thousands of cattle would starve

It is the ambition of nearly every ranchman or estanciero to
get as much of his place into alfalfa as possible, and the area
of pasture is increasing enormously every year. As soon as a
brief experiment demonstrates the adaptability of a new region to
alfalfa there is a grand rush to get in and land jumps up incred-
ibly in value. Thousands of acres often change hands several
times in a year with valuations doubling at each exchange.

John Benitz went to Argentina from California 35 years ago
and with his brothers has been successful with alfalfa and cattle.
On their home ranch La California, about 70 miles northwest of
the city of Rosario, they were the pioneers in the planting of
alfalfa. He now (1904) is working about 60,000 acres of alfalfa
in southern Cordoba. He says: "You can buy a league (6,672
acres) of virgin land for $11,000 or $1.65 per acre, and by spend-
ing as much more in putting it in alfalfa have a ranch that
will carry 3,000 cattle and keep them practically fat all the year
round, with very little risk from drought or severe winters."

The seasons are reversed in Argentine, so that
sowing in the fall they sow in March or April usually.
Sometimes it is sown later with some cereal, usually

(348)

ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA. 349

barley, wheat or flax, sometimes with maize, uncul-
tivated. The fall seeding (March or April) is best
when a seedbed can be prepared, but Argentine sum-
mers are dry and hot and it is difficult to get large
areas in good condition before rains fall. Therefore
much alfalfa is not sown till June or July (midwinter
with them) when rains have come and it is sown with
wheat or some other cereal. It requires more seed
when the nurse crop is used.

This seeding with wheat seems so successful that
it is worth experiment in our Southern states, where
a similar proceeding might result as well if the soil
were made rich and filled with lime, both of which
conditions prevail in Argentina, Of this practice
in Argentina an Englishman, Mr. Glyne Williams,
who ranches about 300 miles south of Buenos Aires,
wrote in May, 1903 :

Last year I harvested 30 bushels of wheat to the acre on a
piece where this year I have very good alfalfa. * * * The
advantages of sowing with wheat are obvious in the saving of
another plowing, and, far more than this, in the saving of
time. * * * Until I see more decided advantages than I
do at present in favor of sowing alone I intend to continue
sowing with wheat, so long as the latter remains a paying crop.
As far as my experience goes there is no objection to grazing
alfalfa with cattle while it is young. To do so with sheep
and eat it bare would, I think, be dangerous as they crop it too
closely.

John Benitz, already quoted, thus records his ex-
perience :

I have had the best results by breaking up virgin camp in
the fall or spring and at once cross disking, harrowing and sow-
ing with alfalfa alone and covering it with a lighter harrow.
Alfalfa so sown can be stocked with cattle two or three months

350 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

after Bowing, fed down close and tramped. Then the stock should
be taken off for a few months and the alfalfa will grow splen-
didly. If alfalfa and wheat are sown together cattle can not be
put on till a year after, but if sown alone cattle can be put on
permanently when it is six months old.

The opinion seems general in Argentina that more
or less feeding is good for alfalfa when it is young,
certainly by the time that it is five or six months
old as the tramping is beneficial, and the plants
should not seed the first year. Sometimes it is grazed
with sheep, a shepherd keeping them moving so that
it will not be grazed too- closely. They do a good
job of weed eradication and also tramp the land well.
In the spring it is not possible to put on stock
enough to keep the alfalfa down because it grows so
fast and the arrangements for watering the cattle
are not sufficient for the numbers that would be re-
quired. Mr. Williams, already quoted, had at one
time two head of cattle to the acre and was at the
same time cutting some for hay from the same field.
Later in the season when the weather became very
dry the alfalfa would keep fewer, or no animals for a
time, then recourse would be had to stacks.

Seeding in Argentina. — From 9 to 35 Ibs. of seed
per acre are used, usually from 11 to 18 Ibs. Seed
is harvested plentifully in many parts of Argentina.
In some places the alfalfa is allowed to re-seed itself.
The usual price is from $3.50 to $8.00 per bushel
(60 Ibs.).

Life of Argentina Alfalfa. — It is said that in some
parts of Argentina alfalfa will endure for 25 years

ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA. 851

when mown. On the other hand, close feeding and
hard seasons will destroy its value in about three or
four years. Native grasses come up in it and ulti-
mately weaken it. In some colonies, notable upper
Santa Fe, it is more permanent. There at the Jewish
colony there are fields 15 years old yet in fine con-
dition. The climate there is hot, with dry summers.

It is a curious commentary on the absurd rela-
tion between what the farmer gets and the consumer
pays that in Buenos Aires 'alfalfa hay retails at
about $10 to $15 per ton, the freight, baling, haul-
ing and commissions absorbing the difference be-
tween that and the $2.40 that the rancher receives.

Corn also is being increasingly grown and fed in
Argentine. The beef is 'all killed and frozen there,
exported then mostly to England. Good steers are
worth around $30 to $60 each. Feeders, about two
years old, are bought for from $8 to $12 per head,
very thin in flesh, and placed on alfalfa pasture for
six to ten months or sometimes -a little longer.

Cattle Carrying Capacity. — Alfalfa njever does
less than double the capacity of pastures however
rich they may be. Often it multiplies the capacity
of the pasture from three to six times. In some
parts 3,000 cattle are being fattened on one league
(6,672 acres) of land, and another thousand or more
might be added if breeding cattle were carried. Once
these camps would carry only about 800 cattle to the
league.

It is found impossible to cut as much alfalfa as

352 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

ought to be cut because of the immensity of the
fields and the dearth of labor. It is best there, as
elsewhere, to mow and stack the surplus, letting
the new growth come up strong and fresh.

If there is any difficulty in pasturing alfalfa in
Argentina arising from its liability to bloat animals
I have been unable to discover any mention of it. in
reports from that country. It is probable that there
is some loss when hungry cattle are suddenly turned
to rank alfalfa. Being constantly on it, and having
access to native grasses more or less mixed with the
alfalfa the loss is probably very slight.

Finishing Cattle on Alfalfa. — The carrying capa-
city of alfalfa pasture in Argentina is estimated at
from 2 to 4% animals per square (4.17 acres) the
year round, or in round numbers from % to 1 ani-
mal per acre. An animal there always means a beef
animal, and it is estimated that a pasture will carry
four times as many sheep as it will cattle. This
is a curious estimate as it is usual to estimate 8
sheep .to one steer. This estimate is for breeding
cattle. For fattening it must be reduced slightly.
Except in the winter alfalfa pasture will fatten three
to five rough animals per square, in five to eight
months. Rough, thin work oxen are fattened in
that time. There is a large business of raising feed-
ers on poorer lands north or south on native grasses
and driving tliem in great herds to the alfalfa fields
to be fattened. As the beasts approach within a
few months of the age at Which they should start

ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA. 353

for market they are shifted about from one pasture
to another and are given the best on the place. At
other times they are not moved much but are left in
one large pasture sufficient for their needs for a
year.

In the summer much alfalfa is allowed to go to
waste because it is not always practicable to put
on enough cattle to eat it all, as there would not be
feed enough in the winter. Some cutting of pastured
alfalfa is often done. After the first spring growth
has been eaten down the cattle are taken away for
a few weeks, and hay is put up, with a temporary
fence around the stacks. In winter when feed gets
short these fences are often taken away and cattle
allowed to help themselves, though some ranchmen
practice a less wasteful method of feeding.

These ranchmen have learned by experience that
the alfalfa will be better in the winter and will live
longer if it is not eaten down closely in the summer
but is allowed to grow to its full height.

The following estimate of cost of making alfalfa
hay in Argentina gives clue to labor conditions and
wages down there. The estimate is from the Jewish
colony at Mosesville, 100 miles northwest of the city
of Santa Fe:

Price in stack, per ton $2.40

Cost of mowing with machine $0.36

Raking-, gathering1, stacking 0 . 71

Total cost of making hay $1.07

Net profit per ton $1 . 33

ALFALFA FOR THE SILO.

The question is often asked: "What of alfalfa
silage?" The answer is that it makes good silage, if
it is put into the silo in the right condition, and the
silo is a good one. It is not always wise to make
silage of alfalfa rather than hay. Corn makes good
silage. CoTn is easily grown on alfalfa sod. Corn is
needed to balance alfalfa. Corn is somewhat cheaper
to handle and put into the silo, perhaps, although
there are conflicting opinions here. Alfalfa is easily
cured in most countries, and where corn silage is fed
there is need of dry alfalfa hay. So as a rule I ad-
vise that alfalfa be made into hay and corn (maize)
made into silage. We do not know all about alfalfa
silage yet. I have made it, accidentally, in the stack,
and can testify that the cattle relished it. I have
seen it made in California, where it was desired be-
cause the fermentation softened the barbs on the ac-
companying foxtail grass, and I have seen more or
less of it in various sections.

Conditions of Silage Making. — The present state
of information seems to be that alfalfa should be in
full bloom before being cut for silage. Immature
alfalfa is liable to become acid and have disagree-
able odor and taste. It should get fairly mature
and be -cut with the dew on and raked and hurried
to the silo. The first crop is best. It ought to be

(354)

ALFALFA FOR THE SILO. 355

cut in short lengths as it packs better and keeps
better. It is good food for cows, calves and pigs.
It is by some especially recommended for pigs.

Steam Cured Silage. — Perfect silage could prob-
ably be made from alfalfa by the steam curing pro-
cess. This consists of filling the silo and imme-
diately turning into the center >of the mass, low
down, a volume of steam. Steam continues to enter
until all the silage clear to the top is of a tempera-
ture of about 2.12°. In making silage by this opera-
tion the bottom of the silo should not be concrete
as much moisture will come from the condensing
steam.

Silage in Rainy Regions. — Men have reported cut-
ting alfalfa while rain was falling, raking and put-
ting it directly into the silo with good results. The
chief hope of the silo for alfalfa is for regions where
there is excessive rainfall at time when the first crop
should be cut. In Louisiana and Mississippi one
finds these conditions.

In passing it may be mentioned that in silo build-
ing only good silos are worth considering. Those
of concrete are cheapest in the long run, and silos of
thin concrete walls, well reinforced with steel, then
coated on the inside with pitch or black asphaltum
paint till they have a glossy surface, keep silage ex-
ceedingly well.

BALING ALFALFA HAY.

A few men report success in baling alfalfa right
from the windrow or cock in the field, then piling
it loosely in such manner that air circulates freely
between the bales. Most experiments with baling
alfalfa hay from the field have been unsuccessful.

To cure the hay in the field as well as one can, then
to stack or put in the mow for a month, or till it has
gone safely through its sweat, is the only sure way
of getting hay ready for the baler.

Where a little salt has been used, say 10 Ibs. to a
ton of hay, the leaves will hold on a little better dur-
ing the baling process.

Air Circulation. — There is a new machine making
a round bale with a hole through it lengthwise. This
baler is meant for use in the field. It is claimed that
with this bale there is less mold than with the square
bale. I hope the claim may prove well founded.
Dealers prefer small bales of alfalfa.

In storing baled hay set the bales on edge, as
brick are set up, and allow some space between bales
so that air can penetrate. Never lay bales on the
ground ; have a circulation of air always under them
and around them. It is said to be much better in
loading cars to set the bales up edgeways, not to
lay them flat, and that there will be less mold so
treated.

(356)

BALING ALFALFA HAY. 357

Hay Dealers' Classifications. — The National Hay
Association adopted in 1905 the following classifica-
tion for alfalfa hay :

Choice Alfalfa — Shall be reasonably fine, leafy
alfalfa, of bright green color, properly cured, sound,
sweet and well baled.

No. 1 Alfalfa — Shall be coarse alfalfa of bright
green color, or reasonably fine, leafy, of good color,
and may contain five per cent of foreign grasses;
must be well baled, sound and sweet.

No. 2 Alfalfa— Shall include alfalfa somewhat
bleached, but of fair color, reasonably leafy, not
more than one-eighth foreign grasses; must be
sound and well baled.

No. 3 Alfalfa — Shall include bleached alfalfa, or
alfalfa mixed with not to exceed one-fourth foreign
grasses, but when mixed must be of fair color, sound
and well baled.

No-Grade Alfalfa — Shall include all alfalfa not
good enough for other grades, caked, musty, grassy
or threshed.

FEEDING VALUE OF THE HAY.

Alfalfa has high feeding value. This arises from
its digestibility and its composition. Alfalfa is rich
in digestible protein. Protein is the substance in
foods that goes to build red flesh and blood, to make
nerve and brain. There is much bone-making ma-
terial in alfalfa also. Thus alfalfa is a builder of
tissue, of muscle, bone, nerve, brain. It is a food
rich in nitrogen, the prime component of protein.
It is because of its alliance with the bacteria that
it is able to store itself so full of this nitrogen. We
have no other forage so good, so rich in protein.
And protein in foods is what costs. Carbon is cheap
enough. We get carbon, the heat-maker, the stuff
that makes fat, in corn (maize), in most sorts of hay,
in alfalfa also, as it has nearly enough of carbon
or carbohydrates to make it a balanced ration in
itself.

Protein the Costly Food Element. — Protein we
must have. Especially do we need it when we are
growing any sort of young animals or making milk
or farming for eggs. One can not possibly get
growth or milk without protein in abundant supply
in the ration. If he is dependent on corn for his
chief food supply he must buy his protein. A great
many farmers and dairymen are buying theirs.
They buy wheat bran, about as rich in protein as

(358)

FEEDING VALUE OF THE HAY. 359

alfalfa, linseed oil meal, quite a little richer than al-
falfa in protein, or cottonseed meal, richest of all,
but a dangerous feed in unskillful hands. Thus they
compound rations that give them good results, but
the cost eats up the profit.

Substitute for Bran. — Wheat bran has increased
in cost by leaps and bounds. I once bought it for
$8 per ton. I then fed lambs on timothy hay and
shredded corn stover, with corn (maize) for grain
food. With the aid of the purchased bran, supply-
ing the protein lacking in the other food, I made
good lambs. It was a profitable business. Then other
feeders found out that bran was good for lambs,
the price went up, steadily higher and higher. Had
not I found that I could substitute alfalfa hay for
wheat bran and get just as good lambs I would have
quit the business or gone bankrupt. Thousands of
feeders and dairymen are on the ragged edge of
bankruptcy today because of their large feed bills
for purchased protein. At present wheat bran is
worth about $25 to $30, almost anywhere that it is
fed.

A ton of it is only better than a ton of alfalfa
hay because of its being more easily eaten; there is
the same nutriment in the -alfalfa hay, very nearly.

Need of Protein. — Young animals almost starve
for protein very often, especially where corn is
cheap. I have many times seen pigs in the feedlot
after cattle, having more corn than they could con-
sume, fat, round, yet dwarfed, half-starved. Their

360 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

bodies could not grow, they could only fatten. There
was not enough protein in the corn to build their
frames right. To feed them more carbohydrates
or fat-making material without first building their
frames was sheer waste. There is wealth of ma-
terial in the form of carbohydrates or fat-making,
heat-making elements. What nearly all farms and
feedlots are short of is the element of protein.
With it in abundant supply all goes well. Pregnant
animals deliver strong young, they have plenty of
milk, the young grow off fast and thrifty, good form
is soon grown, abundant life and spirits are seen in
the animals, fat is laid on well, the health of the
animals is good and if the fortunate owner does not
make money it is because of some other factor of
trouble entering not chargeable to the feed elements.
Bread from Alfalfa Meal. — I have already told
how once when a boy I chewed alfalfa hay and found
it good. It was my first hint as to the richness
of alfalfa as a feed. I have no idea that in my day
men will make bread of it, yet the experiments of
some Nebraska college boys is interesting, and I here-
with present them, as related in a daily paper :

When Nebuchadnezzar went out in the fields many thousands
of years ago and ate the grass like an ox the people of those
ancient days regarded him as insane. But like many other great
men the Babylonian King was ahead of his time, for were he
living in Omaha today he would be hailed with joy by the
members of the Creighton Alfalfa Club. The young men of this
organization are eating hay and getting fat on it.

Farm experts have proved that alfalfa contains several times
as much nutriment as clover, and is the best forage for cattle.
That it was also a food for man was never realized until ex-

FEEDING VALUE OF THE HAY. 361

periments were made at Creighton University, the leading Cath-
olic school in the west. That alfalfa as a food has passed the
joking stage is shown by the fact that more than a score of
students have formed a club to demonstrate its value to the
world. More than that, the housewives of Omaha have started
to use it in preparing meals. Its enthusiasts say alfalfa will
revolutionize the food question, and that it will solve the serious
problem of supplying the world with flour a few decades hence. -

The alfalfa is carefully selected, and the bright and tender
leaves and a small portion of the upper parts of the stalks are
ground together. Then they are run through a bolting machine
that turns out a meal almost as fine as flour and having a rich
brown color. The meal is then bleached. This having been
done, it is ready to go to the culinary department of the college
club. There it is cooked into a large number of palatable dishes.

There are alfalfa gems, and they are so tender and rich when
properly cooked that they almost melt in the mouth. The most
delicate muffins cannot compare with them. They are light,
palatable and easily digestible. Experts who have studied their
value as food say that a man can make a meal on alfalfa meal
muffing and do more work and with less fatigue than he could
if he had eaten beefsteak, bread and potatoes. Cakes of all
kinds are made of alfalfa flour, the recipes being similar to
those employed in the construction of the cakes in which wheat
flour plays the leading part. For every day bread alfalfa flour
has been tried at the club. It is darker than wheat flour. The
taste is most delicious, being a little sweet, and is much more
palatable if a little sugar is added to the dough before it goes
into the baking pans. In making bread, yeast is used in abdut
the same proportions as in the manufacture of the bread made
from wheat flour.

It may be that the day will come when we will
cease eating animals and when that day comes we
may possibly take to alfalfa meal; at present it is
a matter of some interest to know that alfalfa is
actually rich enough to make food for mankind.
This ought to give us a clue to several important
facts. One is as to its value in nourishing animals,
the other that one can feed it in too liberal and
wasteful amounts. Horses, for instance, can con-

362 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

sume more alfalfa than they need and more than is
good for them. Were the alfalfa made into loaves
of bread no one would dream of filling a 'horse's
manger full of these loaves, yet it is all too common
to stuff them with alfalfa hay.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.

Before presenting tables of exact composition
of alfalfa let us consider its relation in productivity
of nutrients as compared with other common feed
stuffs. The following table is from a bulletin of
the New York Experiment station at Geneva:

In order to show the high feeding value of the alfalfa from an
acre, the average product obtained at this station during the
three years past is stated in the following table in comparison
with the food supplied by several of our best common fodder
crops. The average of the five alfalfa crops was 34,104 pounds
of green fodder, or 8,035 pounds of dry matter, containing 1,411
pounds of protein, 1,103 pounds of this being albuminoids:

Yield per acre
of total crop.

Dry matter
per acre.

Total digestible
matter per acre.

Digestible
protein.

Alfalfa
Red clover

34,100 Ibs.
18 000 Ibs

8,000 Ibs.
5 220 Ibs.

5,280 Ibs.
3 200 Ibs.

875 Ibs.
491 Ibs.

Oats and peas

13 000 Ibs.

3,120 Ibs.

2,521 Ibs.

350 Ibs.

Corn, entire plant
Rutabagas
Mangels

28,000 Ibs.
31,700 Ibs.
25 000 Ibs

5,800 Ibs.
3,400 Ibs.
3 500 Ibs.

3,800 Ibs.
3,000 Ibs.
2 750 Ibs

300 Ibs.
279 Ibs.
232 Ibs.

Timothy

10 000 Ibs.

3 500 Ibs.

2 000 Ibs.

228 Ibs.

Sugar beets

17 800 Ibs

2 500 Ibs.

1 800 Ibs

213 Ibs

The acreage yields of the several crops given above are such
as have been secured at different places in this part of the coun-
try from Pennsylvania to Canada. Sometimes considerably
larger crops have been obtained, but the average crop would be
less than any mentioned in the table.

This is indeed a wonderful showing. More car-
bohydrates than corn and nearly three times as much
protein! And the crop of alfalfa, once the field is
established, can be grown and harvested at much
less expense than the corn, while corn impoverishes
land on which it grows and alfalfa enriches it.

(363)

364

ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

In order to illustrate this relative production of
digestible matter more graphically we present two
charts showing clearly the proportions of total di-
gestible nutrients and digestible protein in each
crop:

TOTAL DIGESTIBLE MATTER PER ACRE. POUNDS.

ALFALF?

RED CLOVER

TIMOTHY

RUTABAGA 3000

MANGEL

SUGAR BEETS

LB5.

3200

I80O

LBS.

DIGESTIBLE PROTEIN PER ACRE,

RED CLOVER

OATS ft PEAS

CORN

SUGAR BEETS

Kansas Experiments. — J. T. Willard, of the Kan-
sas experiment station, has done most interesting
work in investigation of the nutritive qualities of al-

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.

365

falfa and also of the loss of nutritive properties
through exposure to the weather. We quote him
from Bulletin 155 :

COMPOSITION OF ALFALFA HAY.

Water.

Ash.

Crude
protein .

Pure
protein.

Crude
fiber.

Nitro-
gen-free
extract.

Crude
fat.

First stage, about ten per
cent in bloom
Second stage, about one-
half in bloom

8.77
7.71

9.54
9.49

16.88

15.88

13.56
12.63

29.38
31.44

34.01
34.23

1.42
1.25

Third stage, full bloom —

8.29

7.75

13.23

10.62

33.11

36.34

1.30

As the amounts of moisture present in a hay are variable and
not a characteristic of the stage of maturity of the green plant,
a calculation of the results to a water-free basis is often advan-
tageous in making comparisons. Doing this for the three sam-
ples of alfalfa hay we get the following:

COMPOSITION OF ALFALFA HAY CALCULATED TO A WATER-FREE BASIS

Ash.

Crude
protein.

Pure
protein.

Crude
fiber.

Nitro-
gen - free
extract.

Crude
fat.

First stage
Second stage

10.45
10.28

18.50
17 21

14.86
14.18

32.20
35 37

27.29
34 00

1.56
1 05

Third stage

8.45

14.43

11.58

36.10

39.62

1.41

Without going into the details of a discussion of the charac-
teristics of the groups of feed principles named in these tables
it may be useful to remind the reader of certain elementary
facts.

The ash of a feeding-stuff is the residue left after burning all
combustible substances. For the most part this is derived from
the soil, though it may contain carbon that was secured from
the carhon-dioxid in the air.

The crude protein embraces all organic compounds containing
nitrogen and may even include some inorganic nitrogenous sub-
stances.

The pure protein is the crude protein minus certain nitrog-
enous substances that are less complex than proteins proper,
and possess a lower food-value. The proteins, by reason of the
nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus which they contain, are en-
titled to greater esteem in a feed than are fats and carbohy-
drates.

The crude fiber consists of cellulose and substances more or

366 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

less like it chemically. The toughness and firmness of forage
plants depend largely on this constituent. Cotton and linen are
nearly pure cellulose. Obviously the crude fiber is of inferior
nutritive value; indeed, there is good reason to believe that in
many cases such of it as is digested by animals is utilized at an
expenditure of more energy than is yielded by the digested fiber.

The nitrogen-free extract includes starch and the sugars as
well as other less well known carbohydrates. In some tables
this group is listed as carbohydrates, without due regard, how-
ever, for the fact that the cellulose of the crude fiber is a car-
bohydrate.

The crude fat extracted from hay, or from other materials,
obtained by drying the green parts of plants, includes some
chlorophyl, the green substances of leaves, and other compounds
that are not fats, as well as any fat in the feed.

The water of a feed possesses no nutritive power and is not
different from water taken by drinking.

Studying now the table showing the percentages of the sev-
eral constituents of the water-free hay, it will be seen that there
are progressive changes as the plant becomes more mature. It
must not be supposed, however, that there is an actual decrease
in the total amount of any food principle in the crop, but only
that as maturity takes place certain constituents are produced
in greater proportion, thus adding to their percentage amount
while correspondingly reducing the percentage of the constitu-
ents produced at a slower rate.

The hay produced by cutting when the alfalfa was about ten
per cent, in bloom is seen to be richer in ash, protein and fat
than that produced by later cuttings, while the crude fiber and
the nitrogen-free extract increase in percentage as the plant
matures. The especially valuable protein is present to an extent
more than one-fourth greater in the hay made at the first stage
than it is in that made at the third stage, while the questionable
crude fiber is more abundant in the later stages.

Digestibility of Alfalfa. — While it is true that a certain residue
of indigestible matter is necessary for animals, and especially
for ruminants, which are accustomed to bulky feed, we seldom
need to give attention to this in practice, as feeds are ordinarily
excessively supplied with such indigestible substances. Quite
the reverse, we are justified in prizing more highly those feeds
which show a high degree of digestibility. A proper apprecia-
tion of alfalfa hay thus requires consideration of its digestibility.

The digestibility of the hays referred to was ascertained and
the following table shows the results. It gives the percentages

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.

367

of the several constituents of alfalfa hay digested, first crop,
three stages of growth, calculated to water-free basis:

Ash.

Crude
protein.

Pure
protein.

Fiber.

Nitrogen-
free
extract.

Crude

fat.

Total.

First stage

6 69

14 51

11.94

14 51

28 52

0 98

65 21

Second stage

5.78

12.89

9.90

17.11

26 96

0 42

63 16

Third stage

5.16

11.37

8.57

17.43

30.72

0.75

65.43

Here it is seen that the digestible protein diminishes marked-
ly as the alfalfa matures, while the digestible carbohydrates in-
crease. A calculation of the nutritive ratio in each case brings
out this fact in a concise way. The nutritive ratio of a feed
is the ratio of the energy of the digestible nitrogenous sub-
stancos to the energy of the' digestible non-nitrogenous sub-
stances. Making the necessary calculations, the nutritive ratios
are found to be as follows: First stage, 1 to 3.11; second stage,
1 to 3.49; third stage, 1 to 4.38. These are all narrow ratios
but widen as the alfalfa matures.

A full appreciation of the feeding value of alfalfa cannot be
had without comparisons with other feeds. The average per-
centage of digestible constituents in certain well known feeds is
shown in the following table:

FEED.

Protein.

Carbohy-
drates.

Fat.

Nutritive
ratio.

Corn

7 14

66 12

4 97

1 '10 8

Oats

9 25

48 34

4 18

1 • 6 2

Wheat

10 28

69 21

1 68

1 • 7 1

Bran

12 01

41 23

2 87

1 • 4 0

Shorts .

I9 92

49 98

3 83

1 • 4 8

Timothy hay

2 89

43 72

1 43

1'16 2

Red clover

7 38

38 15

1 81

1 . c rt

It will be seen that alfalfa cut at the first stage gave a hay
that had a higher percentage of digestible protein than any of
the feeds named in the table, and that the digestible carbohy-
drates (fiber plus nitrogen-free extract) of alfalfa compare favor-
ably with those in the feeds cited, and in some cases exceed
them. The nutritive ratios bring out clearly the value of alfalfa
as a source of protein, and its great availability in balancing
rations.

Many analyses of alfalfa made at other experiment stations,
with such digestive experiments as have been performed, show
the same general results as are exhibited in the foregoing. The
earlier cuttings are richer in protein, but a high and nearly

368

ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

equal degree of digestibility for the protein present is possessed
by all cuttings, so that their relative feeding value is prac-
tically indicated by their composition. Nearly three-fourths of
the protein of alfalfa and about sixty per cent, of the carbohy-
drates are digestible.

Composition of the Different Parts. — The statements made thus
far apply to hay from the entire plant. It is, however, well
known that there are great differences between the stems and
the leaves. The most detailed analyses in this connection have
been made at the Utah station. From a mass of data concern-
ing cuttings made at different dates and upon different crops,
those concerning the first crop, cut in the early bloom, have
been selected and placed in the tables shown below. The first
one shows the yield of dry matter in pounds per acre, and also
the weight of the stalks, leaves and flowers separately. It also
shows the composition of each of these parts and of the whole
plant:

PART OP PLANT.

Yield,
per acre,
pounds.

Ash.

Protein.

Fiber.

Nitrog-en-
free
extract.

Fat.

Stalks
Leaves .

28.38
18.56

9.01
14 33

10.74
24 05

42.17
13 81

37.14
41 82

0.94
5 99

Flowers

1.36

10.56

26.18

15.58

46 00

1 68

Whole plant

48 31

11 10

16 30

30 53

39 23

2 92

From the above table we see that the leaves and flowers are
far richer in protein than are the stalks, while the reverse is
true in respect to fiber. Nitrogen-free extract does not show
so great a difference but the stalks are notably inferior. In the
next table the data are presented in a different form. It shows
percentages of ash, protein and fiber in each of the different
parts of the alfalfa plant, to total amount of that constituent
in entire plant:

PAKT OP PLANT.

Yield,
per cent.

Ash.

Protein.

Fiber.

Nitrogen-
free
extract.

Fat.

Stalks

58 75

47 69

38 73

81 17

55 68

19 03

Leaves ....

38.43

49.62

56.74

17.39

41 01

79 34

Flowers

2.82

2.69

4.53

1.44

3.31

1.63

The above table shows that of the total yield 58.75 per cent,
is in stalks, but that of the total protein only 38.73 per cent, is
in them, while they contain over 81 per cent of the total fiber.
On the other hand the leaves, constituting but 38.43 per cent,
of the yield, contain 56.74 per cent, of the protein of the entire

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.

369

crop and only 17.39 per cent of the fiber. The nitrogen-free ex-
tract is not so disproportionately divided between the stalks
and the leaves. Over four-fifths of the fat is furnished by the
leaves and flowers, though they make up but little over two-
fifths of the weight. We see from this the exceeding import-
ance of so handling the crop as to preserve the leaves and
flowers. By the loss of all of these the feeding value will be
impaired much more than the loss in weight would indicate.

Loss by Weathering. — It is apparent to all that alfalfa hay is
greatly damaged by rain. This is due not only to fermentations
that may accompany the process and to mechanical losses, but
also to the fact that soluble substances are dissolved out and
removed. Observations have been made by the Colorado ex-
periment station upon a hay which was exposed in the field for
fifteen days, during which time it was subjected to three rains,
amounting to 1.76 inches. The following table shows ' the per-
centage composition of the damaged and of the undamaged hay:

Nitrog-en-

Ash.

Protein.

Fiber

free

Fat.

extract.

Original

12.2

18.7

26.5

38.7

3.9

Damaged . .

12 7

11 0

38 8

33 6

3 8

The above figures as given show that the damaged hay is
considerably inferior to the undamaged, but like many other
percentage statements is liable to be misunderstood, or at least
not completely understood. It must not be supposed that the
protein and nitrogen-free extract have been converted into crude
fiber, although the damaged hay contains nearly 39 per cent,
of crude fiber, where the undamaged hay had 26.5 per cent;
at the same time the protein and nitrogen-free extract are pres-
ent in much smaller quantity in the damaged hay. The facts
are that undoubtedly portions of all these food principles have
been lost from the crop as a whole, but that the protein and
the nitrogen-free extract have suffered much more propor-
tionately than the crude fiber, this being almost insoluble and
not subject to rapid fermentation.

A much more instructive view of the actual losses is ob-
tained by additional calculations. The loss sustained by the
alfalfa naturally fell most heavily upon the soluble and more
easily decomposed substances. The most resistant of the con-
stituents was the fiber, which probably suffered but little. Tak-
ing the crop as a whole then there would be as much or nearly
as much fiber as there was before, excepting that which was lost

370

ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

mechanically. We may use this figure as a measure of the
minimum losses by others. In every 100 pounds of the original
hay there were 26.5 pounds of fiber, and after it was damaged
there could not have been any more, and in fact there must have
been less. If we make the most favorable assumption, viz.,
that there was no loss of fiber, then the 38.8 per cent, of fiber
in the damaged hay is really the fiber that was 26.5 per cent,
of the original hay. The apparent increase in the percentage
is due entirely to the loss of other constituents. The figures
representing the percentages of the other constituents as given
above are all correspondingly too high for comparison with the
percentages of those constituents in the original hay. In the
following table the weights of these constituents accompanying
26.5 pounds of fiber in the damaged hay have been calculated.
These are to the percentages of those constituents in the
damaged hay as 26.5 is to 38.8:

Ash.

Protein.

Fiber.

Nitrog-en-
free
extract.

Fat.

Total.

Original

12 2

18 7

26 5

38 7

3 9

100

Damaged

8 7

7 5

26.5

23.0

2.6

68 3

Pounds lost
Per cent lost

3.5

28 7

11.2
60 0

15 7
41 0

1.3
33 3

31.7
31.7

Comparing these figures, it will be seen that of the original
100 pounds of hay only 68.8 pounds remained; that 60 per cent,
of the protein was lost, one-third of the fat, and il per cent, of
the nitrogen-free extract. As the assumption in reference to
fiber was more favorable than the facts, so this calculation in
respect to protein, fat and nitrogen-free extract gives figures
that are more favorable than was actually the case.

Startling as the losses indicated by the preceding calculations
are, the actual damage is even greater than is indicated by
them. Since the materials lost obviously consisted of the most
soluble and easily decomposed parts, and hence the parts most
easily digested, "a smaller percentage of the protein remaining
was digestible in all probability than would have been the case
with the protein that was lost. It is quite reasonable to assume
that one-half of the feed values of the crop had been lost from an
exposure to rain that was not excessive in quantity and fell in
three different showers.

Westgate's Bulletin. — From J. M. Westgate's ad-
mirable bulletin (Farmers' Bulletin 339, Department

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.

371

of Agriculture) we extract the following useful and
instructive tables :

AVERAGE PERCENTAGE COMPOSITION OP ALFALFA AND OTHER
FORAGE CROPS.*

KIND OP
FORAGE.

Fresh alfalla..
Fresh clover..
Alfalfa hay...
Clover hay —
Timothy hay..
Cowpea hay..

Number
of analy-
ses.

23
43
21

38
68
8

Water.

Ash.

Protein.

Crude
fiber.

Nitrogen-
free
extract.

Ether
extract
(fat).

Per cent

71.8
70.8
8.4
15.3
13.2
10.7

Per cent
2.7
2.1
7.4
6.2
4.4
7.5

Per cent
4.8
4.4
14.3
12.3
5.9
16.6

Per cent
7.4

8.1
25.0
24.8
29.0
20.1

Per cent
12.3
13.5
42.7
38.1
45.0
42.2

Per cent
1.0
1.1
2.2
3.3
2.5
2.2

*In part from Henry's "Feeds and Feeding-," Appendix.

AVERAGE PERCENTAGE OF DIGESTIBILITY OF ALFALFA AND OTHER

FORAGE CROPS.
(Experiments with ruminants.)

KIND OF FORAGE.

Number of
experiments.

Protein.

Crude
fiber.

Nitrogen-free
extract.

Ether extract
(fat).

Fresh alfalfa..

2

Per cent
81

Per cent
45

Per cent
76

Per cent
52

Fresh clover
Alfalfa hay
Clover hay

2

28
46

67
73
55

53
43
49

78
66
69

65
54
53

Timothy hay

26

48

52

63

57

Cowpea hay

2

65

43

71

50

DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS IN ALFALFA AND OTHER FORAGE CROPS.

KIND OF FORAGE.

Dry matter in
100 Ibs.

DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS IN
100 LBS.

Protein.

Carbohy-
drates.

Ether
extract.

Fresh alfalfa

28.2 Ibs.
29.2 Ibs.
91 .6 Ibs.
84.7 Ibs.
86.8 Ibs.
89.3 Ibs.
88.1 Ibs.
89.1 Ibs.

3.9 Ibs.
2.9 Ibs.
11.0 Ibs.
6.8 Ibs.
2. 8 Ibs.
10.8 Ibs.
12.2 Ibs.
7.9 Ibs.

12.7 Ibs.
14.8 Ibs.
39.6 Ibs.
35.8 Ibs.
43.4 Ibs.
38.6 Ibs
39.2 Ibs.
66.7 Ibs.

0.5 Ibs.
0.7 Ibs.
1.2 Ibs.
1.7 Ibs.
1.4 Ibs.
1.1 Ibs.
2. 7 Ibs.
4.3 Ibs.

Fresh clover.

Alfalfa hay
Clover hay . .

Timothy hay
Cowpea hay..

Wheat bran

Shelled corn .

The following table indicates the actual feeding value of
eight different kinds of feed, based on the amount of digestible
nutrients contained in them. These values are calculated from
the figures given in the table just preceding. The values per
pound assigned as the basis of calculation are protein, $0.0674;
carbohydrates (starches, etc), $0.0064; ether extract (fats),
$0.0112. These figures are merely relative, as the prices of the

372 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

food elements vary in the different sections and from year to
year. It will be noted that the value of alfalfa hay is slightly
more than double that of timothy.

ACTUAL FEEDING VALUE OF DIFFERENT FEEDS BASED ON AMOUNT OP

DIGESTIBLE NUTRIENTS.
Feed. Value per ton.

Fresh alfalfa $7.00

Fresh clover 5.96

Alfalfa hay 20.16

Clover hay 14.12

Timothy hay 9.80

Cowpea hay 19.76

Wheat bran 22.80

Shelled corn 20.16

ALFALFA FOR HORSES.

The place of alfalfa as a horse feed has not yet
been settled beyond dispute. Most men who have
not used it are opposed to its use and bring forward
very good arguments against it. On the other hand
in alfalfa-growing countries are found some of the
best developed and most healthy and useful horses
in the world. I have seen in the alfalfa pastures of
California wonderful young horses, weanlings and
foals, that never ate any other food than their
mother >s milk and alfalfa, with what little wild
grass might be mixed through the field. These colts
running all summer on the alfalfa meadows and be-
ing fed alfalfa hay during winter reach a magnificent
development and are often as large and well finished
at two years as they would be at three in a land
where they ate timothy hay instead of alfalfa,

In France quite a little use of alfalfa is made in
the horse breeding districts and has been from time
immemorial. In England always, so far as history
tells, progressive farmers have grown alfalfa and
fed it green in summer time.

Personal Experience. — The writer has had experi-
ence with seeding alfalfa to horses since 1887. He
began it on the Utah ranch and has continued it
on Woodland Farm in Ohio since his return. In
Utah the horses were most of them used under the

(373)

374 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

saddle. The country was extremely rough and the
going bad. A horse must have endurance, speed,
bottom. It is charged that alfalfa makes a horse
soft, lacking in endurance, sweating easily. There
is truth in the charge ; we will explain it later. The
fact is no horses 'could have worked better under
the saddle than did these alfalfa-fed range horses.
They had no other hay and for grain they had corn ;
we had nothing else for them.

And yet it is true that the horses worked best
when they were worked regularly and worked hard.
If they were idle for a long time, meanwhile eating
much alfalfa hay, they did get soft and sweated
considerably when suddenly put to work. I do not
attempt to explain this fact. I think that the reason
is that the idle horses ate too much alfalfa hay,
took into their systems several times as much pro-
tein as their bodies needed or could use, and thus
induced some sort of unhealthful condition of the
body cells. It did not take them long to get hard
under work. But it is assuredly true that idle-
ness and excessive alfalfa feeding will make a horse
soft. Idleness and six eggs a day will make all sorts
of things wrong with a man, for that matter.

That alfalfa will develop a hard horse is evidenced
by the fact that not a few splendid race horses have
been developed in California and elsewhere on a
diet almost altogether composed of alfalfa hay and
pasture.

No Heaves nor Colic. — At Woodland Farm for

ALFALFA FOR HORSES. 375

many years no other hay has been in use. In truth
the horses refuse to eat timothy hay, having become
accustomed to alfalfa. Before alfalfa came into use
there was nearly always one or more horses with
heaves, but since we have had alfalfa hay we have
not had one case of this disease. Oolic among
horses is the bane of the farmer and horseman. Once
the veterinary bills were a considerable item on
Woodland Farm. Now colic is a rare thing, and
would probably never occur again if the men did
not occasionally feed injudiciously of corn, or over-
feed with alfalfa hay.

Less Grain Needed. — We have learned that very
much less grain is required where alfalfa is fed, not
much more than half the usual ration. Why should
not this be true? Alfalfa itself is as rich, very
nearly, as wheat bran, itself a good grain food for a
horse. Alfalfa is nearly as^ rich a food as oats.
Horses will do a great deal of hard work with no
grain at all if they have first-class alfalfa hay, but
I do not recommend this. The horse has a small
stomach and not much time for masticating his food.
A small grain ration with his alfalfa hay is right.

Action on Kidneys. — It has been urged that the
foundation for this rumor or belief is that when a
horse unused to alfalfa is fed it for <the first time
it does stimulate its kidneys so that there is a
noticeable increase in the amount of urine voided.
I think this never really injures the animal and
the symptoms disappear in a short time. If al-

376 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

falfa was fed in moderation, less than the animal
desired, it is not likely that it would ever so affect
him. It is only nature's way of throwing off pro-
tein which has been consumed in excess of what the
animal could use.

On Woodland Farm are horses that have grown
up on alfalfa and have never eaten any other hay
in their lives. Their kidneys are sound. They do,
not urinate more frequently than is normal, nor
void an excess of urine. Further, their urine is
clear, not cloudy nor muddy. The fact is the trou-
ble's arising from alfalfa feeding are usually ex-
perienced by men having little or no alfalfa to feed.
Ask a man who really grows it and feeds it and he
will almost always reply that there is no better
feed for horses and no bad results arise from reg-
ular and continued feeding of it.

Alfalfa for Young Horses. — There is certainly
nothing else so good for the draft colt and its moth-
er. Here one seeks size and development. Alfalfa
will surely give it. Let the mare have the run of an
alfalfa field in summer with a grass lot adjoining,
or have grass mixed through the alfalfa. Feed her
and her colt alfalfa hay in winter and as much
development can be had at two years old as will be
had at three by the usual feeding of timothy hay.
And there is nothing yet discovered to show that
this early growth is not as good as though it came
later. In truth it is certain that the later develop-
ing colt will never reach the size and conformation

ALFALFA FOR HORSES. 377

that the one attains that has had the right food from
the beginning, and enough of it.

Alfalfa for Brood Mares. — As to the effect of al-
falfa hay on the breeding of mares, opinions differ.
Alfalfa-fed mares are apt to be fleshy. It is very
possible that in some instances they may become
too fat to conceive well. It may be that during the
breeding season the mares should have less or pos-
sibly no alfalfa hay. We need further evidence
along this line. Certain it is that after the mare is
safely with foal a diet composed chiefly of alfalfa
is very good for her. I know of no injury that can
follow feeding her alfalfa and pasturing her on al-
falfa till her colt is foaled. Certainly all mares
are better to work up until that time, not hard but
regularly, and no pregnant animal should live a life
of idleness or stagnation, nor become too fleshy.

Making Horse Hay. — I think the first cutting
makes as good hay for horses as any. It ought to
be on the side of over-ripeness rather than to be
too green, though one can err in letting it become
too woody. It ought to be well cured and put into
the barn as dry as possible. Then there will be no
mold nor dust on it. Alfalfa leaves and stems are
free from the small hairs that abound on red clover
leaves and stems. These hairs make hay dusty and
irritate the bronchial passages of the horse. That
is one reason why one can feed alfalfa safely and can
not feed red clover so well.

Fattening Sale Horses. — Many owners of sale

378 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

stables now use alfalfa hay almost exclusively, find-
ing 'that the animals gain in weight much more rap-
idly on an alfalfa diet than upon any other. Many
eastern horse breeders who have not learned to
grow alfalfa are sending their colts to be pastured in
western alfalfa fields, there to develop.

Over-feeding wiih Hay. — B. 3. Kinzer and G. 0.
Wheeler of the Kansas experiment station have pub-
lished the subjoined observations on feeding hay to
horses :

A majority of horse owners are inclined to waste hay in feed-
ing horses, i. e., they feed more than is necessary for the main-
tenance of the horse and more than he can economically take care
of. This is true of other kinds of hay as well as of alfalfa.

Either heavy or light horses that are doing regular steady
work should not, if one wishes to feed economically, have more
than one pound of hay per hundred pounds of live weight.
That is, a thousand-pound horse should receive 10 pounds of
hay per day and a 1,500-pound horse 15 pounds per day. A 1,500-
pound horse that is doing steady work should have about 4 Ibs.
of hay with his morning feed, the same amount at noon, and
about double the amount at night. Many horses will eat 30 or 40
pounds of hay a day if they have free access to it. If a horse is
allowed to eat such quantities half of it is wasted, and if he is
eating that amount of alfalfa hay it is worse than wasted, for it
does the horse an injury. From two to two and a half pounds of
digestible protein is all that an ordinary horse can utilize in a
day, and in 100 pounds of alfalfa there are 11 pounds of digestible
protein. This fare of alfalfa, if too heavily fed, is likely to cause
kidney disorder, and may even be responsible for abortion in
pregnant mares that are fed too liberal a ration of it. If it does
not cause abortion, weak unhealthy foals will be the result.

Have alfalfa fed judiciously to pregnant mares, heavy or light
work horses, and it is beneficial and should be used wherever it
is obtainable, but it should never be used as the exclusive rough-
age. Some objection is made to it on account of causing loose-
ness of the bowels and making the horses soft and easy to sweat.
This is due to their having it in too large quantities. Alfalfa
hay should be fed as part of the grain ration rather than a

ALFALFA FOR HORSES. 379

roughage. If fed in this manner its use will be found very
satisfactory.

I think the danger of over-feeding exaggerated,
yet it is assuredly a waste to over-feed it, and it
must do more or less harm to the horse. In fact
it is one of the greatest lessons of modern times that
mankind may increase its energy and usefulness very
greatly by limiting the accustomed intake of rich
nitrogenous food, taking merely what is needed to
repair waste and rebuild the body, instead of taking
"all it can hold/' merely for the pleasure of eating.

Developing Draft Horses. — When will we cease
sending to France, Belgium and Great Britain for
our draft stallions? When we have wide alfalfa
fields and plenty of them. There are men finding
the way to produce splendid draft animals at low
cost in America. J. W Kobison of Kansas is
growing Percherons in alfalfa pasture. It is said
that his three-year-old colts average 1,700 pounds
and his four-year-olds 1,900 pounds. Alfalfa is al-
most the only food given either mares or colts. Be-
fore foaling no grain is fed, only alfalfa hay or pas-
ture being given, and the colts come strong and the
mothers free from feverish tendencies and full of
milk. Colts so developed have action and quality.

Safety of Alfalfa Pasture. — There is more or less
danger in depasturing alfalfa with sheep or cattle.
With horses I have never seen or heard of any
trouble resulting from this practice. They seem to
know instinctively how much to eat and when to
cease eating. Horses are not so subject to bloat.

ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING.

Experienced men say that whatever alfalfa may
or may not be adapted to it is certainly in its
place as a food for cattle. It is the natural food of
all ruminants. They greatly relish the taste of it.
They chew it well and almost completely digest it.
They are in little danger of eating too much of it.
Cattle thrive exceedingly on a diet of good alfalfa
hay. Many years ago the writer stacked alfalfa hay
in Utah, and in winter time fattened steers on it with
no grain at all. They made good beef. It would
have been better, no doubt, to have fed them some
grain in connection with the alfalfa hay, but grain
was not to be had. The beef sold well on Denver and
Salt Lake City markets in the spring. It killed well.

Alfalfa alone is better as a maintenance ration
than as a complete ration, however. It is full of
protein, and deficient in carbohydrates and fat. It
will grow animals or maintain them beautifully.
With a little grain added it will grow them and finish
them at the same moment.

Trials in Colorado.— Prof. W. L. Carlyle and C.
J. Griffith of the Colorado experiment station went
into this matter quite carefully in 1905, comparing
alfalfa hay alone and in combination with sugar beet
pulp and ground corn. Unfortunately the alfalfa
hay used was much below the average, being very
coarse, cut too ripe presumably, and was seriously

ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING.

381

injured in curing. With good alfalfa hay the results
would have been more favorable to alfalfa feeding.
The average weekly gain of these steers was as
follows :

Lot 1— Fed beet pulp, hay and ground corn (maize) 19.0 Ibs.

Lot 2— Fed hay and ground corn 12.6 Ibs.

Lot 3— Fed beet pulp and hay 13.1 Ibs.

Lot 4— Fed alfalfa hay only 10.5 Ibs.

It will be noted that the gain was only 2.1 pounds
greater when corn was fed than when alfalfa was
fed alone. The cattle were fatter however and thus
brought more money per pound in the market.

AVERAGE AMOUNT FEED REQUIRED FOR ONE POUND OF GAIN,
AND COST OF THE SAME.

FOOD FED.

Cost

Alfalfa.

Pulp.

Cornmeal.

Lot 1

7.59 Ibs.

35.45 Ibs.

2.51 Ibs.

4.22 cents

Lot 2

17.78 Ibs.

3.76 Ibs.

7.63 cents

Lot 3

11 89 Ibs

52.83 Ibs.

4 28 cents

Lot 4

28.29 Ibs.

7.04 cents

Here is given the data showing the amounts of the various
kinds of feed required to produce a pound of live weight gain on
a rather rough bunch of steers rising three years old. From this
table it will be seen that, in case of Lot IV it required 28.29 Ibs.
of alfalfa hay, below the average in quality, to produce one pound
of gain. With an average lot of good feeding steers, and alfalfa
hay of good feeding quality, the indications are that one pound
of gain would be produced for each 25 Ibs. of alfalfa hay on
the average.

Lotl.

Lot 2.

Lot3.

Lot 4.

Weight at beginning of experiment (Ibs.)
Value at 3 cents per pound

951
$28.53

968
$29 04

941

$28 23

968
$29 04

Cost entire period 100 days

$12 95

$13 44

$7 90

$10 39

Cost of feed for 100 Ibs. gain
Cost of labor in feeding

$4.60
$3.25

$7.63
$3.25

$4.29
$3.25

$7.04
$3.25

Weight finished steer at feedlots (Ibs.)
Sale weight of steer at Denver (Ibs )

1,214
1 157

1,144
1 088

1,125
1 050

1,115
1 062

Shrinkage in shipping (Ibs.) .. .

57

56

75

53

Selling price per 100 Ibs

$5.15

$5.06

$5.00

$4.73

Value at selling price

$59 58

$55 05

$52 25

$50 25

Cost of marketing

$2.15

$2.15

$2.15

$2 15

Net profits

$12.70

$7 16

$10 97

$5 44

382 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

In the foregoing table is given a complete summary showing
the average of each steer in the various lots. This table contains
very complete data covering the various points of comparison in
the results obtained with the average steer in each lot.
The conclusions drawn are thus stated:

1. An average feeder steer two years old will make a gain of
1.5 Ibs. per day on alfalfa hay alone, and will require approxi-
mately 28 Ibs. of hay to make one pound of gain.

2. The addition of ground corn to the ration of alfalfa hay
will increase the daily gain, increase the market price of the steer
by finishing him better in a given time, and will add to the profits
if the corn can be procured below 90 cents per hundred pounds.

3. A pound of ground corn is equal in feeding value to 2.8
Ibs. of alfalfa hay and to 9 pounds of sugar beet pulp for feed-
ing two-year-old fattening steers.

4. Sugar beet pulp at present prices is a cheaper and better
feed than ground corn when fed with alfalfa hay for fattening
mature steers.

5. That 3.22 of beet pulp is equivalent in feeding value to
one pound of alfalfa hay, when fed in conjunction with the hay,
giving two-year-old steers all they will eat of both feeds.

t>. With alfalfa hay at $5 a ton, it will pay to feed a light
ration of ground corn with the hay, provided the corn can be
purchased at from 85 to 90 cents per hundred weight.

7. With poor alfalfa hay at $5 per ton, sugar beet pulp is
worth $1.50 per ton to combine with hay for fattening mature
steers.

8. Fattening steers will gain approximately a pound a day
more on a ration composed of alfalfa hay, ground corn and beet
pulp than they will on a ration made up of alfalfa hay and
ground corn or on a ration composed of alfalfa hay and sugar
beet pulp, and they will gain almost one and a half pounds more
each day on the above ration than when fed alfalfa hay alone.

Experiments in Kansas. — Showing how alfalfa
hay in the ration cheapens the cost of beef produc-
tion, we quote from Bulletin 132 of the Kansas ex-
periment station, relative to work done at the Fort
Hays branch station :

A matter of this experiment of considerable interest, especially
to the western farmer, is the part that the various roughages play
in beef production. A ration of alfalfa hay, at $4.00 per ton,

ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING. 383

with corn and cob meal produced 100 pounds of gain for $5.13;
but when Kaffir-corn hay at $3.00 per ton was substituted for
alfalfa hay, the cost of 100 pounds of gain was increased to
$7.32, while with sorghum hay at $3.00 per ton substituted for
the alfalfa hay the cost was increased to $9.06. In other words,
one b'ushel of corn-and-cob meal fed with alfalfa hay as rough-
age produced 11.8 pounds of flesh, while the same amount of
corn-and-cob meal fed with sorghum hay as roughage gave in
return only 6.25 pounds of flesh; thus, a difference of 5.5 pounds,
or 88 per cent in favor of the alfalfa hay ration.

Tests in Other States. — A summary of trials in
beef making with alfalfa is thus presented by J.
M. Westgate, of the Department of Agriculture :

Alfalfa forms probably the best roughage for fattening cattle,
as its lack of bulkiness enables the animals to consume" suffi-
cient quantities for rapid gains. It is also very valuable for
young growing stock before the f-attening period commences.

The Utah Agricultural Experiment Station conducted an ex-
periment extending over a period of five years to determine the
quantity of beef produced to the acre from alfalfa hay cut in
the different stages of maturity. It was found that hay cut when
in full bloom produced 562 pounds of beef annually to the acre,
while that cut in early bloom produced 706 pounds. The hay
that was not cut until half the blooms had fallen produced only
490 pounds of beef to the acre. At the Nebraska Agricultural
Experiment Station 2.41 pounds of beef were produced daily on
a full ration of corn and alfalfa, while only 1.48 pounds were
produced by a ration of corn and prairie hay.

The North Platte Substation of Nebraska has given, in Bul-
letin No. 105, some valuable data on the great value of alfalfa
in growing and developing beef cattle. The first test compared
alfalfa, prairie hay and cane in wintering calves where all lots
received two pounds of grain daily per calf. During the winter-
feeding period of the experiment alfalfa produced 143 pounds
of gain per head; prairie hay, 76 pounds; cane, 46 pounds, and
half-and-half alfalfa and prairie hay, 133 pounds, and half-and-
half alfalfa and cane, 120 pounds of gain.

The year following the same cattle were wintered as yearlings
on the same rations, except that no grain was fed. The alfalfa
lot gained 81 pounds per head in 120 days; the prairie-hay lot
lost 18 pounds; the cane-hay lot lost 64 pounds; the half-and-
half alfalfa and prairie hay gained 62 pounds and the half-and-

384 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

half alfalfa and cane gained 92 pounds each. The amount of
hay consumed or wasted about the racks daily per steer ranged
from 18.7 pounds in the prairie-hay lot to 24 pounds in the
cane lot, 20.2 pounds being eaten daily per head by the steers
receiving alfalfa alone. From the fact that the half-and-half
ration gave equally good gains with straight alfalfa, it would
seem to be economy to use some of these cheaper roughages with
alfalfa for wintering steers.

While no accurate data have been kept, it has been the com-
mon practice to winter the breeding cows of the pure-bred herd
of the Kansas experiment station upon alfalfa hay and corn-
stover, the alfalfa being fed in racks and the stover fed out on
the pasture as much as possible. This method of feeding has
kept the cows in splendid breeding condition, and the use of the
stover has resulted in cheapening the cost of their maintenance
from that of straight alfalfa feeding.

Results at Woodland. — On Woodland Farm the
best and cheapest beef 'ever produced was from
young cattle given all the alfalfa hay they would
eat up clean, corn silage and a small ration of ear
corn.

Meeting Competition. — In Argentina where alfalfa
growing is assuming large proportions it is becom-
ing a common thing to finish cattle with alfalfa hay
and corn maize. Better beef is thus produced and
a better price secured foT it. Argentina, that young
giant of the Southland, is our most formidable com-
petitor in the business of furnishing England with
bread and meat. The use of corn and alfalfa there,
although already assuming large proportions, is yet
in its infancy. We in America must awaken to our
possibilities. We can grow alfalfa. We can grow it
in practically every county in the United States, cer-
tainly with greater ease in some places than in
others, yet almost any of us can grow it. We grow

ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING. 385

corn with greater success than the Argentine. Our
cattle are better. With abundant alfalfa all over
our land we will be able to more than hold our own
against this competition.

That is the dream of the writer, that he may has-
ten the day when alfalfa meadows will be common
in nearly every township in the United States, mows
filled with alfalfa hay, stacks standing in the fields,
yards and corrals filled with good cattle, abundant
supplies of manure made available, fields becoming
richer rather than poorer, and country people hav-
ing Wherewithal to live as country people ought to
live, in comfort, sending their sons to agricultural
colleges and their daughters as well, both to come
back to the farms and there continue the labor of
soil-building, field-beautifying and home-making.

ALFALFA FOR DAIRY COWS.

Here is found best of all uses for alfalfa. Dairy
cows are machines for making milk. Milk is a ma-
terial requiring large amounts of protein for its
manufacture. Dairy cows are machines and they
are somewhat delicate machines. They require
large amounts of protein, but they thrive better
when that protein is furnished them in the shape of
forage than if it is given them in concentrated form.
One may buy protein; he can get it in cottonseed-
meal, linseed-meal, gluten meal or other form, and
by feeding the right amount get the proper nutrients
in the feed, but that does not at all equal in effect
the feeding of a ration mixed "as God mixed it"-
that is, a forage such as alfalfa, delicious in flavor,
rich enough, not too rich, bulky enough, not too
bulky.

Stimulating Flow of Milk.— In truth there is no
artificial blending of foods that will give the results
that feeding alfalfa will. An illustration of this is
furnished by the experience of a Pennsylvania
breeder of Guernsey cattle. This man bought some
alfalfa hay from Woodland Farm. After using it
for a few weeks he wrote :

6 1 Our Guernsey cows are entered in the official test
for position in the advanced registry. Naturally
therefore we have been feeding them as well as we
knew how to feed them. Since they had your al-

(386)

ALFALFA FOR DAIRY COWS. 387

falfa hay they have increased 20 per cent in their
milk flow."

This man is now growing his own alfalfa, and his
neighbors are learning from his example. In his
region the plant was unknown until he began its
culture. The secret of growing it there was the use
of plenty of lime in the soil, then manure, phos-
phorus and mid-summer seeding.

Value to Dairymen. — There is not a dairyman liv-
ing who is not at too high an elevation who should
not make effort to grow alfalfa, as no one else needs
it so much. He can stop the purchase of protein.
He can keep cows in perfect health and vigor. He
can get the most milk that they are capable of giving
if he has alfalfa. And he can, and should, feed it
nearly day of the year. Let him begin early in
spring by cutting it green and soiling; let him feed
dry alfalfa hay when pastures are too lush and there
is danger of cows scouring in June; let him feed it
green when pastures fail in August and September ;
let him feed alfalfa hay and corn silage after frost
comes, or before for that matter. Thus the milk
comes freely the year around, and all from feed pro-
duced on his own farm.

A Little Grain Needed. — With alfalfa and corn
silage nearly a balanced ration is found. Very little
grain need be fed in addition, though it is economy
to feed a small amount, since cows need a little less
bulk than it would take to furnish nutrients enough
in alfalfa and silage alone.

388 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Maintains Vigor. — One thing that should be well
emphasized is that where alfalfa hay is fed liberally
cows keep in splendid health and strength. They
may be made to give as much milk by feeding other
feeds. Cows will give milk liberally and be phys-
ical wrecks, and when fed on the forcing process
with what must be classed as artificial foods they
frequently go down in vitality so that they are prey
to any sort of malady that may happen to overtake
them. When fed liberally on alfalfa they give as
much milk or more, they carry more flesh, they have
better tone, more abundant vigor, breed better, drop
stronger calves, the calves grow into1 better heifers
and make better cows. There is nothing else so
good for a dairy-bred heifer as alfalfa hay though
she may need to be limited somewhat in amount if
she shows a marked tendency to overmuch body
plumpness.

Findings of Experiment Stations. — The New York
station reports the results of feeding home-grown
rations, consisting of alfalfa hay and corn silage,
feeding four cows for sixty days, in comparison
with a purchased feed ration for the same number
of cows for the same length of time. These rations
cost respectively $30.03 and $47.05, or 12.5 cents and
19.6 cents per cow per day. This is a net gain of
24.3 cents per hundred pounds, and a half of a cent
per quart of milk, or a saving of 33.7 and 31.5 per
cent., respectively, for milk and butter in favor of
the home-grown ration. They estimate that when

ALFALFA FOR DAIRY COWS. 389

purchased feeds average $25 per ton alfalfa is worth
$16.50 to feed with corn silage.

At the New Jersey station a test was made with
two lots of dairy cows to determine the compara-
tive value of alfalfa and a combination of wheat-
bran and dry brewer's grains as a source of protein.
In this test the alfalfa ration produced a daily yield
of 20.8 pounds of milk and 1.06 pounds of butter,
while the bran and brewer 's-grain ration produced
a daily yield of 21.8 pounds of milk and 1.08 pounds
of butter, only a slight difference in favor of the
more concentrated protein foods. Bran and dried
brewer's grains each cost $17 per ton, on which basis
alfalfa hay proved to be worth $11.16 per ton.

At the Maryland station alfalfa and cornmeal
gave better results than silage and commercial
foods. Where alfalfa and silage were fed with and
without grain, the grain feeding proved the more
economical.

Experiments conducted at the Tennessee experi-
ment station tend to show that one and one-half
pounds of alfalfa will replace one pound of wheat-
bran.

The New Jersey station concludes that three
pounds of alfalfa is equivalent in feeding value to
one pound of cottonseed-meal.

The Nebraska station compared feeding alfalfa
hay with the feeding of prairie hay, and decided as
a result of these tests that alfalfa produced 10 per
cent more milk from 10 per cent less food.

390 ALFALFA ~ ARMING IN AMERICA.

The Utah station :' irnid that adding cornstalks to
a corn and alfalfa r ition gave larger returns per
unit of dry matter than alfalfa without stalks.

Alfalfa Meal for Dairy Cows. — Alfalfa meal un-
doubtedly has advantage in some ways. It is a
saving of labor for the cow to have her alfalfa
ground for her. If it could be ground very cheaply
no doubt it would pay. However, the Pennsylvania
experiment station reports adversely on alfalfa
meal, or at least that it is no better than wheat bran,
if it is quite as good. It is interesting to note, how-
ever, that when wheat bran and alfalfa meal were
rated at the same price per ton the cost of milk pro-
duction was nearly identical. With alfalfa meal at
$23 per ton and wheat bran at $20, corn-and-cob-
meal at $20, and cottonseed-meal at $28 per ton, the
grain cost of 100 pounds of milk when the cows were
fed alfalfa was 47.1 cents ; when fed wheat bran it
was 45.3 cents.

Assuming alfalfa meal to cost no more than bran
the former seemed to produce milk at the lower
grain cost per hundred pounds — 44 cents, as com-
pared with 45.3 cents on bran. On this basis of
comparison if wheat bran was worth $20 per ton,
alfalfa meal was worth $21.28 per ton.

I am not sure that it would pay to make alfalfa
meal for home use and to feed to cows. I incline to
believe that to dampen the hay over night, restoring
it thus -somewhat to its natural green condition,
would be cheaper and nearly as effective. Certainly

ALFALFA FOR DAIRY COWS. 391

where alfalfa hay is worth no more than $10 per
ton it would be cheaper to feed it unground and in
large amounts.

Alfalfa Silage for Cows. — Already we have dis-
cussed the making of alfalfa silage. The experiences
of men making silage of alfalfa are varied. Some
like the stuff, some have indifferent success in mak-
ing it. It seems certain that immature alfalfa makes
poor silage. The plants should be in good state of
bloom, should be cut with dew on and raked at once
and hurried into the silo, well cut into short lengths
with no drying. Corn for silage, alfalfa for dry
feed — "it is something to chew on," it is necessary
to the cow, it keeps her occupied, in health and vigor.
God speed the day when millions of acres of alfalfa
will lie adjacent to dairy barns all over our land.

ALFALFA FOR SHEEP.

Alfalfa for Sheep. — All sheep love alfalfa either
green or dry. The very nature of the animal makes
alfalfa a suitable food for it. Sheep need foods rich
in protein. It takes such food to make good wool,
red flesh, blood, bone, milk. Sheep are usually
either young and growing or else are ewes giving
milk, or pregnant and developing within their bodies
unborn lambs. Growth calls for protein. Milk calls
for protein. Wool calls for protein. The protein
requirement of the sheep is greater than with the
cow. This much for theory.

Essential to Profit. — The practical part of it is
that experience has shown that sheep dearly love
alfalfa, green or dry, and thrive exceedingly on it.
In fact it is hard to make profit in America in sheep
farming unless one has alfalfa hay to fall back upon.
The best shepherds are provided with it. It is fed
during winter time in the sheep folds ; ewes yean on
a diet of alfalfa hay; they suckle their lambs with
milk made chiefly from alfalfa; they go sometimes
to pasture composed of a mixture of grasses and al-
falfa; the lambs are fattened on alfalfa hay and
grain. The sheep industry in America with alfalfa
taken away would almost collapse. Millions of
sheep are fattened mainly on alfalfa hay. It is the
very foundation stone of the industry.

(392)

ALFALFA FOR SHEEP. 393

Grazing Sheep on Alfalfa. — In another place ref-
erence is made to this practice and it is told how
that alfalfa pastures destined to be fed off by sheep
should have grasses mixed through them, as a pre-
ventive of bloat. The secret of successful grazing
of sheep on alfalfa seems to lie in following of a few
well defined rules. ;

First, the alfalfa ought to be fairly well grown.
It is much better if it is near the blooming stage
when they are turned into it. It is all wrong to
turn them in the field in early spring, letting them
gnaw off the buds from the crowns as they start to
grow. That is a practice bad for the alfalfa and not
very helpful to the sheep.

Second, the sheep should be filled up full on green
feed before being turned in to the alfalfa. If in ad-
dition they are given some dry grain, provided they
are accustomed to this, all the better. They should
be turned in at about 10 or 11 o 'clock in the morn-
ing of a sunny day.

Third, they should have salt before them at all
times. It is thought that it is better to mix with
this salt air-slaked lime, about two parts of lime to
one of salt. I have not tested this but it has the
weight of good authority.

Finally, once introduced to alfalfa the sheep
should not again be taken off of it, neither by night
nor by day, nor in rain nor dew nor at any time till
they are taken off for good. And when they are
taken off and it is desired to introduce them again

394 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

it will take even more care the second time than it
did the first to accustom them safely to alfalfa, be-
cause they will be ravenous for it.

The only exception to this rule is that it may be
advisable sometimes to allow them to go to the sheds
for shade in the middle of the day. If this is done
care should 'be taken that they are returned to the
alfalfa field as soon as they are willing to leave the
shade in the afternoon.

Thus managed, the writer in an experience of sev-
eral years lost from 2 per cent to 4 per cent of the
flock from all causes during the pasturing season,
partly attributable to bloat.

Varying Practice. — Eegions differ as regards the
bloating effect of alfalfa. In some places it seems
to be impossible to pasture sheep on it at all. In
other places it is an easy thing to accomplish safely.

In Arizona and New Mexico there is now a large
use of alfalfa pasture for lambing ewes in spring-
time. The same is true in parts of California. I
was told in California that along the Sacramento
there was much loss from bloating, while along the
San Joaquin and southward to the Imperial Valley
there was little or no loss at all. Perhaps the alfal-
fa along the Sacramento was more nearly unmixed
with grasses, or was of a more succulent nature.

In Argentina millions of sheep and lambs are fat-
tened on alfalfa pasture, no grain being fed them.
Usually there is a natural admixture of grasses.

On Woodland Farm I practiced feeding lambs on

ALFALFA FOR SHEEP. 395

alfalfa pasture as I would pigs, with ear corn
thrown on a clean place on the ground. The results
were astonishing. Lambs born in March weighed in
late June 80 pounds and were sent fat to market, at
long prices.

In Kentucky some of the best early lamb growers
practice turning the ewes and lambs on alfalfa that
has run into blue grass considerably. The result
is glorious lambs that bring the top prices and ripen
weeks earlier than lambs running on common pas-
turage.

Ewes Get Too Fat. — The practical objection to
alfalfa pasturage is that it makes ewes too fat to
breed well. To remedy this one ought, if he sees
such condition approaching, take them away and
turn them to rather poor grass for a time. I feel
certain that I have lost the use of a good many ewes
from barrenness through this effect, as they became
fat, ready for the butcher and not ready for the ram.
One remedy would naturally be to send them as they
became fat to market, but this is not practicable in a
pure-bred flock.

HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING.

Ewes in winter time need little else than alfalfa
hay to maintain them in splendid condition for
dropping a crop of strong lambs. Thus treated they
will come in with plenty of milk. There is usually
little danger of their consuming too much alfalfa
hay after being safe in lamb. It is well, however, to
feed some other food, not so rich, in connection with
the alfalfa hay.

To give a run to blue grass or other pasture, and
a little of some other sort of hay, if the ewes will
eat it, or to give bright corn stover in connection
with good alfalfa hay, is good practice. Sometimes
ewes may be better off for a trifle of grain when
they are eating alfalfa hay. If they are all right,
in good health and condition when winter sets in
and are afterward liberally fed with alfalfa no grain
will be needed, and in truth it may be a detriment.

Feeding Value of Hay. — Illustrative of the fact
that alfalfa alone is a rich enough feed we present
the following table from the Kansas experiment sta-
tion, giving some comparative values of alfalfa and
other well known feed stuffs. The figures are for
the digestible matter found in the various feeds.
These figures were gotten from the results of feed-
ing experiments at that station :

(396)

HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING.

397

Protein.
13.24

Carbo-
hydrates.

39 26

Fat.
0 89

Alfalfa hay! cut half in bloom

11.90

40.26

0.39

10 43

43 17

0 69

6.58

35.35

1.66

2 89

43 72

1 43

Prairie hay.. . . .

0.61

46.90

1 97

Corn fodder,

1.98

33.16

0.57

Kafir-corn fodder . .

3.22

48.72

1.15

Wheat bran

12.01

41.23

2.87

Study of this table shows plainly why it is that
ewes well fed with alfalfa hay are well nourished.
Ewes eating alfalfa hay during pregnancy have ud-
ders well filled with milk when the lambs are born.
This makes the shepherd's cares light at that anx-
ious time. Ewes suckling their lambs will milk well
on alfalfa 'hay with a trifle of grain in addition.
Lambs born in winter will, with bright alfalfa hay
and a ration of cracked corn, develop rapidly and
make prime lambs for the fancy "hot house " trade.

Lamb Feeding at Woodland. — The writer was
perhaps the first man east of Colorado to begin fat-
tening lambs with alfalfa as the hay ration. His
earlier practice was to feed timothy hay, shredded-
corn stover, oat straw and clover hay. To balance
these fodders, deficient in protein, he bought wheat
bran and oilmeal. The result was satisfactory, ex-
cept that the cost of making baby mutton was ex-
cessive. These lambs were fed from November un-
til April, being bought from western ranges or from
farms. About the average cost during the early
90 's was $6.25 per hundred pounds for the gain put
on. Concentrates rich in protein grew steadily
dearer and lambs cheaper, so that it seemed that

ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

the end of his lamb feeding was near, when he
turned his attention to producing an abundance of
alfalfa. He found that as good lambs could be
made with alfalfa hay and ear corn only as he had
been making with shelled corn or ground corn and
oilmeal and wheat bran. The alfalfa-fed lambs
developed a little slower, but made the gain much
cheaper and with a lessened death rate. For some
years the cost of producing lamb mutton on alfalfa
hay and ear corn averaged about $3.50 per hundred
pounds. In recent years, owing to the advanced
cost of corn and alfalfa hay, the cost has increased
to about $4.50 or $5 per hundred, making no al-
lowance for labor.

It is the present practice to give the lambs a
longer feeding time, buying them in November, giv-
ing little but alfalfa for a month, then a trifle of
corn, gradually increasing until, in March, they
may get nearly as much corn as they will eat. At
no times are they fed all the corn they will eat, nor
more alfalfa than they will eat clean, saving that
some coarser stems are allowed to be rejected. In
April or early in May the lambs are sold and they
have topped the markets for years, and are watched
for by buyers in Buffalo.

The manure made by these lambs, fed under shel-
ter, is returned to the land where corn is to be
planted, usually an old alfalfa sod. After one crop
of corn, or at most two crops, the land is sowed back
to alfalfa again. This manure is very rich and by

HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING. 399

this system of farming the productiveness of the
place is steadily and rapidly growing.

Comparative Value of the Hay. — Numerous tests
have been made at experiment stations of alfalfa
hay compared with wild hay or timothy hay or some
other roughage for sheep and lambs. In every case
great superiority for alfalfa has been shown. Thus
Burnett found that lambs eating alfalfa hay and
shelled corn made 52 per cent greater gains than
those fed corn and prairie hay. Similar results were
had in Wyoming.

Feeding Operations in the West. — It is in Color-
ado, western Kansas and Nebraska that one sees
alfalfa feeding in successful operation in a large
way. There sheep and lamb feeding is an art and a
science. Alfalfa is of course the cornerstone of it.
On 'the excellence of their alfalfa depends all their
chance of profit and success. In truth the aim is to
feed the sheep or lambs as much alfalfa as possible,
and thus economize as far as may be in grain, which
is often the costly part of the ration.

Methods in Use. — The method of feeding is ad-
mirably simple. As a rule no sheds are used in Col-
orado since no rain falls in winter and not much
snow. Yards are erected in somewhat sheltered
places and the fences so built that sheep can thrust
their heads through and eat alfalfa, hay which is
drawn from the ricks directly to the yards and piled
against the fence. From time to time It is pushed
up to them as they consume it. Grain is fed in

400 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

troughs. Colorado lambs usually top the Chicago
and Omaha markets. The excellence of their mut-
ton is very great. Alfalfa does it, with a proper
amount of corn.

After the sheep are fed there is left a tremendous
amount of manure. Once this was allowed to go to
waste. Becently it has been found profitable to haul
it to the fields. In western Nebraska it is often put
on the old alfalfa meadows, where it has been found
very beneficial.

Small Waste in Feeding. — There is no especial
care necessary in feeding sheep or lambs on alfalfa
hay. When hard frosts late in the season catch the
alfalfa it is sometimes injurious to sheep after being
made into hay. Ordinarily no harm ever comes to
a sheep from having as much alfalfa as it can eat.
It has been learned, however, that sheep may eat
their hay up nearly clean, rejecting only the most
woody portion, and thrive nearly as well as though
wasting all but the finer stems and leaves. Less
waste is found where the animals can thrust their
heads clear into the racks, or through the fences, to
reach the hay than when they must pull it through
narrow cracks in the rack. The writer makes his
alfalfa feeding racks with vertical slits 1" wide.
Through these sheep thrust their heads and keep
them there while eating.

It is not true economy with fattening sheep or
lambs to require them to eat their hay too close;
better gains are had when they consume large

PORTABLE HAY-FEEDING RACKS.

HAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING. 401

amounts. There is no danger of their eating too
much, as there is with mature horses. When sheep
reject coarse stems they may be fed to horses get-
ting grain with good results.

Maintaining Fertility. — Hardly any other sort of
farming is so good for land as alfalfa farming, with
sheep to consume the hay. Sheep make good ma-
nure. It is easily saved and applied. Wherever it-
is used bounteous crops are assured. In the eastern
states where sheep are fed mostly under cover, the
manure is especially valuable. It is said that "one
can not eat his cake and have it too." This is not
true of an alfalfa farm when the hay is fed to sheep
or lambs and the manure put back. One has his
fertility left after enjoying the profits of sheep
feeding.

ALFALFA FOR SWINE.

There is rotation in farm practices as well
as in crops. Take the hog for example. Origi-
nally it was a forest-dwelling animal, consuming
herbage of all sorts, grasses, roots, whatever it could
get, and mainly coarse herbage. Later it was taken
by man and shut up in pens or yards and fed grain.
Under -such treatment all sorts of difficulties devel-
oped, hogs became subject to disease, lost their pro-
lificacy, became unnatural mothers, eating their
offspring. Thus the hog fell into disrepute, got a
reputation for unhealthfulness and natural bad
habits. Now, thanks to alfalfa, the hog is resuming
its rightful place as a grazing animal, is grown large-
ly in the fields in the winter-time, eats coarse stuff,
which it ought to do, consumes alfalfa hay. The re-
sult is that in thousands of herds cholera has been
banished, the hogs have become resistant because of
their feed and healthful way of living, litters are
larger, the sows do not eat their pigs and the cost
of making pork has been reduced one-half. All this
thanks to alfalfa feeding and alfalfa grazing.

The Hog a Grazing Animal. — The truth is the hog
is by nature a grazing animal. While not a ruminant
like the cow and sheep yet it has capacity to take care
of a good deal of coarse herbage and is better for
having it. There must be a certain amount of bulk in
its food to distend the stomach and intestines in or-

(402)

ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 403

der to keep the animal in health. If its intestines
are vigorous then it may resist cholera germs, even
if they are taken in. The importance of this point
can not be over estimated. Millions of germs are
about us, germs of all sorts. All animals take them
in continually. When there is a vigorous, healthful
intestinal tract these germs sometimes, even the most
virulent, are either digested or passed off, the animal
remaining unscathed. When there is a weak and
sickly intestinal tract the germ finds lodgment and
disease follows. There can hardly be any other ex-
planation of the fact that cholera seldom troubles
hogs rightly managed and kept in summer on alfalfa
pasture, in winter in part on alfalfa hay.

Fine Alfalfa Pork. — This matter is so essential
that I here present part of a paper read by one of
the Government inspectors before the Kansas State
Breeders' meeting at the Kansas agricultural col-
lege :

As these alfalfa hogs came down the alley to the scales, they
were certainly hogs for the packer, raised at a profit — thrifty
and ready to yield good-grade pork, for a good price was realized.
You could notice that they were well up on their expanded feet;
their height, length, and bones all rounded out with even fat,
covered with a glossy, glistening, heavy coat of hair, and keen
eyes alert. Their backs were straight, broad and well curved
into long, deep sides that had plump, pointed even-shaped hams
at one end and arched shoulders at the other.

On post-mortem we did not find a single parasite in livers,
lungs, kidneys or intestines, as we do in hogs grown on corn and
cereals. Their lungs remained expanded, that is, inflated, when
cast down in the gut chute; did not collapse, and were of a per-
fect pink. Their stomachs were larger and did not recoil or con-
tract readily, and same was observed of the whole intestinal tube.

The man who pulled the intestines from the ruffle fat for cas-

404 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

ings said, "They are as tough as clothes-lines and as large as
broomsticks." The bum-gut cutter said that "it seemed like tak-
ing out automobile tires, and I have not cut or torn a single one,
they are so tough." The caul fat and ruffle fat after guts were
drawn off were much heavier than the average in corresponding
corn-fed hogs. The leaf-lard pullers and ham facers complained
about so much fat and weight in lifting the leaf out, and it was
more bound down to the inside of the abdominal walls. The split-
ter of backbones and sawyer of the shanks said "it was like cutting
iron or railroad ties." All bones were bones, large and strong.
The carcasses were symmetrically filled out like barrels, having
funnel legs, and all front feet were stiff and rigid, straight out,
while in other hogs the front feet are generally limp and dangling.

Their skins were well filled, shining and smooth as the human.
When I read this sentence to Mr. Hodgins he laughed and said:
"Don't credit it to alfalfa, for we dip our hogs every two weeks
in two or three inches of crude oil and never know what lice,
mange or scurf are, nor hog-cholera so far, while our neighbors
on all sides of us have had it and laid it to tankage. We fed the
same tankage they did, for we bought it from the same parties
and at the same time." Their bodies were solid and the meat was
of that marbled appearance of lean and fat, for the fat of an al-
falfa hog is whiter, and here is where we get the two strips of
lean in the bacon — rustling for a living makes muscte.

Alfalfa Pasture for Hogs. — No better plant lias
been found for hog pasture than alfalfa, nor will the
hogs greatly injure the alfalfa if rightly managed.
In any event, even if they do injure it, it is well to
provide it, plowing it when seriously hurt and re-
sowing. Certain points of management, however,
will avoid nearly all injury.

Do Not Overstock. — The pasture ought to be
larger than the hogs need. The number of hogs
that a pasture will carry varies greatly, accord-
ing to the size of the pigs and the quality of the
pasture. It may be said that an acre will carry
nicely about 1,200 to 1,600 pounds of swine, accord-

ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 405

ing to its condition and the way the 'hogs are man-
aged. That would mean 8 pigs weighing 150
pounds or fewer of larger animals. Not that these
pigs would consume all the alfalfa in the field ; it is
not desired that they should. It will be mown two
or three times and the surplus made into hay. This
keeps the alfalfa vigorous and gives a good deal of
hay. It also helps the liogs by giving them a fresh
bite as it comes up again.

It is not well to mow off an entire pasture at one
time as it leaves nothing for the hogs to eat for
some days.

It will not do to put in enough hogs to eat a pas-
ture down close as it destroys the alfalfa after a
time, and one can never get a maximum return from
land treated in that way. Alfalfa must have a
chance to grow, and if it is kept nibbled down close
all the time it cannot possibly grow. Thus instead
of getting the most out of a pasture by stocking
heavily one gets the least out of it. This is a very
common error made by beginners in alfalfa growing.
Make your alfalfa pastures wide and mow them
regularly. Thus treated the animals get the most
possible out of them and the pastures themselves
will live for a long time.

Wait for Warm Weather. — Do not turn 'hogs in
alfalfa pastures until warm weather comes. The bru-
tal disregard for the young, tender plants displayed
by some would-be alfalfa growers is most exasperat-
ing. Perhaps it comes from their habit of turning

406 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

hogs on old blue grass pastures in winter or early
spring. Alfalfa is in no sense like blue grass. Keep
the hogs carefully shut out of it until it is at least a
foot high in spring.

Do not leave the hogs in pasture late in the fall,
either, especially if you live east of the Missouri
Eiver. To pasture alfalfa late in the fall in all the
eastern country will very greatly damage it if not
destroy it. And never, on any account, let the hogs
step foot on it in winter time.

Alfalfa not a Balanced Food. — Again, much dis-
appointment comes from use of alfalfa in the wrong
way. Hogs will not make much gain on alfalfa
pasture alone. They will gain about one-half a
pound a day or less with only alfalfa and water.
With >a little corn every day in addition to the al-
falfa hay they will gain two pounds or even two and
one-half pounds daily. Nearly all the corn "sticks
to the ribs" when hogs are fed on alfalfa pasture.

It is unreasonable to expect hogs to fatten on al-
falfa pasture alone, or even to expect them to make
all their growth on alfalfa pasture. Alfalfa is ex-
ceedingly rich in protein, but is deficient in fat and
carbohydrates. Why can not the hogs make up on
grass what the alfalfa lacks? Well, -because a hog
has too small a stomach, is not a ruminant, does not
chew its cud. It wants a part of its ration in some
condensed form. The alfalfa gives health and vigor
and makes growth, but it needs the aid of corn.
There is no other grain so good for feeding with

ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 407

alfalfa. They are happily wedded together, corn
and alfalfa.

Grain Needed. — It is as unwise to feed either corn
or alfalfa alone to hogs as it would be to send to a
mason bricks alone or mortar alone. He cannot
build a wall without bricks and mortar in right pro-
portions. So the hog cannot build without corn and
alfalfa in right amounts. One can trust him to eat
the alfalfa, feeding it freely; there will not be too
much consumed. He can not let the hog choose how
much corn he will eat because he will eat too much
for greatest profit. The corn should be limited, the
alfalfa unlimited. Thus come cheapest gains and
most profit.

Amount of Grain. — How much grain when on al-
falfa ? The Nebraska experiment station has reached
this conclusion:

A light grain ration is not the most economical for growing
pigs, unless under peculiar circumstances, when alfalfa is abun-
dant, grain very high in price, and market conditions warrant
holding the hogs. It seems probable that two or more pounds of
corn daily for each hundred weight of hogs is more profitable
than a lighter ration.

Mature hogs, thin in flesh, may be expected to gain about half
a pound per head daily on alfalfa without grain. Mature hogs,
fed corn in a dry lot while being fattened, required nearly one-
half more grain to produce 100 pounds gain, and gave a daily
profit of 3 cents less per hog than^similar hogs running on alfalfa
pasture. Alfalfa may be fed with profit to growing or fattening
hogs in almost any form so long as it does not make up too large
a proportion of the ration. When cut (chopped or chaffed) and
fed as one-quarter of the ration with ground corn it materially
reduced the cost of gains and increased the profits.

Value of Alfalfa Pasture. — Certainly this varies
according to the productiveness of the pasture, the

408 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

management and the price of hogs. It may reach
anywhere between $10 and $35 per acre. The Kan-
sas experiment station realized $24.10 from an acre
of alfalfa pasture.

In 1907 C. E. Quinn, a special agent of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, investigated the pasturing of
alfalfa with hogs in the west, giving especial atten-
tion to conditions in Kansas and Oklahoma, The
report is found in full in Farmers ' Bulletin 331. It
is so pertinent here that we quote freely :

During the past summer (1907) about 150 of the most suc-
cessful swine growers and pork producers of Kansas and Okla-
homa were interviewed on the subject of the crops used for feed.
In Southern Oklahoma along the river valleys and in northern
Oklahoma and southern Kansas the farmers are favored with a
soil and climate that makes it possible to produce pork very
cheaply. The mildness of the climate makes it unnecessary to
build as expensive shelters for hogs in winter as are required
farther north, and the short open winters make it possible to
furnish pasture during a greater portion of the year, thus les-
sening the amount of grain which it is necessary to feed. The
main pasture crops for hogs in this region are alfalfa, wheat,
oats, and rye, ranking in importance in the order named.

It is the testimony of 95 per cent of the farmers interviewed in
this region that there is no better forage crop for hogs than
alfalfa, where it can be grown successfully.

Amount of pasturage. — As to the amount of pasturage or the
number of hogs alfalfa will carry per acre without injury to the
crop, the estimates given by farmers very considerably, depend-
ing on the kind of soil, the fertility of the land, and the size of
the hogs pastured. The following, however, is a safe average esti-
mate as given by conservative men who have had much experience.
River valley and creek bottom land well set in alfalfa will carry
from 15 to 20 head per acre of 50 to 125 pound hogs. Upland of
fair average fertility will support from 8 to 10 head of the same
kind of hogs. There are fields that have supported 25 head per
acre all through the season for a number of years and are still
in good condition, and there are other fields that will not furnish
pasture for more than 5 head per acre; but these are extremes.

ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 409

When a field is used only for pasture it is better to divide it into
several lots and move the hogs from one to the other as occa-
sion requires.

Causes of Failure. — Those who have failed with it as pasture
owe their failure to two causes: The first is that the alfalfa has
been pastured before it has become well rooted. Young alfalfa
is too tender a plant to stand severe treatment except under very
favorable circumstances. There are a few farmers who have pas-
tured it the same year it was sown and the alfalfa has survived;
but this was on rich heavy loam soil, usually creek bottom or
river valley land with water not far below the surface, and the
season was very favorable. Ordinarily alfalfa should not be pas-
tured until the second year, and better. still not until the third
year if it is desired to keep the field as permanent pasture.

The second cause of failure with alfalfa is heavy pasturing and
lack of judgment in pasturing in unfavorable seasons. A good
many farmers have sown a small piece of alfalfa, and then,
because it has grown rapidly and all kinds of stock are fond of
it, they have turned all the stock on the farm on it and have
wondered why their alfalfa was killed out. Others pasture re-
gardless of whether the ground is muddy or whether the season
is dry and hot. In either case heavy pasturing is very likely to
cause the alfalfa to be killed out.

Length of Pasture Season. — The length of the season during
which this pasture is furnished also varies. Alfalfa is ready for
pasture on the average from the middle of April in southern Okla-
homa to the middle of May in northern Kansas. It is not best
to pasture earlier, as the young alfalfa has not the start it
should have for heavy pasturing, nor has it the substance in the
plant. When not pastured too early, it will furnish feed at the
rate mentioned during nearly the whole season until October
in the northern part and November in the southern part of the
section referred to. In some years the pasture season will con-
tinue a month later in the autumn, owing to the rainfall and the
lateness of cool weather. In some seasons, if the summer is un-
usually dry and hot, the pasture will become short; but usually
pasture for the number of hogs mentioned can be depended on for
about seven months of the year at the southern limit of the ter-
ritory named and for about five months at the northern limit.
This rule will apply to other sections of the country having the
same climatic conditions as Oklahoma and Kansas.

While many farmers pasture alfalfa fields to their full capacity,
in some sections, especially in northern Kansas, it is customary
to run about half as many hogs as the alfalfa fields will support.

410 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

This practice permits the cutting of the usual number of crops
of hay, though the yield of hay is of course reduced.

Food Character of Alfalfa. — Alfalfa not only furnishes a great
amount of pasture, but it is of a character that goes to make
bone and muscle. It belongs to the leguminous family of plants,
as do the clovers, the cowpea, the field pea, the soybean, and the
vetches, and, while it is furnishing this valuable food, it is add-
ing fertility to the land. Either alfalfa pasture or alfalfa hay,
with corn, forms very nearly a balanced ration for animals; and,
while it is better to have a grain ration fed with it to hogs as well
as other animals, a healthier, thriftier hog can be raised on alfalfa
alone than on corn alone. Many instances are found where hogs
have been raised on alfalfa alone. One Oklahoma farmer mar-
keted in December, 1905, 61 head of spring pigs eight months
old that averaged 171 pounds, which had run from the time they
were little pigs with their mothers on 15 acres of alfalfa without
any grain. They sold on the market for 5% cents a pound.
This made the cash value of the alfalfa pasture about $38.35 per
acre. As will be seen, this is a light pasturing, as there were only
about 4 pigs per acre besides the brood sows.

Feeding Practices and Actual Results. — As already stated, it is
much better economy to furnish a grain ration with the pasture,
as it results in better gains and better product. One man esti-
mates that it takes from one-half to one-third less corn on alfalfa
pasture than on a straight grain ration to make a hog ready for
market. Many let the hogs run on alfalfa until about six
months old, by which time they reach a weight of 75 to 125
pounds, feeding just a little grain; then they feed heavily for
about two months and sell the hogs at eight months old weigh-
ing 200 to 225 pounds. One farmer, who raises about a thousand
hogs a year and who in one year sold $11,200 worth of hogs,
makes a practice of raising his hogs on alfalfa pasture until about
eight months old, feeding one ear of corn per head daily. He
then feeds heavily on corn for a month or two and sells at an
average weight of 200 to 225 pounds. Another man feeds all the
corn and slop the pigs will clean up, all the while running them
on alfalfa pasture, and sells at six to eight months old at weights
of 250 to 300 pounds. Another, who raises about 1,000 head a
year, feeds all the corn the pigs will eat, beginning shortly after
weaning and continuing until the hogs are sold at ten to eleven
months old, averaging about 275 pounds.

Still another farmer, from weaning time (two months old)
until eight months old, feeds the pigs nothing but dry corn on
alfalfa pasture, averaging about one-half gallon of corn

ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 411

pounds) a day per head. At the end of eight months he sells at
an average weight of 250 pounds. The quantity of corn fed is
about 11 14 bushels per head. Figuring at the average price of
corn in this locality, 35 cents, and the price received for pork,
5% cents, the following results show the cost of growing pork
on this farm and the value of alfalfa pasture:

Value of 250-pound ho?, at 5J£ cents $13.75

Value of pig at weaning-, 50 pounds, at 5^ cents 2.75

Gain from pasture and grain $11.00

Cost of 11M bushels of corn, at 35 cents 3.83

Value of pasture per head pastured 7.07

Now, compare these results with those of a man who had to
depend on other pasture crops than alfalfa. He estimates that it
will take 15 bushels of corn on wheat, oats, and rye pasture to
raise and fatten a hog so it will weigh 240 pounds at nine months
old, besides the pasture and slop. At the price of corn men-
tioned, 35 cents a bushel, and with hogs at 5% cents a pound,
note the cost of producing pork on this farm:

Value of 240-pound hog, at 5^ cents, $13.20

Value of pig at weaning, 50 pounds, at 5J^ cents 2.75

Gain from pasture and grain $10.45

Cost of 15 bushels of corn, at 35 cents 5 25

Value of pasture per head pastured 5.20

The pasture on this farm will not support more than half
as many head per acre as alfalfa. Its value is only $5.20 per
head, against $7.07 per head for alfalfa pasture on the other
farm.

The experiences of these men are sufficient to show the value
of alfalfa pasture alone, its greater value when grain is fed in
connection, and that it is an important factor in economic pork
production.

Alfalfa Hay. — While alfalfa pasture has been found to be very
valuable for hogs, the hay as a part ration for winter is scarcely
less important. Throughout the region referred to the farmers
are feeding the hay to hogs in winter. The hay has been found
to be especially valuable for brood sows before farrowing. Where
it is fed during the winter only a small ration of grain is nec-
essary to keep the sows in good flesh and in healthy condition.
Sows thus fed also farrow good litters of strong, healthy pigs.

Feeding Methods. — Many feed the hay by throwing it on the
ground in forkfuls; others have made low racks in which the
hay is placed, where the hogs can feed like cattle or sheep.
The hay is usually fed dry. The leaves are more readily eaten
by the hogs than the stems, and they contain more of the nutri-

412 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

tive value of the plant. For these reason some farmers save the
last cutting of hay for the hogs because it is more relished. It
is eaten up cleaner, as the stems are not so woody. Sometimes
the hay is cut up fine, wet, and mixed with other feed, and
sometimes it is fed ground, as tnere are now alfalfa mills
scattered throughout the alfalfa regions. But it is very doubt-
ful whether this extra expense will pay, unless it be for a ration
for young pigs.

Experiences of Farmers. — To avoid the expense of cutting or
grinding, some farmers in order to get the hay all eaten have
soaked it in water and fed it. This has proved very satisfactory
where tried. One Oklahoma farmer carried his hogs through a
winter by feeding them alfalfa leaves soaked in hot water for
one day and the next day shorts mixed with the pulp and water.
He feeds much alfalfa hay to his hogs and is very successful with
them. He puts the last cutting in shock as soon as wilted, and
thus cures it without bleaching and feeds it to his hogs. An-
other farmer carried his entire herd of hogs through the winter
by feeding them the pulp of alfalfa hay after soaking it in water
over night. He also gave them the water to drink. This was
all the feed they had during the winter, and they were in
good flesh in the spring, with smooth, glossy coats of hair. A
Kansas farmer was feeding a bunch of 50 fall pigs on corn.
During the winter they got "off feed" and were not thrifty.
He reduced the corn and gave a ration of two-thirds chopped
alfalfa hay and one-third corn meal, the two soaked to-
gether. The hogs began to do better, and a little later he changed
the ration to one-third alfalfa and two-thirds corn. The results
were very satisfactory, and the cost of feed was reduced from
$15 a month on corn to $9 a month on alfalfa and corn. So
alfalfa hay, as well as pasture, has a very important use on a
hog farm.

Alfalfa Hay for Brood Sows. — To show the importance of al-
falfa hay in a system of feeding, the practice of the farmers
around North Platte, Neb., and elsewhere may be mentioned.
The alfalfa hay is ground up fine or else fed whole with corn in
the proportion of about 5 pounds of alfalfa to 1 pound of corn.
This is fed to the brood sows during the winter, and they come
through in excellent condition on very cheap feed. In many
sections alfalfa hay is worth about $5 a ton on the farm. One
ton of alfalfa and about eight bushels of corn will keep three
brood sows 130 days, or nearly the whole winter. The hogs so
kept farrow pigs that are remarkable for their vigor and size.

Views of the • Nebraska Station. — Prof. H. B.

ALFALFA FOR SWINE. 413

Smith, of the Nebraska station thus approves the
use of alfalfa with hogs:

I cannot recommend too strongly the feeding of good alfalfa
hay to any kind of swine. It not only furnishes protein, or
flesh-making material, which is deficient in corn, but it tends to
offset the heavy character of a ration consisting of corn alone.
Some scatter the hay on the ground, but it is better to construct
some sort of a rack through which the hogs can pull the hay
without trampling too much under foot. If the feeder has a cut-
ting machine it might be well to cut the alfalfa and mix it with
the grain. For fattening purposes do not make this cut alfalfa
more than one-fourth of the entire grain ration by weight, and
I woiud be inclined to believe thax one-fifth alfalfa would be
better.

At the Nebraska station also Burnett fed alfalfa
leaves in comparison with wheat middlings to grow-
ing pigs. The pigs having the alfalfa leaves made
the better gain. In Illinois A. J. Lovejoy cuts al-
falfa very fine, almost as fine as meal, and mixes it
with corn meal, wetting all and feeding to pigs with
first-rate results. Instances might be multiplied
almost infinitely, but one more must suffice. Ex-
Gov. W. D. Hoard, of Wisconsin, a man who has
done very much to introduce alfalfa culture into
eastern America, carries his brood sows through the
winter with alfalfa hay and skimmilk from his dairy.
The sows come through in splendid condition, with
no unnatural or depraved appetites, farrow splendid
pigs and have much milk for them.

The Pork Industry Prominent. — The hog occu-
pies indeed a commanding position in American agri-
culture. The value of the hog in America in Jan-
uary, 1909, was near $356,000,000. To grow these
hogs costs American farmers, the writer estimates,

414 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

$300,000,000. With alfalfa to help cheapen the pro
duction at least $100,000,000 may be saved.

This is not nearly all the story, either. Hog farm
ing is not usually a type of farming adapted to soil-
building or even conserving of fertility. Hog farm
ing usually means a farm devoted to corn and a fe^
small muddy yards Where all the corn is dumped tc
be devoured by the imprisoned swine. Thus in these
small yards accumulates all the fertility of the farm,
The net result is weeds, jimpson weed, dog fennel
all sorts of vile things, while the fields grow steadily
poorer and poorer as there is nothing to go back
from the hog feeding. Now with the use of alfalfa
and feeding much of the corn in the alfalfa fields the
land is renewed, its fertility increased, it carries
more stock and becomes more easily tilled. The dif-
ference between alfalfa farming with hogs and hog
farming without alfalfa is that where alfalfa is lack-
ing the land is steadily destroyed, where it is had it
is steadily built.

ALFALFA FOR POULTRY.

All sorts of fowls love alfalfa, green or dry. In
truth they love it not wisely but too well for the al-
falfa when it is a young thing, and unless kept away
from it will destroy it. After it has become estab-
lished they will not usually injure it unless the al-
falfa is a small patch near the poultry runs. It is
well to keep them away from the field when the al-
falfa is coming up as they will peck the seedlings
and destroy every one a,t a bite.

Giving the Run of the Field. — Poultry having a
run to an alfalfa field will need very little additional
feed. Indeed on Woodland Farm it is the custom
to grow a hundred, sometimes two or three hundred
guineas that simply live half wild in the alfalfa
fields. They subsist entirely on alfalfa leaves, in-
sects and what they find wild. They nest as they like
and of course a great many of the eggs are lost,
since they lay sometimes a hundred in the one nest
and the mower often smashes many of them.

Poultry having alfalfa lays exceedingly well. In
winter time all fowls love the alfalfa leaves and will
even eat the smaller stems. If the alfalfa is cut very
fine they will eat nearly all of it. Certainly only
the best alfalfa hay should be offered the fowls. In
any barn where alfalfa is fed there can be secured
bags of alfalfa leaves and fine stems that the fowls

(415)

416 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

will eat with great satisfaction. Some poultry keep-
ers advise wetting the leaves, or pouring boiling
water over them, which makes them freshen up
amazingly; others think as good results come from
feeding them dry.

Meal and Cut Hay. — Alfalfa meal is admirable
for poultry and egg production. Where alfalfa is
not grown and the hay is therefore unavailable
doubtless the meal is a profitable source of vege-
table food and protein. It stimulates egg production
and is thought to have some influence in making the
eggs fertile.

For home use, where alfalfa hay is available it
is well to cut the hay in very short lengths, the
shorter the better probably, choosing very early
cut, tender and well cured hay for this purpose.
This will doubtless do nearly or quite as well as
alfalfa meal, and the leaves from the feeding barn
will do best of all since they are most digestible of
any part of the alfafa plant.

It is noticeable that When alfalfa is available in
winter egg production is greatly stimulated.

MAKING ALFALFA MEAL.

Within recent years a considerable business has
sprung up in the West of making alfalfa meal.
Several plans &re adopted for making this meal.
The hay must first be carefully selected. Only well
cured bright green hay is available. With some pro-
cesses this must afterward be kiln-dried before it is
put in the mill. It is then ground to a fine powder.
Another machine makes meal of the dry hay without
kiln drying. This meal is not so fine a powder as
the first mentioned. A third type simply cuts the
alfalfa exceedingly fine with a modification of an
ordinary hay-cutter. This is the most rapid in oper-
ation of any machine and the resultant product
seems to be as digestible as any. It is not exactly
meal, however, and is often sold baled, a lock of
alfalfa hay being placed at each end of the bale.
This seems the most practicable way of handling it
for dairy feed. The fine ground meal, however, may
sell more readily in the market, though it is doubt-
ful if it is any better as a feed.

Meal and Bran. — Prof. H. M. Cotterell says that
in one test where alfalfa meal was fed in compari-
son with wheat bran, giving the same weights, the
alfalfa meal made 141 Ibs. of milk, the wheat bran
100 Ibs. The Pennsylvania experiment station on
the other hand reported that alfalfa meal gave no
better results than wheat bran, yet with alfalfa meal

(417)

418 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

and wheat bran rated at equal costs the meal made
slightly the cheaper milk.

Difference in samples might readily account for
this difference. Much meal is doubtless made of
very coarse, woody hay, cut when over ripe. This
would naturally make less milk than meal from early
cut hay. I believe alfalfa meal to be a good product,
but do not think it ought to be rated above wheat
bran in feeding value or selling price.

Easy of Transportation. — Probably the chief good
of alfalfa meal is to carry alfalfa to towns and cities
and regions where alfalfa is not grown. There re-
mains to be discovered evidence that it would pay
the farmer to grind his own alfalfa into meal for
use on his own farm, unless it might possibly be for
pig feeding in winter time, 'and even there the evi-
dence is in favor of using the 'alfalfa in its natural
form or cut very fine.

Alfalmo is a product of alfalfa meal and mo-
lasses. One who has observed the very great use of
molasses feeds in England must conclude that there
is a field for them in America, and that this alf almo,
if honestly made, as it seems now to be, has a future
before it as a fattening ration for cattle and horses,
perhaps for pigs as part of the ration. Should we
be able to introduce alfalfa meal into England there
would be opened a wide field and a great market.
Perhaps we will need all our alfalfa hay at home for
some years; perhaps such a market would in the
long run rebound to our injury.

PLOWING ALFALFA SOD.

A well set alfalfa sod is a hard thing to plow. It
takes power and time to break it. And yet, for a
given amount of energy applied in plowing one will
get much greater returns in an alfalfa sod than he
will with any other soTt of plowing, so he need not
feel aggrieved at the resistance of the alfalfa roots.

The longer the alfalfa has stood the larger and
tougher the roots are. Alfalfa only a year or two
old plows not much unlike red clover sod. It is the
old field that gives one a tussle. To attempt to
plow that with a dull plow, a poor team and broken
harness is to waste one's energy.

The Right Way. — On the other hand, rightly gone
at alfalfa sod is a delight to plow. One needs a
good team, three heavy horses, a first-class plow
(preferably a walking plow, not a sulky or rid-
ing plow, which rarely is successful in alfalfa sod)..
He wants two good shares and then to keep one of
them in the blacksmith's shop most of the time,
being sharpened; a sober, intelligent man holding
the plow, with a file in his boot leg, then plowing
alfalfa sod is as easy a job as one would care for,
only it is rather slow work. We plow in the fall
usually or early winter. The field that is to be
plowed is mowed late. It is as well to save that last
growth, and it will weaken the roots somewhat to

(419)

420 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

have it cut off. We plow alfalfa sod deep. Why!
Because the roots cut off easier down 'eight inches
or more. It is true that they will grow again, that
is, the upper part will grow, and your field in the
spring may look almost as though it 'had not been
plowed. Do not let that fact trouble you. When cul-
tivation begins the alfalfa will soon disappear. This
is assuming that the field is to go to corn or potatoes
or some other cultivated crop. If sown to oats it is
likely that the alfalfa would grow up in them pretty
thick and maybe trouble in the harvest. But oats
lodge in an alfalfa sod anyway, so they do not count.

One finds that the soil itself is loose and easily
made friable after alfalfa has grown upon it, so he
can plow it deeper than ever he did before and find
soil all the way down.

Setting the Plow. — Now about setting the plow.
We use a rolling coulter and a pair of wheels on the
beam. One can buy trucks to fit a walking plow, or
he can have wheels adapted to the use by his black-
smith. It is probably cheaper to buy the trucks.
As we needed them on Woodland Farm before any
manufacturer had started making them we made our
own. The wheels hold the beam steady, exactly at
the right depth. It is an old device that has been in
use for centuries in Europe, but has not been imi-
tated in America simply because we- have run after
cheapness too much, and because we 'have not done
much good plowing as yet. With these wheel trucks
a small boy can plow alfalfa sod almost as well as a

PLOWING ALFALFA SOD. 421

man. A boy will do better plowing with a good
plow nicely adjusted with these wheels on the beam
than any man could do without the wheels.

The File Important. — The file is one of the essen-
tials. On Woodland Farm where there are some
small stones in the land we file the plows sharp
after they have run about % mile or a little more.
It takes only a few minutes to do this and no longer
to file often than it would to file occasionally, and
by filing 'often the plow is always sharp. The horses
are resting while you file.

Early Start Desirable. — It is rather slow work
plowing alfalfa sod at best. Therefore it is well to
get at it early in the season. After growth starts in
spring alfalfa roots get very tough, and if the land
is dry and hard at the same time the plowing is
difficult.

To sum up, get a strong plow, preferably with a
good stiff wooden beam. Put truck wheels on the
beam, well forward, to hold it true. Have the share
wide and sharp. If the roots are old and tough
have a wing fastened on that will run under the
edge of the next furrow and cut off the roots there
for about three inches. Keep the plow sharp. Take
time. We have not found it necessary or advisable
to plow twice ; one good plowing at a depth of about
eight inches has done the work well for us and would
do the work anywhere probably wherever the land
was cultivated the following season.

Breaking Sod in Colorado. — Prof. Philo K. Blinn

422 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

of the Colorado experiment station gives his ex-
perience thus in "Tha Rural New Yorker ":

The attempt to break alfalfa with the ordinary plow is usually
a miserable failure, as it is not suited to the work. A very suc-
cessful alfalfa plow can be made by adjusting and making a few
changes in the regular sod plow or prairie breaker. The essen-
tial points to consider are: The long strong beam to steady the
plow; the long landside to resist the tremendous cutting strain.
It is often necessary to reinforce the beam with heavy iron to
withstand the draft. The plow should be adjusted to cut a very
narrow furrow, not over 12 inches; an extra long share to lap
part of the last furrow to prevent the roots near the heel from
whipping around, only partly cut off. This can also be prevented
by a horizontal cutter bolted to the bottom of the landside, thus
partly cutting the roots in the next furrow; this cutter is
forged with a right-angle shoulder that fits and fastens with the
bolt through the short landslide.

The next essential is a very sharp share, drawn thin and har-
dened so that it will not be brittle. A sharp share should be
replaced each day and a good file is necessary to touch up the
edge once in a while. Breaking alfalfa on stony land is very
difficult, and is extremely hard on plow shares. The most es-
sential point in an alfalfa breaker is a long, heavy, well-pointed
share with a very wide wing six or eight inches at the heel, and
1% to two inches of the edge rolled so as to run almost flat on
the bottom of the furrow, thus cutting ahead of the lift and
avoiding a dragging cut. The standard plow factories are mak-
ing for the western farmer alfalfa specials with extra alfalfa
shares; these are chiefly in sulky plows, but where it is not
practical to afford such a plow the walking breaker can be fitted
and adjusted to do excellent work, though it is somewhat harder
for the man that holds the plow. Alfalfa breaking usually re-
quires three to four good heavy horses for a team.

The depth and time to plow alfalfa are somewhat mooted ques-
tions. They vary with conditions. It is usually conceded that
fall breaking is a success, but in Colorado, alfalfa is generally
plowed shallow, four to five inches deep, so that the roots and
crowns may be well harrowed to the surface to dry out. It is
then replowed one or two inches deeper than it was broken.
Alfalfa when dormant, if plowed under in moist soil, will readily
take root and grow if not harrowed out. Many farmers are hav-
ing better success in breaking alfalfa late in the spring, after the
alfalfa is 10 or 12 inches high, plowing under the green manure.

PLOWING ALFALFA SOD. 423

The growth seems to have exhausted the stored plant food, and
if the roots are all cut very little will start to grow, especially
if the field is planted to some crop like potatoes, that can be
well cultivated. Complaints about difficulties in plowing alfalfa
usually come from sections where rotation with alfalfa has not
been started long.

ANIMAL PESTS AND DISEASES.

The pocket gopher is a serious pest in the alfalfa
field. In many western states it is indeed a most
serious menace. In all the non-irrigated parts of
California the gopher cuts short the life of an al-
falfa field. Irrigation stops their work, but irriga-
tion is not always possible. T. J. Headlee of the
Kansas experiment station thus discusses the gopher
and his work in Bulletin 155 :

No other animal attacking the underground parts of alfalfa can
equal or even closely approach the gopher in destructiveness.
While the pocket gopher occurs in all parts of the state it is most
abundant and destructive in the valleys of the Kansas River and
its main tributaries. The plains pocket gopher (Geomys lutes-
cens, Merr.) holds sway on the western plains, and the prairie
pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius, Shaw) infests most of the re-
mainder of the state. These two species show such a similarity
in life-habits that for the consideration of methods of combating
a knowledge of the prairie form will serve for both.

The prairie pocket gopher is short and stocky, showing an
average length of about ten inches from the tip of its nose to
the end of its stubby, hairless tail. Its body is covered with
silky dark brown hair, its eyes are small and well protected by
fur, and its ears are so short as hardly to cause a ripple in the
smooth-lying fur of the head. Its front feet are furnished with
long, strong claws and otherwise modified for digging. In fact,
the whole structure of the animal fits it for its subterranean
existence.

The gopher tunnels hither and thither in search of food, at
intervals digging short lateral burrows to the surface through
which it pushes the excavated earth and dumps it outside, thus
forming the mounds that indicate its presence and mark its pro-
gress. These animals are most active during the fall and spring,
and one individual may throw up several mounds daily for sev-
eral weeks at a time. During these seasons the work of a few
gophers in an alfalfa-field may cause the uninitiated to suppose

(424)

ANIMAL, PESTS AND DISEASES. 425

the field infested by dozens. Although the animals are most ac-
tive at these times they work only less vigorously throughout
the rest of the year. Even in winter, whenever the ground is
sufficiently free from frost, they throw up mounds here and
there.

Except for possible brief excursions at the periods of mating
and migrating, the gopher passes practically its entire life in its
burrow. Indeed, it is a rare occurrence to find one abroad on any
errand. They appear to live solitary, each individual gopher ap-
parently bent on having his world to himself, and each digging
and taking care of his own dwelling. Doubtless where fields are
so badly infested that tunnels cross and recross, more than one
gopher may be trapped in the same runway. The female pro-
duces but one litter of young per year, yet because of her
sheltered life raises enough of them that the species is constantly
increasing.

The natural food of the gopher consists of succulent roots and
such green vegetation as can be dragged from the surface into
the burrow. The coming of alfalfa, with its deep-growing suc-
culent roots has largely solved the question of food supply for
this animal by providing it with an abundance easily accessible
both in winter and summer. Truly the conditions of the alfalfa
field are such as to render life easy for the gopher tribe.

Not only does the animal injure alfalfa by actual consump-
tion of the roots, but by covering up a considerable portion
(sometimes 20 per cent) of the area badly infested, and by
rendering the crop in fields so infested difficult to harvest.

Many methods of combating these animals have been tested at
this station, and poisoning has been found at once the quickest
and most efficient. Shooting and trapping require too much
time, and fumigation is inefficient. Pieces of potato, apple, and
sweet potato, about the size of the end of the little finger,
poisoned by inserting a few crystals of strychnine into slits
made with the point of a knife, or raisins and prunes treated in
the same way, and carefully introduced into fresh runways, have
given excellent results. While these baits are as successful as
any used, much time is required in their preparation, and the
station has therefore undertaken the manufacture and sale (at
cost of materials and labor) of a poisoned syrup, one quart of
which is sufficient to poison one-half bushel of corn. The corn
is put to soak in hot water the evening of the day before the
bait is to be used. In the morning the water is drained off, the
requisite amount of poison poured over the corn and thoroughly
mixed with it. Cornmeal may be used to take up the excess

423 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

moisture, and the bait is ready for use. Any citizen of the state
is entitled to a copy of the formula according to which this
syrup is manufactured and may make it for himself if he so de-
sires. The station sells the prepared poison for $1.10 per quart,
delivered to the express or freight agent at Manhattan.

Whatever sort of bait may be used, success depends upon in-
troducing it into fresh runways. Choose fresh-looking mounds
and prod on the line between them with a wagon rod or sharp-
ened broom handle to locate the runway; or, failing there, prod
about the freshest mounds. The sudden giving of the soil and
the apparent looseness of the stick in it is sufficient to show that
the runway has been located. Remove the prod and drop a tea-
spoonful of the poisoned bait into the burrow, leaving the hole
open. Level the mounds with some sort of a drag, and as fast
as new ones appear locate the burrows and put poison into them.

In case the area to be treated is large some sort of a special
instrument for locating the runways is desirable. A very good
one can be made from a spade handle by covering the pointed
end with iron and fastening a foot-rest about fifteen inches above
the point.

By the use of the means just described the enterprising farmer
can rid his land of gophers and keep them out of it. Once the
farm is freed, the vigilance and prompt treatment necessary to
keep it so will require but little time and effort.

No other creatures now attack the underground parts of alfalfa
with sufficient vigor to demand attention, althought moles and
spermophiles, particularly the latter, may become injurious later.

Grasshoppers. — Several species of grasshoppers
feed on alfalfa and do it at times notable injury. Fall
disking is recommended to destroy the egg masses
of the hoppers and this will perhaps be pretty effi-
cient so far as it goes, though no doubt millions of
eggs may be deposited along the margin of the fields
and along roadsides. For the hoppers that come in
spite of this disking the hopper-dozer is recom-
mended. Essentially a dozer consists of a shallow,
high-backed pan mounted on runners high enough
so that its bottom will scrape the tops of the alfalfa

ANIMAL PESTS AND DISEASES. 427

stems. The dozer is filled with water and coated
with a film of kerosene. It is used in the warm part
of the day because then the hoppers are decidedly
most active.

When it is drawn forward through the infested
field, the hoppers spring to get out of its way and
most of them may land in the water and be de-
stroyed by contact with the kerosene. If enough
turkeys and guineas are kept hoppers will be much
reduced in numbers.

Ants. — Webworms, army worms, fall army
worms, cutworms and blister beetles all occasionally
injure alfalfa more or less. Mound-building ants are
troublesome in western fields. The ants are readily
destroyed by use of bisulphide of carbon. Taking
note that the ants are canny and carefully guard
their homes, Prof. Headlee thus comments :

On the approach of a storm a large force is employed and the
gateways are closed in haste, but when it has passed they are re-
opened and the ants return to their work.

The ant colonies are too few to decrease the yield seriously,
although occasionally they will destroy the alfalfa on from one
to two per cent of the total area of a badly infested field. Their
claim to rank as alfalfa pests lies principally in the increased
difficulty of harvesting the crop when they are present.

Extended experiments have shown that the ants can most
easily and efficiently be controlled by fumigating the nest with
carbon bisulphide as follows: Set fumigation only when gateways
are open; invert a galvanized iron vessel, such a common wash-
tub, over one or more of the openings, covering as much of the
mound as possible; firmly pack soil over such holes as the* tub
will not reach; introduce under the tub and near the holes a
shallow dish containing from one to three ounces (depending on
the size of the nest) of carbon bisulphide; set the tub down and
quickly pack soil about the rim, making it as nearly air-tight as
possible; allow to stand for five hours. The forming vapor, being

428 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

heavier than air, sinks downward and comes to fill every cham-
ber and gallery, destroying all the occupants.

It must be remembered that carbon bisulphide is as explosive
as gasoline and must be used with equal care.

Conclusions. — The conclusions of Prof. Headlee as
to the proper way to combat these insect enemies of
alfalfa are as follows:

When we call to mind that the grasshopper passes the winter
in the soil in the egg stage, the web .worm, army worm and cut-
worms remain in the soil over winter as larvae, the fall army-
worm as a pupa, that the blister-beetles are dependent upon a
supply of grasshopper eggs for food during one necessary stage, it
is plain that thoroughly stirring the soil with a disk-harrow
(preferably the spike-tooth kind) just after the frost is out of the
ground and before the plants begin to grow, or, better still, in the
late fall just before the ground freezes, if such a proceeding
would not injure the plants, will go far toward controlling the in-
sects enumerated. During the summer, when these insects are
in the field or when the alfalfa is attacked by clover hay worms,
leaf-hoppers, mound-building prairie ants or pocket gophers, the
grower must resort to measures especially fitted to destroy the
enemy in question.

To this I would add that in the eastern states
insect enemies are much less in evidence in alfalfa
fields, owing probably to the cold, wet winters, and
the pocket gopher has not yet been introduced,
though he is probably on his way. Woodchucks or
groundhogs are a pest in eastern meadows ; they are
readily destroyed by use of bisulphide of carbon.
The way to use it is to saturate a rag with a table-
spoonful or more, throw it down the burrow as far
as you can and immediately stop the hole tight. A
sod may be laid over it first, then earth heaped on it.
All holes should be treated as they may communicate
with each other.

ANIMAL PESTS AND DISEASES. 429

Prairie dogs are readily suffocated with the same
chemical, or they may be poisoned in early spring,
before growth starts, or they may be drowned out if
irrigation water is available.

For the neighbors' chickens no adequate remedy
has been discovered.

GROWING ALFALFA SEED.

Alfalfa does not seed well as a general rule in any
moist climate. Hardly any alfalfa seed is threshed
east of the Missouri Biver. A little is harvested in
Ontario and occasionally a man has saved and
threshed seed in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio or New
York. Stray plants in almost any location, stand-
ing out by themselves, especially if on a bank or
some dry situation, will usually set full of seed. A
field adjacent might be left for seed and make
hardly any at all. Why this is we do not understand.

It will seldom pay the eastern farmer to attempt
to grow alfalfa seed. He can buy it cheaper than
he can grow it. Even in Kansas, Nebraska and other
western alfalfa seed-producing states the seed crop
fails if the season happens to be wet.

Adaptability of Seed. — Alfalfa seed is valuable
for different sections according to its source. Thus
seed from Nebraska or Kansas thrives in Ohio, In-
diana^and New York. Seed from Arizona is not
hardy in Nebraska. Seed from Montana will not
produce so well in Texas as seed from Arizona. Al-
falfa is like corn, it adapts itself to climates. The
rule of survival of the fittest comes in play also, so
it is most wise to take account of the place where
your seed was grown. Seed imported may thrive
in one part of the United States and fail to thrive

(430)

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 431

well in another part. Seed from Peru will winter-
kill in one place and thrive exceedingly in another.
Arabian seed gives a good account of itself in one
part, is a failure in another. As with corn, it is safer
to take seed from north of you rather than from
south of you.

A Money-Making Crop. — Fortunes may be made
in growing alfalfa seed. Millions of acres that are
too dry for profitable grain-growing will grow al-
falfa seed under right treatment. The demand is
insistent and rapidly increasing. The supply is not
often equal to the demand. In 1890 I bought alfalfa
seed for $4 per bushel of 60 Ibs. It is now worth $10
to $12. It is very desirable that alfalfa seed should
be cheaper. It is a plant that would come into short
rotations if only the seed were cheap enough. There
is profit in growing it at half -the present prices.

A Kansas View. — The following study of alfalfa
seed growing is by Prof. A. M. TenEyck of the Kan-
sas agricultural college :

The Soil. — Good crops of alfalfa seed may be produced on a
variety of soils, ranging from black gumbo to sandy loam, but
the general experience is that the soil should be well drained and
of average fertility. Very fertile land, and soil supplied with an
abundance of moisture, produces plant, not seed. On this ac-
count in central and eastern Kansas upland or second bottom is
usually considered superior to bottom-land for alfalfa seed pro-
duction. A soil poor in fertility will produce only light crops of
seed, while large yields of seed may be produced from fertile land
in a favorable season, but with unfavorable weather conditions
the seed crop is more apt to fail on the more fertile soil. Rank-
ness in growth of plant is not conducive to the production of seed.
Alfalfa will not thrive on a shallow soil with hard-pan subsoil, or
on low or poorly drained land.

432 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

The Weather. — In the opinion of many alfalfa growers the
weather is a more important factor than the soil in determining
the production of a good crop of alfalfa seed. On a given soil
capable of growing alfalfa, the weather is the determining factor
in seed production, or it may be as truly said that the moisture
supply, in time and amount, largely determines the alfalfa seed
crop on any field. On this point a majority agree that the alfalfa
should have a moderate supply of water in the early part of the
season, and during the early growth of the seed crop — just suffi-
cient moisture to produce a vigorous, healthy plant. To insure a
good crop of seed no heavy rains should fall after the alfalfa be-
gins to blossom until most of the bloom has fallen, and then the
weather should continue rather dry until the seed crop is har-
vested and threshed, or put into the stack. Wet weather in the
latter stage of its growth causes a continuation of blooming and
the starting of a second growth of alfalfa, which interferes with
an even and proper maturing of the seed. Also it has been ob-
served that the hot, dry weather, with a deficiency of moisture in
the soil during the seed-forming period, has resulted in light,
blasted seed and a low yield. It is said that under the conditions
observed alfalfa flowers fail to secrete nectar and are hence not
fertilized because not visited by bees and other insects.

Other Factors. — A rather thin stand of alfalfa with vigorous
plants of average growth favors the development of seed, while a
thick stand and a rank growth of plant are considered unfavor-
able conditions for seed production. The seed fields should be
comparatively free from weeds. By cultivating the alfalfa early
in the spring, or perhaps after the first or second hay crop is re-
moved, the weeds may be held in check and the soil kept in good
tilth, resulting in strong, well developed plants, capable of pro-
ducing large yields of sound, plump seed.

Effect of Bees and Other Insect. — Until recently it was gen-
erally understood that to fertilize alfalfa blossoms required that
pollen from a separate flower be brought in contact with the
pistil of another flower. This, it was explained, was doubtless
largely accomplished by insects, which transferred the pollen
from blossom to blossom while they sipped the nectar which each
flower secretes apparently for this very purpose of attracting in-
sects. It is probable that cross-fertilization is largely accom-
plished in this way, but, as shown by Roberts and Freeman of
this station, alfalfa blossoms may be self-fertilized. It is only
necessary that the "trigger mechanism" which controls the fer-
tilizing organs be sprung by the touch of an insect or other
means, possibly the shaking of the plant in a strong wind, when

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 433

the confined stamens and pistil fly up and the pollen is dusted
against the stigma and over the insect, or, in case of hand pollina-
tion, the instrument which is used to spring the little flower
trap. Thus the insect, passing from blossom to blossom, mixes
the pollen of many flowers, but the hand pollination has shown
that the blossom may be fertilized with its own pollen.

Farmers are divided upon this point as to whether insects are
necessary or useful in the pollinization of the flowers. Many
maintain that as good crops of seeds were produced many years
ago, before bees were introduced into a certain locality, as are
produced now. Others state that in a locality where bees are
kept there is no noticeable difference in seed yields near apiaries
compared to yields from fields further away. Such data, how-
ever, do not disprove the facts as stated above. Doubtless other
insects besides bees assist in fertilizing the alfalfa flowers. If
you will observe an alfalfa field in full bloom you will usually
find it swarming with insects of various kinds — bees, flies, butter-
flies, millers, ants, and sometimes grasshoppers — although it is
doubtful whether the latter are of any benefit, and certain it is
that they are often a pest when numerous. It is quite possible
that ants are among the important insects concerned in fertilizing
alfalfa blossoms. There is some proof that bees do assist in pol-
linating the alfalfa flowers.

Although reports on this point have not been very authentic,
there seems to be little question but that bees may assist in fer-
tilizing the alfalfa blossoms and thus increase the yield and im-
prove the quality of the seed. At this station alfalfa plants cov-
ered with fine netting produced no seed except in flowers which
pushed through or against the netting, allowing fertilization by
insects from the outside. On the other hand, adjacent plants not
covered were well filled with seed pods.

There should be a double benefit to the alfalfa seed grower
who keeps bees, for not only may he secure larger yields of a
superior quality of seed by reason of the work of the bees, but
the alfalfa is one of the most valuable honey plants. In the
alfalfa districts of the state the yield of honey per hive, according
to the report of Secretary Coburn of the State Board of Agricul-
ture, is much larger than in the sections where alfalfa is but little
grown; and not only may the bees in alfalfa districts make
double or treble the usual amount of honey, but this honey is
very superior in quality, unequaled even by the white clover
honey of the eastern states. "In favorable seasons, 100 pounds
of honey per hive is no uncommon yield, in alfalfa regions."

Which Crop to Save. — The region lying west of the Missouri

434 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

River grows most of the alfalfa seed produced in the United
States. A large part of this seed is grown by irrigation in the
western part of the great plains region, in several of the moun-
tain states, and in California. Much seed is also produced with-
out irrigation in the eastern part of the great plains region. The
dry climatic conditions of the West make this section of the coun-
try better adapted for the production of alfalfa seed than the
more humid regions of the central and eastern states. The best
quality of seed and the largest crops are produced in an arid
climate by irrigation. The supply of water and the weather con-
ditions during the growing period of the crop largely determine
which crop to save for seed. Any one of a season's crops may
produce good seed provided the soil and weather conditions are
right for growing and maturing seed. About the same time is
required to produce a crop of seed as is required to produce two
crops of hay. In the irrigated districts of Colorado and western
Kansas the first crop is often saved for seed, the practice being
not to irrigate this crop, thus causing a medium but thrifty
growth of plant, which, with the favorable weather conditions
prevailing in the arid regions, usually seeds well.

On the whole, especially in the more humid regions, the second
or third crop is more often saved for seed than the first crop,
mainly because more favorable weather conditions prevail in the
late summer and early fall for maturing the seed. Also, the in-
sects which may help to fertilize the blossoms are more numer-
ous in the latter part of the season. Only in the southern states
is it possible to use a later crop than the third for seed.

In those latitudes where the third crop may mature seed be-
fore cool weather and frost, the choice between the second and
third crop for seed is decided mainly by the weather conditions
at and before the blossoming period. If the supply of moisture
has been moderate and the alfalfa has made a proper growth and
little or no rain falls during the blossoming period, the second
crop will likely seed well. However, if the second crop is rank in
growth, or heavy rain falls just previous to or when the alfalfa is
in bloom, it is best to cut for hay. In the non-irrigated area of
the semi-arid portions of Kansas and other western states drought
is apt to prevail in the latter part of the season, by which the
growth of the third crop is greatly reduced, causing only a small
development of seed. In such districts the second crop should be
saved for seed, or perhaps the first crop, especially on dry up-
lands which may produce only one good crop (the first crop) in a
season. In northwestern Kansas and Nebraska it is doubtless
safer to use the second crop for seed, as the third crop is apt to

GROWING AL.FALFA SEED. 435

be caught immature by frost. In central-nortbern Kansas a farm-
er must usually decide whether to save the second or third crop;
if the third crop is to be saved for seed it is best to cut the first
and second crops a little early, giving as much time as possible
for the third crop to mature. Also the early cutting for hay may
give not only an earlier but a more vigorous growth to the third
crop, insuring a large production of seed in favorable seasons.

Some growers state that the third crop should be preferred for
seed because it blooms and matures more evenly and in a shorter
period than the second crop. If this is a fact, it may be largely
due to the favorable weather conditions which are more apt to
prevail during the season of the year when the third crop is
growing and maturing. When it can be successfully done, using
the third crop for seed has an advantage over using the second
crop in that it allows the harvest of two good hay crops, while
if the second crop is harvested for seed only one crop of hay is
usually secured that season, the growth after the seed crop being
insufficient, as a rule, in the sections of Kansas named, to produce
hay.

On the other hand, when the third crop is matured for seed
sufficient growth of the alfalfa usually takes places after remov-
ing the crop to give a good winter cover, and it is the general
report by those who practice this plan that, taking the third cut-
ting for seed does not exhaust the alfalfa plants so much as tak-
ing the second crop for seed, and a similar observation is made
as regards the seeding of the first or second crop, some growers
reporting that when the first crop was allowed to mature seed
there was little or no growth after the seed crop was removed,
during the balance of the season.

Insect pests, as the grasshopper and web-worm, are also a factor
in determining whether the second crop, or any crop, may be
safely saved for seed. The web-worm is more likely to attack the
second crop, but in southern Kansas the third crop is also apt to
be injured by this pest.

A Good Seed Crop. — Alfalfa is a very uncertain seed crop, and
it is a difficult matter to estimate with any degree of accuracy
early in the growth of the crop what the yield of seed will be.
If the weather and soil conditions have been favorable and the
alfalfa has made a proper growth (not too thick and rank, but
rather the stems should be of medium height and stout, with
many branches), and there is an even, heavy bloom over the field
in five or six days after the first bloom appears, and no rain falls,
the prospect for seed is good. The blooms should be large and of
a dark, rich color. When the blossoms are small and light in

436 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

color it is evidence of a light crop of seed. Again, if the blos-
soms fertilize properly the flowers dry and stick to the stem a
few days, while if they are not fertilized they drop quickly and
the stems stand bare. Even before the bloom falls the circular
pods are visible. The pods should appear thickly set on the stems,
two or more in a group, to insure a good seed crop. Finally, if by
examination the pods are found to be well filled with seed, the
crop is assured, barring accidents by which the seed may be lost
in harvesting and thrashing.

From the above suggestions it may seem to the novice that he
would be able to judge fairly well when a crop of alfalfa should
be left for seed; yet old growers do not find it easy to decide. A
grower who has had twenty years' experience writes as follows:
"I cannot tell when a good crop will be made until near matu-
rity, as the blossoms often fail to seed, and then too much rain
may cause well-fruited alfalfa to take a second growth and con-
tinue to bloom and ripen seed irregularly. Also during damp
rainy weather the ripe seed may sprout, or when the weather
turns dry the ripe pods may burst, shattering their seed." It is
even possible that after a crop is ready to harvest it may be lost
or badly damaged by excessive rain, causing the seed to sprout or
the pods to burst when they dry in the sun.

Relative to saving a crop of alfalfa for seed these suggestions
may be given: If the weather has been wet and the alfalfa grows
too rank, cut for hay. If heavy rains fall while the alfalfa is in
bloom, or before the flowers are fertilized, cut for hay. If for any
reason the flowers are not fertilized and the bloom falls quickly,
leaving bare stems, cut at once for hay. Even after the seed is
formed, if excessive rains come and a second growth starts, cut
the crop and remove it, because it will fail to ripen seed evenly
and is almost certain to be an unprofitable crop, and the sooner
it can be taken from the ground the sooner another crop may
start and mature.

When to Harvest for Seed. — The harvesting depends a little
upon the evenness of blooming and the weather conditions during
the period of maturing. In a fe.vorable season, with even bloom-
ing and even maturing of the seed, the rule is to harvest the
alfalfa when a large proportion of the pods have turned brown.
In the average season, as the alfalfa matures, part of the seed will
be ripe while some of the seed is overripe and shattering and
some is yet immature. With such a crop it is necessary to
strike an average and harvest when the largest amount of plump,
sound seed may be saved.

The opinions of farmers vary widely regarding the proper

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 437

stage of maturity at which to harvest alfalfa. While the major-
ity prefer to harvest when most of the seed is ripe and when two-
thirds to three-fourths of the pods are brown, others recommend
to harvest when one-half of the pods are brown. One grower
harvests the crop when one-third of the pods are black. One
grower harvests the crop when one-third of the pods are black,
one-third brown, and one-third green; others harvest as soon as
the ripest seed begins to shatter, while still others maintain that
the first seed that ripens is the best and prefer to cut a little
early, claiming that the seed will be of as good quality and that
there is less loss from shattering in handling and less danger of
damage by unfavorable weather.

Mature alfalfa seed has a clear, light-golden color; immature
seed has more of a greenish tinge and may be shrunken; but if
the crop is not harvested until the seed is fully ripe the pods drop
off, the seed shells easily, and the crop is hard to handle without
great loss, even if it escapes unfavorable weather after harvest.
On the whole, it seems to the writer safest to cut the crop a little
green rather than to risk loss in ways mentioned. The greenish-
colored seed, if not too shrunken, is good vital seed and ger-
minates well.

Methods of Harvesting. — A crude method is to cut with a mower
and rake into windrows the same as hay. Handled in this way
much seed may be wasted. If the alfalfa is mowed in the morn-
ing, when the dew is on, and raked immediately, there is much
less shattering of seed. If cut during the heat of the day, to pre-
vent the shelling and waste of seed men should follow the machine
with forks, moving the cut alfalfa out of the way of the team and
the machine. When provided with a buncher or windrower at-
tachment, the mower does better work and may be economically
used. There is some objection to leaving the alfalfa in loose
bunches or in open windrows, and unless the weather is very
favorable and the purpose is to thrash at once, it is best to follow
the mower closely, placing the alfalfa in larger piles or cocks,
about what a man may lift at one forkful, thus avoiding pulling
the bunches apart in loading, which would cause the pods to
break off and the seed to shatter. Also if the alfalfa is placed at
once in the cock in this way, the seed is prevented from bleach-
ing so much and the straw settles and sheds rain and is pre-
served and cured better than when left in the loose bunch or
windrow, and well-cured alfalfa straw is said to have one-half
the feeding value of alfalfa hay.

The self-rake reaper is in common use, and is an excellent ma-
chine with which to harvest the alfalfa-seed crop. The gavels are

438 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

dropped from the platform out of the way of the horses and the
machine. Usually men follow with forks and lay three or four
gavels in a pile. These bunches shed rain and preserve the seed
and straw in better condition than the single gavels, and the seed
does not shatter so badly in handling the larger compact bunches
as in handling the smaller ones.

Some few growers cut the crop with a header, leaving the al-
falfa in windrows across the field. This method is only satis-
factory in a dry season, when the alfalfa is thrashed or stacked
at once, as soon after harvest as possible.

Many western growers harvest alfalfa with a binder. The usual
practice has been to remove the binder part, but leave the pack-
ers on and throw the bundles out loose, dropping in bunches by
use of the bundle-carrier, or bunching with the fork as already
described in the use of the self-rake reaper. In recent years,
however, some prefer to bind the alfalfa in bundles and shock the
same as wheat or other grain. The advantage claimed for this
method is that it requires less help, since one man may do the
harvesting and put the crop into the shock if help is scarce; the
alfalfa may be cut a little greener, the seed does not shatter so
readily, and the straw may cure and keep better than when put
up loose.

When bound and shocked the alfalfa should stand a couple of
weeks, until dry enough to thrash. If put into the stack, thrash-
ermen prefer to have it loose, as bundles are more apt to be damp
and tough, but if fully dried when stacked alfalfa should keep well
in the bundle. It is suggested to stack with layers of straw be-
tween layers of alfalfa, in order to take up the moisture.

Stacking and Thrashing. — The common practice, when it can be
done, is to thrash from the field as soon after harvest as the seed
is dry and the straw fully cured. If a machine cannot be secured
and weather conditions are favorable for stacking, better put into
the stack at once when the crop is cured than to run the risk of
damage by wet weather. A single rain will not injure the alfalfa
much if it is well bunched or cocked, but continued wet weather
causes the seeds to swell and perhaps sprout, and when the pods
dry they burst, scattering the seed. Some growers estimate that,
half of the seed is lost in this way by a few days of unfavorable
weather. Also, if the crop is allowed to lie in the field for a long
time there is more or less loss of seed from the effects of heavy
dew and damage from mice and insects, and the longer the alfalfa
lies the easier the pods break off and the seed shatters when it
is finally handled and stacked or thrashed. The largest amount

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 439

and best quality of seed may be secured by stacking or thrashing
the crop as soon after cutting as it is in fit condition.

Care should be taken not to stack or thrash when the straw is
too green or tough and the seed not fully dry. It requires even
more time to cure properly the seed crop of alfalfa than it does to
cure the hay crop; the stems are largely stripped of leaves and
cure slowly and pack closely in the stack. If stacked green, the
alfalfa is sure to heat and thus injure or destroy the vitality of
the seed. Also if thrashed green or damp much seed will be lost,
since it will not hull properly, and if damp seed is stored in bulk
it may heat and spoil. To cure the alfalfa fit to stack, from three
to seven days of favorable weather are required, and a longer
period if it is thrashed from the field. When bound and shocked
the crop should have a couple of weeks of drying weather to cure
before stacking or thrashing. It is safest to put into narrow
stacks, and it is also a good plan to mix with layers of dry straw,
especially if the alfalfa is bound and there is any indication that
the straw is damp or green in the middle of the bundles. The
straw improves the ventilation of the stack and absorbs the ex-
cessive moisture. The practice of using straw in this way, how-
ever, is seldom practicable — better stack only when fully cured.

To prevent loss of seed in stacking or thrashing, racks are
sometimes covered with canvas and canvas is spread under the
machine or along the stack in order to catch the shattered seed
and the bolls which break off; also care must be taken to handle
the alfalfa carefully in pitching and loading. Large growers of
alfalfa often stack the seed crop in the field with the sweep-rake
and hay-stacker. Those who practice this method usually cut with
the mower and leave in bunches or windrows, drying the alfalfa
quickly and stacking as soon as possible. This is a rough way to
handle the crop and occasions more or less loss of the seed, but
where a large area is handled it may be more profitable to handle
the crop in this way than by a slower method and run the risk
of damage from wet weather. When the alfalfa is left in gavels
or bundles, as thrown off by the harvester, it should be taken up
with a barley fork. There will be less shattering of seed, how-
ever, if the alfalfa is in small compact bunches, not too heavy to
be lifted in one forkful.

When the alfalfa is stacked, unless thrashed within two or
three days after stacking, it should be allowed to pass through
the sweat before being thrashed, which requires several weeks or
months. The best plan is to cover the stacks well to prevent dam-
age by rain, and thrash late in the fall when the weather is dry
and cool. In order to secure seed for fall sowing it is often desir-

440 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

able to thrash from the field, and in a favorable climate or season,
if a machine can be secured, this is the safest and most econom-
ical method of handling the crop.

Farmers differ in their opinions as to whether it is preferable
to thrash with a huller or with a common grain separator pro-
vided with a huller attachment. Some growers favor the use of
the latter machine because the work can be done more rapidly. As
a rule, however, when farmers have had a chance to use both
kinds of machines, and have compared their work, the huller is
preferred. Although it takes longer to thrash with a good huller,
yet with a good crop enough more seed may be secured to amply
pay for the extra time and expense required; in fact, the owner
of a huller will often pay something for the privilege of thrash-
ing over again the straw-stacks left by the common thrasher.
Among the machines used, the Birdsell huller is well recom-
mended; also the Advance thrashing separator with huller at-
tachment has received favorable mention. One farmer who has
used both machines prefers the Advance thrasher to the huller.

Storing and Marketing the Seed. — A good method is to sack
the seed and store in a dry place which may be kept free from
mice and rats. It is stated by some growers, however, that mice
and rats will not touch alfalfa seed when they have free access
to other grain.

The seed should be cleaned with a good fanning-mill before
selling, and all light seed, dirt and weed seed removed as far as
possible. This extra work is usually well paid for in the better
price received for clean seed. If the alfalfa is green or damp
when thrashed, the seed had best be spread twelve or eighteen
inches deep on a tight floor in a dry place and shoveled over once
or twice to dry before it is cleaned and sacked. Prime alfalfa
seed should have a bright, clear, light-golden or slightly greenish
color. Seed which has been wet or bleached in the field will be
darker in color, while heated seed will have a brownish dead
color, indicating its lack of vitality.

From the grower's standpoint, the best time to sell the seed is
when the price is highest. Prime seed usually sells at a high
price early in the fall, when there is apt to be a shortage of seed
for fall sowing, and again early in the spring, about March 1,
seed often brings the highest price, depending largely upon the
supply and demand. Alfalfa seed retains its vitality for several
years if carefully stored and saved, and it may often be to the
interest of the grower, when seed is plentiful and the price low,
to hold the seed for a better market.

Aside from its use for sowing, alfalfa seed has a standard mar-

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 441

ket value in Europe for dyeing purposes, being used in the print-
ing of cotton fabrics, and large quantities of seed have been ex-
ported from this country to supply the foreign demand. For dif-
ferent years and in different parts of the country the price has
ranged from seven to fifteen cents per pound. A bushel of alfalfa
seed weighs sixty pounds. Three to four bushels of good seed per
acre is a profitable crop. The average crop in the more favored
alfalfa regions ranges from five to seven bushels per acre, while
yields as high as twelve bushels per acre have been reported. A
yield of less than two bushels per acre is an unprofitable crop.

Importance of Good Seed. — An immense amount
of failure with alfalfa comes through getting bad
seed. There are various causes of bad seed. Some-
times it is grown in the wrong latitude and thus fails.
Some alfalfa seed is grown in Algeria and is ex-
ported through France. It is improbable that this
Algerian seed would succeed in Ohio or Illinois or
Nebraska. Thus in imported seed it is hard to tell
what one will get. Some French seed is very supe-
rior and well adapted to eastern America.

Adulterations. — The worst of seed, however, is
that containing the weeds and adulterations one
often gets. For instance, one day recently I visited
a newly established alfalfa field situated in a region
where alfalfa is a new plant, struggling to get rec-
ognition. To my astonishment the young growth
proved to be nearly every bit burr clover. Burr
clover seed is always cheaper than alfalfa seed, and
the enterprising seedsman had adulterated his al-
falfa seed so vigorously that there was only a rem-
nant of alfalfa left. I have seen fields so nearly a
pure stand of yellow trefoil that the stray alfalfa
plants looked like weeds.

442 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Examine Samples. — It is safe to get samples of
alfalfa seed before buying and submit them to your
experiment station for examination, or to the De-
partment of Agriculture at Washington, choosing
the seedsman according to the quality of his seeds.
There are many honest seedsmen, but perhaps few
competent or sufficiently careful seedsmen.

Edgar Brown of the Bureau of Plant Industry
Department of Agriculture, has made careful study
of imported and home-grown alfalfa seeds and thus
presents the case in Farmers' Bulletin 194:

Alfalfa seed is about the size of the seed of red clover, but is
easily distinguished from it by its uniform light olive-green
color, as contrasted with the purple and yellow of clover seed.
Unlike red clover, it varies considerably in shape.

Adulteration. — Alfalfa seed is often adulterated; numerous sam-
ples have recently been received at the seed laboratory for exam-
ination which contain a considerable percentage of yellow trefoil
seed. A few samples have also been received which contain burr
clover.

Yellow Trefoil. — The seed which is most used in this country as
an adulterant of alfalfa is yellow trefoil. It is darker green than
alfalfa, so that a sample containing from 10 to 40 per cent of it
looks brighter and better at the first glance than slightly discolored
alfalfa seed. Yellow trefoil seed, however, can be easily dis-
tinguished by an expert, on examination, through a small lens,
by the differences in shape. Figure 2 shows the typical form of
yellow trefoil seed.

Yellow trefoil is a low-spreading, leguminous plant grown for
sheep pasture on some of the poor, light soils of Europe where
other forage crops do not grow. It is not grown to any extent
in the United States and is of no value where clover or alfalfa
is successful.

Importation of Yellow Trefoil Seed. — On account of the low
price of yellow trefoil seed and its resemblance to alfalfa and red
clover it is imported into this country in considerable quantities
and used as an adulterant of both these seeds. During the six
months from June 30 to December 31, 1903, 110,760 pounds of yel-

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 443

low trefoil were imported and practically all was used to adul-
terate alfalfa and red clover seed.

Chilean Lucern. — Under the name of Chilean lucern, or luzerne,
burr clover is used as an adulterant »f alfalfa seed in Germany
and has recently been found in seed offered for sale in the United
States. It is obtained from the woolen factories in Germany
which use Chilean wool. Burr clover grows abundantly in Chile,
and the burrs catch in the wool as the sheep are pasturing. In
the process of combing the wool the burrs are removed, and the
seed is afterwards cleaned and put on the market to be used
as an adulterant of alfalfa seed.

This seed is similar to that of alfalfa in shape, and though
slightly larger and lighter in color, it lends itself most readily to
use an an adulterant. There are two species occurring in about
equal quantities, which are apparently the ones common on the
Pacific coast of the United States (Medicago arabica and Medicago
dentlculata) .

Color of Dead Seed. — A mixture of dead seed can easily be de-
tected by the color. Fresh seed which will grow is light olive-
green and when rubbed in the hands gives a bright, glossy sur-
face. Whenever alfalfa seed is any shade of brown it will not
grow and is worthless. If a sample contains any considerable
percentage of discolored seed it should not be accepted.

Weed Seeds. — The best grades of alfalfa seed contain com-
paratively few weed seeds. The low grades, however, which are
mostly screenings, often carry large numbers of weed seeds.
Dodder is the weed most destructive to the alfalfa plant. It is
a parasite having no leaves and appears as a tangled mass of fine
yellow stems winding about and clinging to other plants. The
seed germinates in the ground and sends up a slender stem that
winds around the alfalfa plant to which it attaches itself. The
dodder root soon dies, while the stems continue to grow and
thrive on the juices of the alfalfa until it has matured seed or
the alfalfa has been killed.

Dodder occurs over most of the area where alfalfa is grown,
except in the extreme northern states. When once established ft
is very destructive and difficult to get rid of. The only effectual
way to combat it is to mow the infested area and burn the cut-
ting. There are two species which are about equally common
and destructive to alfalfa and red clover. The seeds of these
are of nearly the same size and are not easily distinguished.
The larger dodder seeds approach the smaller alfalfa seeds in
size and therefore are difficult to clean out thoroughly. In buy-
ing alfalfa seed it is essential to know that it is free from dodder.

444 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

Cost of High-Grade and Low-Grade Seed. — It is usually safe to
assume , that the highest grade and consequently the highest-
priced seed offered by any one firm is the cheapest to buy. In
the high grades of alfalfa the seed that will grow costs less per
pound than that in the low grades. When samples from different
firms are to be compared a careful estimate of the quality of each
should be made and the best quality selected. A good grade of
alfalfa should contain not over 2 per cent of impurities, and
from 90 to 95 per cent of the seed should grow.

Home Testing. — It is difficult for one who is not accustomed to
handling alfalfa seed to determine accurately its percentage of
purity, especially the amount of dodder and other weed seeds
present, but a general estimate of the quality of unadulterated
seed can be formed on a basis of color. The percentage of seed
that will grow can easily be determined by means of a simple
tester.

Mix the seed thoroughly and count out 100 or 200 seeds just as
they come, making no selection. Put them between a fold of cot-
ton flannel or some similar cloth, taking care not to let the seeds
touch one another. Lay the cloth on a plate, moisten it well,
but do not saturate it, cover with another plate and keep at a
temperature of about 70° F. Every day count and take out the
sprouted seeds. In from four to six days all of the good seeds
will have sprouted, and the percentage of seed that will grow
is known.

Free Tests. — The seed laboratory of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture is prepared without charge to make tests
of alfalfa seed and of other seeds, both for germination and
for mechanical purity. The test for mechanical purity consists
in determining the percentage of pure seed and of weed seeds,
including dodder. All samples sent for testing should be addressed
to the Seed Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wash-
ington, D. C., and should be accompanied as far as possible by
the following information : Name and address of seller, year and
place of growth, price paid, and name and address of sender.

Summary. — The average quality of alfalfa seed on the market
is frequently low.

A considerable quantity of adulterated and dead seed is being
offered for sale.

Do not buy alfalfa seed that is adulterated or that is browD in
color.

Do not buy alfalfa seed containing the seeds of dodder.

Get samples and test them, or have them tested, in all cases
before buying,

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 445

Seed Growing in the Semi-Arid West. — Within
recent years there has been a remarkable migration
of people from the older states to the semi-arid re-
gions of the West. They have gone there under the
belief that the climate has changed and that from
now on there will be enough rainfall for crop-grow-
ing with the usual grains and farm crops. Many
hope to do these things by the practice of dry farm-
ing methods, of intensive culture and moisture con-
servation.

I am most unwilling to dampen any man/s en-
thusiasm or lessen his faith in his chosen habitat,
yet I can not help but remember that I have seen
the same thing attempted at least once before, and
the climate then did not stay changed, but perversely
became dry again, aridity resuming its ancient sway.
Yet I remember in my own desert home, in a region
too dry to attempt any farming at all except irriga-
tion farming, stray alfalfa plants grew and bloomed
and made great wealth of seed. In fact I had a scat-
tered row of alfalfa plants 30 miles long beside the
trail to the ranch, where a sack borne on a burro's
back had leaked a tiny stream as the animal jogged
its slow way across the desert trail. Only here and
there a plant grew and survived, but those that got
rooted lived along, year after year, bloomed and
made seed. I often thought then, near 30 years ago,
that the desert could do one thing well, if nothing
more : it could grow alfalfa seed.

Every bit of the semi-arid West, from the limit of

446 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

profitable corn production to the edge of the sage
brush, and even beyond this a little way, can with
right management produce alfalfa seed. And this
alfalfa seed growing may pay as well as good grain
crops will pay in more rainy lands. I am fortunate
in having at command a careful study of this whole
subject by two master minds, Charles J. Brand and
J. M. Westgate, of the Bureau of Plant Industry,
Department of Agriculture, which is submitted :

The growing of alfalfa in cultivated rows for seed is of more
recent origin in this country than is the production of hay by
this method. John Spurrier, in a book entitled "The Practical
Farmer," published at Wilmington, Del., in 1793, appears to be
the first American writer to mention the growing of alfalfa in
cultivated rows. The cultivation was designed to retard the de-
velopment of weeds, which often prove very destructive to the
broadcasted seedings of alfalfa in the Middle and South Atlantic
States. This method is still practiced to a slight extent in a
few places in the South, where, however, the climate is too
humid for the successful production of alfalfa seed.

In England as early as 1730, Jethro Tull, the inventor of the
drill and the originator of tillage of farm crops in the modern
sense, advocated and practiced the growing of alfalfa (lucern) in
rows. His teachings first appeared in his "Specimens." Later,
in 1829, these were republished by Cobbett in a work entitled
"Tull's Horse-Hoeing Husbandry."

What was apparently the first attempt to grow alfalfa for
seed in cultivated rows in this country was made by what was
then known as the Section of Seed and Plant Introduction of the
United States Department of Agriculture. Several contract fields
of Turkestan alfalfa were seeded in wide rows in different parts
of the Great Plains area in 1903. The poor seeding habits of
Turkestan alfalfa when grown in this country, together with the
fact that the plants were grown much too thickly in the rows,
greatly handicapped the logical development of this method.

The application of the row method of cultivation has been
suggested by a number of American experimenters, including
Prof. W. J. Spillman, Prof. W. M. Hays, Prof. W. A. Wheeler,
Mr. W. M. Jardine and Mr. C. S. Scofield. Of these only Prof>

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 447

Wheeler has used the method on an experimental and field scale
and his results are confirmatory to those presented in this paper.

The work on which the conclusions here presented are based
has been conducted at various experiment farms of this bureau
and on the farms of Lewis Brott, Sextorp, Neb.; E. Bartholo-
mew, Stockton, and Dr. W. A. Workman, Ashland, Kan.

Row cultivation for seed growing has been in use for a num-
ber of years in the vineyard regions of southern Germany, par-
ticularly in Baden and Bavaria, in the production of seed of
Alt-Deutsche Frankische luzerne, a well-recognized German
strain. It is said that alfalfa is grown in cultivated rows for
seed in parts of Russia, where hand cultivators prove an ef-
fective and practical means of holding the weeds in check and
of conserving soil moisture.

The method has been employed for a number of years by Dr.
L. Trabut, government botanist of Algeria. Fairchild describes
a method of growing wheat between alfalfa rows in Algeria
under light rainfall, where it has been found possible to pro-
duce a crop of wheat between the wide rows of alfalfa in alter-
nate years. The practical value of this method for the semi-
arid portions of the United States was indicated in the publica-
tion mentioned, without, however, making any direct reference
to the seed-producing possibilities of alfalfa sown in cultivated
rows under such conditions.

Principles of Seed Production. — Although alfalfa has been
grown increasingly in the West since 1854 or 1855 little has
been done to develop a rational seed industry. It is a matter
of common observation that even in recognized seed-producing
sections the seed crop is very uncertain. A study of some of
the factors that cause success or failure has indicated some of
the underlying principles affecting the production of profitable
seed crops. In Bulletin 118 of this bureau attention was directed
to the fact that cultivated alfalfa is not a homogeneous species,
but is composed of numerous races, strains, varieties, and even
sub-species. These vary greatly in many characters, and espe-
cially in their seed-producing capacity, no pure varieties of
known high value comparable with those we have of corn, wheat,
and other crops having as yet been established. It has also
been noted that the individuals constituting these diverse races,
elementary species, or whatever they may be called, exhibit great
variation among themselves. This is particularly true of their
ability to set seed. To overcome the source of error resulting
from this diversity in individual plants the method of vegetative
propagation described by Westgate and Oliver, of the Bureau of
Plant Industry, has been used in a portion of this work.

448 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

It has often been noted that as a rule isolated alfalfa plants
set seed far more profusely than those in all but the thinnest
stands. Observations on this point have been made in various
parts of the Great Plains and intermountain areas and in the
farther Southwest. On the Arlington Experimental Farm, near
Washington, D. C., an experiment was performed to determine
the effect of different degrees of isolation on the seed-setting
ability of alfalfa. In this experiment, cuttings from a heavy-
seeding plant were rooted in the greenhouse- and later set out
at varying intervals. Inasmuch as these plants were propagated
vegetatively from the same mother plant, they did not show the
individual variation mentioned above that would have entered into
the experiment had seedling plants been utilized.

The plants occupying a space equivalent to a 7-inch square pro-
duced a maximum of 38 pods, while those having at their com-
mand a space equal to an 11-inch square produced a maximum of
96 pods. The highest number of pods formed on plants grown in
rows 39 inches apart and 18 inches apart in the rows was 505.

It will be noted that the yields were in almost direct proportion
to the areas occupied. However, it was evident that the plants
having the greatest distance between them had not utilized fully
their allotted space. This was accounted for by the fact that it
was their first season's growth. An adjoining two-year-old cutting
from another plant of similar seed-producing tendencies produced
2,080 pods, and this without utilizing all of the space of 18 inches
in the 39-inch row assigned to it. Although part of this difference
may have been due to inherent capacity, the chief explanation for
it must be sought in the firm establishment of the plant and its
greater maturity.

Just why the isolation of plants increases the production of seed
has not been fully determined, but it is apparent that one of the
factors involved is the increased amount of sunlight available to
the plant. It has often been observed that trees grown on the
banks of irrigation ditches in alfalfa fields or along the margins
of fields always interfere with normal seed production as far as
the influence of their shade extends. In the course of an experi-
ment on the seed setting of alfalfa it was found that partial shad-
ing materially reduced the quantity of seed produced by plants
not already receiving more than the optimum amount of sunlight.

When alfalfa plants have sufficient space for full development
they have approximately equal illumination on all sides. With
the plants so far apart that when fully developed they barely
occupy the ground the potential seed-producing surface exposed
on an acre is nearly double that of a thick stand. In the latter,

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 449

because of crowding, the plants are unable to produce seed, ap-
parently on account of shading by closely associated individuals.

In addition to the injurious influence of shade, the crowding
of plants interferes with seed production by depriving the plants
of sufficient moisture to enable them to mature their seed properly.
This, of course, is true only in areas of light rainfall. On the
other hand, in sections where irrigation is practiced thick stands
by checking evaporation bring about such moist conditions in
fields as to promote unfavorable conditions and so prevent maxi-
mum yields of seed.

The basal shoots which usually appear when the plant begins to
bloom are developed at the expense of the seed crop. The energy
that should be devoted solely to the maturing of the seed is di-
verted by this new growth. Perhaps the most important factor
influencing the development of these basal shoots which are to
form the succeeding crop is the water content of the soil. If the
moisture supply be ample, the basal shoots commence their growth
about the time the plant comes into bloom. This is disastrous to
the seed crop, and for this reason it is necessary that there be a
sufficient shortage of moisture at this time to retard or prevent
altogether the development of these shoots. In the seed-produc-
ing sections of the more humid parts of the Great Plains area
profitable crops of alfalfa seed are usually obtained only in the
occasional seasons of drought so extreme that the yield of other
crops is greatly reduced.

Drought is used here in a qualified sense. There must of course
be enough moisture in the soil to enable the seed to mature fully;
otherwise it will be deficient in germinating power. On the other
hand, the soil must not contain enough moisture to force into
growth the crown buds that produce the succeeding crop.

The favorable conditions for the production of alfalfa seed
which prevail in the semi-arid regions are due principally to the
presence there of a favorable adjustment of the supply of moist-
ure in the soil to the moisture requirements of the plant when
grown for seed. This is especially true when the plants are grown
in cultivated rows, as the moisture content of the soil can then
be regulated to some degree by proper cultivation.

Insects and the Setting of Seed. — Insect visits are essential to
the proper pollination of the alfalfa flower. If fertile seed is to
be produced in any quantity it is necessary that a certain ex-
plosive mechanism within the flower be released. The release of
this mechanism, whether it be accomplished by insects or other-
wise, is popularly called tripping.

Exneriments and observations both by the writers and by other

450 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

investigators indicate that practically no seed is produced if the
flowers are not tripped. Bumblebees (Bom'bus spp.) are gener-
ally believed to be the most efficient of all insects in setting off
the explosive mechanism, and hence in bringing about pollination.
Honeybees, though not nearly so effective as bumblebees, should
not be underrated in this connection. It is a practice in some
parts of the country to place beehives along the margins of al-
falfa fields intended for seed. Beekeepers follow with their col-
onies fields planted for seed, for the purpose of getting tne honey.
This is mutually beneficial, as larger yields of both seed and honey
result. Wild bees (Andrena spp. and Megachile spp.) and various
butterflies are also valuable agents in pollinating alfalfa flowers.

That the explosion of alfalfa flowers may be accomplished by
other means than insect visitation is quite well known. The in-
sertion of a more or less pointed instrument into the throat of the
corolla has often been resorted to in studying the tripping
mechanism of individual flowers. Roberts and Freeman describe
a method of exploding flowers in large numbers by rolling the
head carefully but firmly between the thumb and the first and
second fingers. This trips the flowers then at the proper stage
of maturity. Tripping on a still more wholesale scale may be
done by grasping the entire plant between the hands at successive
intervals. In this case it is best to work from the bottom toward
the top of the plant, exerting the required pressure at the proper
intervals.

It has been found that flowers tripped by any form of manip-
ulation set seed readily, while other flowers left unexploded and
from which insects are excluded rarely set seed.

As only a slight pressure on the keel is necessary to trip the
flower artificial methods may be resorted to as a means of sup-
plementing the natural process as accomplished by insects. In
an experiment at the Arlington experimental farm in which the
method mentioned of exerting pressure successively over the whole
plant was used, the yield of pods was increased 25^ per cent
over adjoining rows not thus treated. At Chico, Cal., an increase
of 129 per cent in the number of pods resulted. Although greater
seed yields also result, two experiments at least indicate that the
increase in the number of seeds is not in as high proportion as is
the increase in the number of pods.

Further experiments and more exact observations under vary-
ing conditions in different sections will be necessary to deter-
mine just when sufficiently increased yields of seed may be ex-
pected to justify the expense of the undertaking. Any alfalfa seed
producer may test this method experimentally on a small scale.

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 451

A hundred plants may be counted off and tripped by hand three
times a week during the blooming period, using either of the
methods previously described. Another hundred plants of similar
seeding habits should be left to be exploded by insects. Any
greater production of seed on a given number of heads on the
manipulated plants as compared with the same number of heads
on those not so manipulated may with reasonable safety be at-
tributed to artificial tripping.

If the increased yields which have been obtained in the pre-
liminary experiments are equaled in seed-producing sections, it is
probable that means will be devised for exploding the flowers on
a large scale. The only sections in which this method will be
likely to prove profitable are those where for any reason proper
insects are not present in sufficient numbers to explode a large
percentage of the flowers.

Areas Adapted for Seed. — The experiments thus far carried out
in the production of seed in cultivated rows have been located
principally in the semi-arid portions of the Great Plains, in the
intermountain area, and in the Palouse country of eastern Wash-
ington. It is probable that the method will be found to be
adapted to many of the semi-arid sections of the country which
have a rainfall of from 14 to 20 inches, and possibly also ta irri-
gated sections where the supply of water is insufficient for the
production of full hay crops. It is also recommended for trial
in irrigated sections having water for but half or less of the nor-
mal acreage of alfalfa in the district, and' also for fields lying
slightly higher than the ditch lines, but which have the water
level moderately near the surface.

Experiments in humid sections indicate that even there row
cultivation makes possible much higher yields of seed than are
produced by fields sown broadcast or drilled in the ordinary
manner. It is doubtful, however, whether even this method will
insure the production of paying crops of alfalfa seed under humid
conditions.

Row cultivation under conditions of ample rainfall is more
valuable as a method of weed control than for increasing seed
yields. At the time when pod formation is going on, a certain
amount of dr,y weather and heat is necessary to insure the great-
est production of alfalfa seed, even when the plants are isolated.
This method promises to be more successful in sections where the
annual rainfall is from 14 to 20 inches than elsewhere. Where
the precipitation ranges from 20 to 25 inches thin seeding by
broadcasting or drilling in the ordinary way may be preferable
to row cultivation. Fields sown by either of these methods can

452 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

be kept up at much less expense. Less frequent cultivation will
be necessary, and when needed may be given with an alfalfa ren-
ovator or a disk, straight-tcothed, or slant-toothed harrow. Under
these methods, as in row cultivation, the stand must be very thin
if the best results are to be obtained.

Selection of Soil. — In the semi-arid sections the ordinary arable
land, such as is used for the common farm crops, will prove well
adapted to this work so far as fertility is concerned. Inasmuch
as the chief purpose of cultivation is moisture conservation, soils
of large moisture-holding capacity should be used when there is
opportunity for choice. Care should be taken to avoid fields too
alkaline for ordinary crops.

Location of Fields. — In many parts of the semi-arid sections
alfalfa fields are located in swales or draws -or on -creek bottoms
where the moisture conditions are the best that are available.
Where the rainfall is very light it will be safest to utilize such
places for growing alfalfa in rows for seed. Where the precipita-
tion is greater or the run-off which the field secures from the
surrounding area is sufficient, alfalfa fields, for either seed or
hay, may be sown thinly either broadcast or with the drill, thus
obviating a large part of the expense of cultivation. It may be
safely assumed that alfalfa in cultivated rows will succeed under
somewhat drier conditions than fields grown by ordinary methods.
In those parts of the semi-arid sections where the rainfall is rela-
tively heavy it is probable that even the highest and driest por-
tions of the farm may be successfully utilized by the row method.

Preparation of the Seed Bed. — The preparation of the ground
should be such as to rid it as far as possible of weeds and at the
same time to provide a seed bed which has become well firmed
by settling or rolling, or both. In the drier portions of the semi-
arid regions summer-fallowing the preceding season may be neces-
sary to provide the soil with the moisture required to insure
prompt germination of the seed. This implies keeping the field
in the cleanest possible culture during the previous summer.
Weeds must be controlled and proper tillage must be given after
each rain. The soil mulch thus maintained will check evapora-
tion and in the following year place at the disposal of the young
plants the greater part of two years' rainfall.

In the North, where spring planting is advisable, surface tillage
must be continued until seeding time. In many cases it will not
be necessary to summer-fallow if the field is devoted to a culti-
vated crop, such as corn, during the preceding year.

In the Great Plains country, when the ground is plowed, im-
mediate harrowing and rolling should follow the plowing. In

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 453

addition, sub-surface packing is advised for all spring-plowed land,
but may often be omitted in the case of fall plowing, as natural
settling supplemented by harrowing and rolling usually pro-
duces a sufficiently firm seed bed. If firming is not done there
will be at the bottom of the new furrow a dry, porous stratum
of the old topsoil. This condition, which is present in all freshly
plowed fields where the surface is dry, may result fatally to the
young alfalfa plants, as their roots can not make the necessary
development in this layer, containing dry soil, clods, and air
spaces. If the field is not to be left fallow long enough for
harrowing and natural settling to make the ground sufficiently
firm below, this injurious condition should be remedied by sub-
surface packing with suitable implements. It is necessary that
there be sufficient moisture in the soil at seeding time to enable
the plant to make a sufficiently rapid growth to permit of surface
tillage without covering up the young plants.

The purpose of subsurface packing is not to prevent loss of
moisture, but to re-establish the capillary column which was in-
terrupted by the plowing under of the dry topsoil. Unless this
is done the moisture from the lower soil can not reach the roots
of the plant. Immediate harrowing also prevents considerable
loss of moisture from the new topsoil.

In regions where the greater part of the annual rainfall comes
during the winter and where the ground does not freeze to a
great depth or remain frozen for a long period, as is the case in
a large part of the intermountain area and in the southern part
of the Great Plains, it may be undesirable to level and firm im-
mediately after plowing, as is indicated for the middle and north-
ern Great Plains region. This applies only to fall-plowed land.
The reason for this is obvious, as both these operations may work
against the conservation of the winter precipitation by preventing
penetration and promoting run-off. Rough plowed land under
the conditions described holds a large portion of the moisture due
to rain or melted snow and gives it an opportunity to soak in
after each thaw. Spring-plowed fields in the intermountain area
and southern Great Plains should be given the treatment previ-
ously indicated for similar fields in the colder portions of the
Great Plains.

A promising method of securing the desired seed bed, developed
by Dr. W. .1. Workman, of Ashland, Kan., has been found to
give satisfactory results on buffalo-grass sod. The principal diffi-
culty in the growing of alfalfa in cultivated rows for seed is the
weediness of the ground during the first season after seeding. Tnis
is avoided by the utilization of sod land. A 16-inch sod plow is

454 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

used to cut a furrow 21/£ inches deep through the sod, a stirring
plow following immediately in the furrow left by the breaking
plow and leaving a furrow about 8 inches deep. On the next
round the breaking plow puts the strip of sod in the bottom of the
deep preceding furrow, where it is completely covered by the new
soil turned up by the stirring plow. The harrow is kept at work
to smooth and firm the ground as fast as it is turned, and the
alfalfa is seeded with the grain drill while the soil is still moist.

Prevention of the Drifting of Soil. — If the ground is so sandy
as to be in danger of drifting or blowing during high winds, it is
the best practice to seed alternate rows of oats or barley and to
make these rows. run at right angles to the direction of the pre-
vailing winds. The first cultivation of the alfalfa plants will
destroy this grain nurse crop, which should in no event be left
long enough to injure the young alfalfa plants.

Another method of avoiding the danger of blowing out or
drifting in a sandy soil is to sow the alfalfa with a walking
garden drill between corn or sorghum rows after the last cul-
tivation. This method has been tried with success under irriga-
tion on the experiment farm conducted by the Office of Western
Agricultural Extension near Fallon, Nev. In attempting to use
the method under dry-farming conditions careful attention must
be given to the supply of moisture available for both plants, and
as it has not yet been put into actual practice in the semi-arid
sections it should first be tested on a small scale.

A third method has been suggested by Dr. H. L. Shantz, of
the Office of Alkali and Drought Resistant Plant Breeding In-
vestigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, which may prove useful
when sod land is used. This method consists of leaving narrow
strips of virgin sod at suitable intervals through the fields at
right angles to the prevailing direction of the most destructive
winds.

A method applicable especially to old fields which show a ten-
dency to blow during high winds has been suggested by N.
Schmitz, of the Office of Forage Crop Investigations, Bureau of
Plant Industry. This method calls for the seeding of the al-
falfa in shallow listed furrows running at right angles to the
direction of the prevailing heavy winds. It is necessary that
these furrows be shallow, or heavy rains which sometimes occur
may bury the seedling plants. If the planting does not take place
at the time of listing or if the planting attachment to the lister
can not be adapted to this work, a corn drill or check-row planter
may be used by making the necessary alterations in the plates.
This method of listing may also prove efficient in catching the

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 455

snow during the winter preceding the planting. Spring harrow-
ing will level the ridges if they are too high at planting time.
Choice of Seed. — Other things being equal, seed from plants
grown without irrigation should be used in preference to any
other. The relatively small quantity required when this method
is used justifies increased precaution and expense to obtain the
best seed available. Some few strains of Turkestan alfalfa
have given better yields of hay than the ordinary kind under
semi-arid conditions. However, none of them have shown satis-
factory seed-producing capacity. Special dry-land strains of al-
falfa that have been developed through unconscious selection in
some of the older dry-farming centers of the West practically al-
ways exceed in seed production the Turkestan and all other
forms of alfalfa thus far introduced. Whenever these kinds can
be secured they should be preferred by the farmer. Seed from
the drier parts of western Kansas and Nebraska, from the dry
farms of Cache Valley, and from the Levan Ridge near Nephi,
Tjtah, will probably produce the most satisfactory results.

Method of Seeding in Rows. — Several methods have been used
in experiments, but the best results have been obtained by sowing
seed in rows about 3 feet apart. The distance between rows
should be governed by the moisture supply that can be counted
on and by the width of the machinery available for use in cul-
tivating. If seeding is done with an ordinary grain drill with
shoes 8 inches apart, the stopping up of 4 out of every 5 holes
will make the rows 40 inches apart. If, on the other hand, 3 out
of every 4 holes are stopped up, the rows will be 32 inches
apart. The wider distance is recommended, especially in sections
where the rainfall is very scant.

Another method which has given good results, especially in
hay growing, and which may often prove useful where it is pro-
posed to use the same field for both hay and seed production, is
that of sowing double instead of single rows. This can be ac-
complished by leaving 2 holes open and stopping up 3 or 4
holes across the drill. The double rows will then be 8 inches
apart, while the space left for intertillage will be 32 or 40 inches
wide. Experiments with this method which have been under
way for two seasons on the San Antonio Experiment Farm of the
Office of Western Agricultural Extension indicate that this method
will be useful under some conditions. It has also been used with
success under Prof. Wheeler's direction on the state substation
farm at Highmore, S. D.

Any good garden drill will give satisfactory results. If suoh
an implement is > not available it may be found advisable to pro-
cure one for use in this work.

456 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

An ordinary corn drill such as is used in drilling corn in listed
furrows can be used by babbitting up the holes in the corn plate
and drilling new ones of proper size to drop about 15 alfalfa
seeds. If a blank plate is at hand, holes may be drilled into that
large enough to drop from 10 to 20 seeds. The germination value
of the seed and all factors that tend to lessen the ultimate num-
ber of plants must be considered in determining how thickly to
seed. The holes should be close enough to drop seeds at intervals
of from 8 to 12 inches.

Lewis Brott, a pioneer dry-land alfalfa seed producer in western
Nebraska, has had successful results by using an onion seed
plate in a corn drill.

Rate of Seeding and Thickness of Stand. — In mature stands
of alfalfa in cultivated rows the plants should average about 1
foot apart in the row. To insure this, it is necessary that the
plants be much thicker at first, as their mortality under dry
conditions is very high. Satisfactory results have been secured
by seeding the alfalfa with an ordinary grain drill so set that it
would sow 12 pounds of seed per acre with all the holes in opera-
tion. With 4 out of every 5 holes stopped up, approximately
2 2-5 pounds of seed to the acre will be sown.

The stand in a cultivated row need be no thicker even at first
than that of the rows in ordinary drilled fields, though the rows
of the latter are usually only about 8 inches apart. Where the
conditions are not favorable, it is usually best to seed more
thickly at first than is necessary and to thin out the plants subse-
quently to the desired stand. As much as 7 pounds of seed to
the acre have been sown in 36-inch rows without producing too
thick a stand for satisfactory results during the first season.
This rate of seeding is equivalent to 30 pounds per acre drilled in
the usual way under conditions of sufficient moisture with the
rows 8 inches apart.

If difficulty is experienced in making the drill feed slowly
enough, it may be overcome for the most part by mixing corn
chop with the alfalfa seed or by reducing the feed in the grain
drill with strips of leather.

Millet or other seed of similar size may be rendered ungermina-
ble by heating thoroughly in an oven for several hours and then
mixed with the alfalfa seed to aid in securing any desired rate
of seeding. Sawdust and dry soil are also frequently used for
this purpose.

It is a very good plan to test the drill first on bare soil with
the shoes not touching the ground. In this way it is possible to
observe the rate at which the seed is being dropped, and thus a
proper regulation of the seeding can be secured. There should

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 457

be an average of from 4 to 10 plants to the running foot. It has
been too often the case that the stand in the row has been too
thick for the best development of the individual plants. In such
instances cross-harrowing after a majority of the plants have
become well established will be found to be very effective in thin-
ning out the stand.

Seeding in Check Rows to Permit Gross-Cultivation. — Limited
experiments with seeding in check rows indicate that with heavy
seed-producing plants of satisfactory character very good yields
of seed may be secured with hills 30 inches apart in the row.
This distance permits of cross-cultivation, but is rather narrow
for most cultivating machinery. The plants being thus isolated on
all sides, the production of a maximum seed crop is possible.
No practical means have yet been devised for seeding alfalfa in
check rows on a large scale. It is probable that an ordinary
check-row corn planter can be adapted to this work. It would
be necessary to babbitt up the holes in the plate and then rim
them out to drop 10 to 20 seeds in a place. The surviving plants
can later on be thinned to the best plant in the hill. It is possi-
ble that alfalfa seeded in rows with a wheat drill could be
thinned out to practically uniform distances by cross-cultivation
with an ordinary corn plow run at right angles to the rows. The
plants, with the exception of a few midway between the two sets
of shovels, would thus be destroyed.

Time of Heeding. — Early spring seeding will usually yield the
best results, as more favorable moisture conditions for the
germination and growth of the young plants are present at this
time. However, if the soil can be brought into proper condition of
tilth and moisture content, seeding can take place during the late
summer if the danger of winterkilling is not too great. In a
climate of moderate severity if a 6-inch growth is made during
the fall the plants will probably go through the winter safely,
and will start out the following spring in much better condition
to compete with the weeds than will spring-seeded plants. In
semi-arid regions it is usually impracticable, however, to seed
alfalfa in late summer or early fall owing to the lack of moisture
necessary to insure prompt germination.

In the Dakotas and Montana, June seeding will probably give
the best results. If seeding is deferred until early summer and
the soil is harrowed or otherwise treated to keep it in proper
tilth, most of the weed seeds near the surface will germinate.
The last cultivation given the land before the alfalfa is sown
kills this young growth, thus greatly reducing the trouble with
weeds during the first season.

Treatment of the Stand the First Season. — The well-settled

458 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

moist seed bed necessary for the growth of alfalfa furnishes ideal
conditions for the rapid development of weeds. Several cultiva-
tions are necessary to hold even those of the first season in
check. A 2-row cultivator provided with narrow shovels is the
most practicable machine for this work. Fenders, or, better, a
box sled, should be provided to avoid the danger of covering up
the young alfalfa plants, and care should be taken to ridge up the
rows as little as possible, as this will interfere with mowing op-
erations. After the stand has become firmly established ridging
can be readily corrected by cross-harrowing. Mr. Bartholomew
has devised a harrow of adjustable width which is very useful
both in controlling weeds and keeping up the necessary surface
mulch.

The stand may be much thicker during the first season than in
subsequent seasons. Some of the plants will be destroyed by cul-
tivation, and the less drought resistant and less hardy plants
will be killed by the dryness of the summer and the cold of the first
winter. Unless plants are so thick as to crowd one another no
thinning should be done by cross-harrowing while the plants are
still small.

Experiments in eastern Colorado, eastern Washington and Cali-
fornia indicate that under very dry conditions the plants should
not be clipped the first season if they are to make their greatest
individual development. On the other hand, in the Willamette
Valley of Oregon it has been found necessary to clip during the
first season. In any event, clipping, if undertaken at all, should
be with the sickle bar of the mower set high, and probably should
not be resorted to unless it is found impossible to hold the
weeds in check by the ordinary cultivations. As there is still
some uncertainty regarding clipping the first season, it is sug-
gested that farmers leave a portion of the field undipped to dem-
onstrate the best practice under various conditions. Should the
plants begin to set seed, clipping will be advisable. In cases
where it is practicable, hand weeding or hoeing may be used to
supplement horse cultivation.

Treatment of the Stand After the First Season. — The treatment
of the stand during subsequent seasons will differ very little from
that of the first season. The plants should average not more
than four to the foot. In the spring or early summer of the
second season, if the natural methods of thinning out have not
been severe enough, it will be necessary to harrow crosswise
lightly to accomplish a further reduction in thickness of stand.
It may also be worth while to go over the rows with a hoe as
soon as the plants commence to set seed, cutting out undesirable
individuals. This operation will involve considerable time and

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 459

expense. However, as there is such great variation in the value
of different plants, this procedure may be justified at least until
strains of known high value for the conditions at hand have been
selected and propagated for use on a field scale.

Row-sown alfalfa fields that have not been properly thinned
will not give maximum seed yields on account of the various in-
jurious effects of crowding, which have already been discussed.

If it is impracticable to reduce the stand by hoeing or by use
of the ordinary harrow it may be done by cross-disking with a
disk harrow. The disks should be so adjusted as to cut out the
proper number of plants, which will depend, of course, upon their
original thickness in the rows.

The Right Crop to Leave for Seed. — Experiments at Stockton,
Kan., show clearly that at that place no crop later than the second
will yield returns that will be at all satisfactory. Retarded
growth during the dry part of the summer defers ripening until
so late in the season that cold nights prevent the maturing of the
seed. On the other hand, if the first spring growth is devoted to
seed production the flowers are likely to become overmature be-
fore the best season for seed development arrives. Frequently
also, largely on account of the variation in location of the zero
point of growth in the different individuals composing any strain,
the first spring growth matures very unevenly.

For these reasons it is recommended, especially for the Great
Plains and the cooler parts of the intermountain area, that the
first growth of the second and subsequent years be clipped so
early that the time of seed setting will fall in midsummer or
slightly later, when favorablfe conditions are likely to obtain.

The problem as to what crop should be left for seed under the
varying conditions of different areas has not yet been fully
worked out. It may be well for seed growers to try by simple ex-
periments along this line to get definite information on this
point. One row may be given an early clipping and then left to
go to seed; another a later clipping, while still another may be
left for seed after the first crop has been cut for hay, and so on.
The temperature and moisture requirements will largely deter-
mine the best practice in this regard, but the necessary presence
of suitable insects must not be overlooked.

Harvesting the Seed Crop. — The harvesting of alfalfa seed
grown in cultivated rows does not differ materially from that in
broadcasted fields. With the rows 3 feet apart a mowing ma-
chine with a 6-foot cutter bar is necessary if two rows are to be
cut in each swath. This arrangement does away with the neces-
sity of having an extra man to remove the newly cut bunches
from the path of the mower at the next round. A mower with a

460 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

5-foot cut has been found to be too short to be satisfactory in
cutting two rows at once.

It is probable that a center-cut mower with one horse attached
at each end of the cutter bar will prove better adapted than even
the 6-foot side-draft machine.

In planning to sow alfalfa for seed in cultivated rows the
farmer should make his plans from the very beginning with a
view to using to the best advantage the available machinery. In
adapting the grain drill to secure the proper distance between
rows, the mower with which the cutting is to be done must be
kept in mind, as well as the cultivators that are to be used in
controlling the weeds and keeping up the dust mulch.

Thrashing may be done either from the field or from the stack.
The latter method is probably the better, as curing in the stack
seems to improve the quality of the seed. The haste necessary in
order to keep the machines busy when thrashing is done from
the field results inconsiderable waste. Whichever method is em-
ployed in handling the seed crop, it is necessary that a tight-
bottomed rack be used or there will be much loss of seed. Such
a bottom can be secured by the use of matched flooring or by
spreading canvas or a tarpaulin over the bottom of an ordinary
open rack.

Thrashing may be done in any one of three ways — the regular
alfalfa huller, an ordinary grain separator supplied with a hulling
attachment, or a grain separator fitted out with alfalfa sieves
may be used. The last has been found to give very satisfactory
results. Failure to appreciate the fact that the ordinary thrash-
ing machine can be adapted to the thrashing of alfalfa has re-
sulted in the loss of the seed crop on many fields in sections where
seed production is not often attempted or, if attempted, is suc-
cessful only in abnormal years or where it is carried on inci-
dentally to other farming industries. In using the ordinary
thrasher it is recommended that the concaves be inverted in addi-
tion to inserting the special clover or alfalfa sieves.

Possibilities of Seed Production in Cultivated Rows. — Too much
must not be expected from the method of growing alfalfa de-
scribed in these pages. There are large areas in and around the
regions to which this method is adapted where no amount of cul-
tivation and isolation of the plants will bring success. On the
other hand, there are thousands of acres now lying idle which
with intelligent management will yield profitable crops. Maxi-
mum or bumper crops must not be expected under the prevailing
conditions.

The results obtained in the experiments thus far conducted with
this metnod indicate that it gives especial promise in Utah, in

GROWING ALFALFA SEED.

461

eastern Colorado, and in the western portions of Kansas, Nebraska
and South Dakota. Yields of seed at the rate of 5 bushels to the
acre have been obtained. The possibilities of the method when
only individual plants of large seeding capacity are used is indi-
cated by the fact that plants removed 30 inches each way from
other plants have given yields which if equalled by an acre of
such plants at the same distance apart would rival the seed yield
produced un-der the most favorable conditions in the present seed-
growing sections.

The method is a comparatively new one and should be tested on
its own merits in each area or even in each community. Where
reasonable doubt as to its success under given conditions of rain-
fall exists, growers should at first devote only a small area, say
2 to 5 acres, to row cultivation, increasing the size of the field if
the results justify it.

Seed production under the best conditions is somewhat uncer-
tain. The certainty of profitable yields of hay in most alfalfa-
growing sections deters many farmers from letting their fields
stand for seed. The light yield of hay procurable under ordi-
nary conditions in the semi-arid regions makes the growing of
seed a more promising undertaking than in sections where hay
production is very profitable. It is probable that under very dry
conditions the yield of hay in cultivated rows will also exceed
that of a broad-casted stand. Complete data are not yet at
nand, but calculated yields per acre based on the weight from a
typical rod length of row are given in the accompanying table:

VARIETY.

Green
weight of
hay.

Dry

weight of
hay.

Weight of
seed.

Dry-land alfalfa (Brott's)

2,672 Ibs.

1,154 Ibs.

167 Ibs.

Commercial sand lucern (S. P. I. No. 20451)
Turkestan alfalfa (S. P. 1. No 18751). ...

3,463 Ibs.
2,141 Ibs.

1,359 Ibs.
908 Ibs.

143 Ibs.
62 Ibs.

The yields of hay given in this table are from one cutting ob*
tained on an upland field near Potter, Neb., sixteen months after
seeding. The mean annual rainfall at Kimball, the nearest point
for which precipitation records are available, is about 14 inches.
In both 1905 and 1906 this mean was exceeded considerably, but
in 1907 the total was 15 inches, while up to the end of September,
1908, the record showed 13.85 inches. Lewis Brott, on whose farm
this experiment is under way, secured 150 bushels of seed from a
thinly sown, broad-casted field of 50 acres in 1906. This yield was
obtained from an old stand.

Developing Valuable Strains for Seed Production. — Experiments

462 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

under way at the Arlington Experimental Farm, near Washing-
ton, D. C., at Pullman, in the eastern part of the state of Wash-
ington, and elsewhere tend to prove that heavy-seeding propensity
is heritable to a marked degree. In consequence of this, a race
of unusual excellence could readily be secured by propagation of
the progeny of individuals selected on this basis.

When alfalfa is grown in rows to permit of intertillage, it is
much easier to make selections than in broad-casted stands, chief-
ly because individuals in rows have better opportunity for expres-
sion of their normal character. In addition, the comparative isola-
tion of the plants gives readier access to them.

At first thought it mignt appear that in thinning out stands of
row-cultivated alfalfa, only individuals of the greatest seed-produc-
ing capacity should be left. A second thought quickly reveals the
fallacy of this idea, as the ultimate purpose of all alfalfa growing
is hay production. Selection based on seeding habits alone will
develop this side of the plant unduly at the expense of its forage-
producing capacity. The highest type of alfalfa for use in areas
where seed production is the primary purpose in growing the crop
is one that combines satisfactory hay and seed producing quality
in symmetrical proportions.

It is recommended that the selection of desirable plants com-
mence as soon as the preliminary seeding has developed plants
large enough to show their value. The field should be inspected
row by row, and seed of ±he selected plants should be gathered in
advance of the regular harvest. The relatively small quantity of
seed secured in this way should be sown with great care to make
it cover the greatest possible area of ground. The plat of alfalfa
thus secured will produce seed of much greater value than that
obtained from unselected plants. If this method is carried out,
materially increased crops of seed may be secured without de-
tracting from the hay value of the strain. Indeed, both the hay
and the seed producing capacity may be increased by the process.

If it is impracticable to secure sufficient seed from selected
plants for all of the new seedings that one desires to make, the
selected seed should be planted separately, and that harvested
from this plat should be used for subsequent seeding. - This
method will also afford an opportunity for demonstrating the rela-
tive value of selected as compared with unselected seed.

Conclusion. — The results obtained by farmers on a field scale, as
well as of the experiments thus far conducted, indicate that the
growing of alfalfa in cultivated rows for seed in the semi-arid
regions offers every promise of success. The method is recom-
mended particularly for those sections where on account of the

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 463

light rainfall but one crop, or at best two crops, of alfalfa bay
can be secured in each season.

Next to the problem of providing and maintaining a firm,
moist seed bed, the controlling of the weeds offers the greatest
difficulty. This is especially true during the first season, when
their rapid growth makes it difficult to control them by cultiva-
tion owing to the danger of covering the small alfalfa plants.

It is expected that the machinery now in use in most com-
munities can be adapted to the growing of seed in rows. While
the results indicate that the row method of culture will probably
become an efficient factor in the development of the semi-arid
regions, too much must not be expected of it. Those undertaking
the work will be pioneers. To them will fall the task of develop-
ing new devices and special adaptations of the implements at
hand, upon which will depend in large measure the practical suc-
cess of the method.

The alfalfa plant requires but a small supply of moisture when
seed setting is going on. Heavy seed crops are to a large extent
dependent upon the prevalence during this time of a certain
amount of dry weather knd heat. In many parts of the semi-arid
regions an unusually favorable combination of these conditions is
present. The power to regulate by surface tillage the supply of
soil moisture makes the method of growing alfalfa in cultivated
rows for seed of especial romise in those parts of the Great
Plains, intermountain area, and other sections where the average
annual rainfall ranges from 14 to 20 inches.

Alfalfa in Dry Farming. — P. K. Blinn, of the Colo-
rado agricultural college, thus tersely advises those
attempting dry farming:

If a farmer on the dry plains has a well that will furnish just
enough water for fifty head of stock, it would be absurd for him
to try to keep sixty or seventy head on the same supply of water;
and it is equally ridiculous for him to attempt to crowd plants in
soil where the moisture is limited.

Some plants may develop with less moisture than others, but
alfalfa is not one of these plants; on the other hand, it is con-
ceded by all western farmers than an abundance of moisture is
the key to success in growing alfalfa for hay. When it is well
established, alfalfa will endure long droughts and still revive
when water is applied; to that extent it is adapted to dry farming,
and its deep-rooting tendency may enable the crop to grow without
irrigation, if the roots can penetrate to moist soil. There are
many localities on the plains where the run-off from heavy show-

464 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

ers could be collected and diverted by ditches upon soil suited to
alfalfa. Often in a draw, where moisture from the surrounding
prairie is inclined to center, good encouragement for seeding to
alfalfa is offered.

The number of plants to the acre that can be maintained in the
dry farming district has not been determined; but at Rocky Ford,
Col., in 1908, an alfalfa nursery plant, without irrigation for
eleven previous months, produced at the rate of two and three-
fifths tons per acre the first cutting; and then made a second cur-
ting equally as good, that was left for seed. The plat had been
seeded in 1907 to Turkestan alfalfa, and thinned to single plants
twenty inches apart each way. It received one irrigation and
was thoroughly cultivated that year. The growth in 1908 was
made on the moisture that was stored and conserved in the soil,
but such phenomenal yields can hardly be expected without irri-
gation. In the favored spots, before mentioned, alfalfa can cer-
tainly be grown if once established and properly managed.

The growing of alfalfa seed offers great opportunities to the
farmer on dry lands, because the fact has been well demonstrated
that alfalfa yields seed best when the plant makes a slow, dwarfed
growth, when it really lacks for moisture, but has enough to set
and fill the seed. Seed grown under dry conditions has more
vigor and vitality than seed produced with an excess of moisture,
and it is usually free from dodder and other noxious weeds, if the
field has had any. cultural care. There is a demand for dry land
alfalfa seed that far exceeds the supply.

In establishing alfalfa for seed production, under dry conditions,
it is recommended to sow in rows eighteen or twenty inches apart,
with two to three pounds of good seed per acre. A thin, uniform
stand is absolutely necessary, even to thinning, as in beet culture;
but the stand can usually be regulated by the amount of seed
sown. It has been found that plants twenty inches apart will
support each other and not lodge or lay on the ground, as in
thicker or thinner stands. With a good stooling variety like the
Turkestan, plants six to twelve inches apart in the row are thick
enough. If all the seed would germinate, one pound per acre
would be ample, but it is difficult to sow a small quantity uni-
formly in the row, and for seed production it might pay to space
and thin the plants.

The row system is essential, as it permits intertillage to eradi-
cate weeds, and to conserve the moisture, and also allows deep
cultivation to absorb winter storms, affording an opportunity to
furrow out the rows and to direct or divert any surface water that
may or may not be needed. It is the only system that will allow
the tillage that is so essential to all dry farming.

GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 465

The four-row beet cultivator, with its weeding knives and other
attachments, is an ideal tool for cultivating the crop. A four-row
drill adapted to sowing alfalfa seed is needed to complete the
equipment, but the ordinary beet drill, with the addition of an
alfalfa or grass seeder attachment, can be modified to suit the
work. The seed should be sown shallow, not over an inch deep,
and good results have been secured with the common garden drill
by marking out the ground with the rows gauged in sets of four,
to correspond to the four-row cultivator.

Where there is an opportunity to use irrigation or flood water,
tne field should be ditched in every other row, and the furrows
"logged out" with a sled made of short logs, 8 to 10 inches in di-
ameter, and from 3 to 4 feet long, spaced to fit two furrows, so
that the water may be run through as quickly as possible, for the
alfalfa crop for seed will need as little water as can be applied.
A short rush of water after a sudden shower can be delivered
over considerable ground if the field is properly ditched.

BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STOR-
ING HAY.

Alfalfa hay east of the Missouri Eiver ought al-
ways to be put under cover. In very truth it ought
to be put under cover in any climate humid enough

-/ \

2X6" NAIL GIRTS

16'

5IDE ELEVATION OF
PART OF FRAMC

V

\

\

to grow the crop .without irrigation. When one
builds a barn or shed for storing alfalfa he should
consider a few basal truths.

(466)

BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STORING HAY. 467

Desirable Conditions. — It is essential that the mow
have depth. It is costly to roof a shallow mow. The
mow should have no cross ties. Alfalfa is much

468 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

easier put in with modern sling carriers if there are
no cross ties to obstruct the working of the carrier.
The roof must be strong if hay is taken in in large
drafts. It must be of economical construction.
It must be able to endure stress of wind and storm.

The writer has designed hundreds of barns of
varying types for situations scattered nearly all over
America. After many years of experience he de-
cides that for simple storage of hay the type shown
on pages 466 and 467 is the best extant. It is as
simple as can be, it is cheap to build. It may have
round pole for posts, square timbers or be all of
joists construction. It has not one brace or cross tie
inside the hay mow. The outer braces are not in the
way especially, as they occur only at intervals of 14'
or 16'. They will not decay if they are covered on top
and sides with a strip of galvanized steel roofing,
bent to fit. The under side is best -left uncovered.
The foundation is of concrete piers molded in place
and each one having an iron pin coming up several
inches into the foot of the post.

A floor ought to be provided. Sometimes a scaf-
folding of round poles is laid down, putting the poles
close enough to make a good air space under the
hay. A concrete floor made water proof will serve
if care is taken to put down very dry straw or hay
at the beginning so as to make a layer all over the
bottom.

Shed for Baling. — Supposing hay to be baled from
this barn, a shed or lean-to is provided on one side.
Each crop may be baled as soon as it has thorough-

BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STORING HAY. 469

ly gone 'through its sweat and the 'baled hay piled in
the shed, the bales on edge, as much air space be-
tween them as possible. A good wooden floor should
raise the bales well above ground moisture.

Siding. — This hay barn may be sided clear down
or only part way. It is best to side clear down, since
driving rains will damage the hay enough to make
siding profitable. The nail girts are 2'x6', spiked in
place, and the siding put on vertically. The roof is
best perhaps of galvanized steel, or else of good shin-
gles, though there are good ready-made roofings of
asphaltum base.

Frame. — Another illustration shows quite clearly
the side of the frame with posts set 16' apart. The
long braces support the plate so that it is as though
posts were set only 8' apart. The box plate on which
rafters rest should be strongly made. Use two pieces
of 2x12" stuff and the roof will keep in perfect shape.

Driveicay. — Hay may be taken up from a trans-
verse driveway or from the end. If from the end it
ought to face the East, or preferably the Southeast.
The construction of the overhang is indicated in the
drawing. Brace it strongly. If an overhang is pro-
vided one can have also a transverse driveway and
from it fill the barn till all is full except this drive-
way, which can then be filled from outside. An over-
hang of 6' width, the sheeting and roof extending
out 24" farther, will protect a load of hay if the
barn is turned away from the direction of storms.

ALFALFA IN TEXAS.

The overshadowing importance of Texas in its new
agricultural development renders information con-
cerning alfalfa growing in that vast commonwealth
of unusual interest. A summary of the situation is
thus presented through the kindness of Prof. H. H.
Harrington, Director of the Texas Experiment Sta-
tion at College Station :

The oldest alfalfa fields in Texas are in the Rio Grande valley
below El Paso, around Ysleta. Some fields the.re have been con-
tinuously in alfalfa for 25 years, and with reseeding the ground
has been in alfalfa for 40 years.

The best area in Texas adapted to alfalfa growing would be
very difficult to specify in explicit fashion. There are so many
areas being developed to this plant, and the industry is compara-
tively so new, that I could not say definitely as to the superiority
of any particular section. I am inclined to think, however, that
without irrigation the Red River valley in the Panhandle is the
most desirable locality. Much of the Panhandle proper, espe-
cially along the draws and in the valleys, is admirably adapted to
growing alfalfa. The black lands of North Texas, from Dallas
north particularly, seem well suited to the growth of alfalfa on
land that is not affected by the cotton root rot.

The largest development of alfalfa growing at the present time
is in the Pecos Valley, in Ward County, at Barstow, and at Grand
Falls, in Pecos County, and in the Toyah valley, in Reeves County.

The question as to what part of the state would be foremost in
seed production is susceptible of considerable conjecture. How-
ever, it will probably be the Panhandle from Chillicothe north.

As to the growth of alfalfa in Mexico across from Del Rio, I
cannot say. The Lower i,io Grande soils, however, are growing
alfalfa successfully at the present time, but the industry has not
been established long enough to determine whether or not it can
be carried on for a number of years successfully. They are likely
to meet with some soils that will kill out the alfalfa from cotton
root rot, just as the soil of Don Trevino failed.

I have no data as to the definite relation between the lime con-

(470)

ALFALFA IN TEXAS. 471

tent of soils and the growth of alfalfa. I am satisfied, however,
that under other favorable conditions only a very small per-
centage of lime is necessary — say three per cent of the carbonate.
In Hays County and in Comal the amount of carbonate of lime in
the soil is very high, some analyses which we have showing as
much as 25 per cent. In the Pecos valley the percentage of sul-
phate of lime, or gypsum, is very high, and such soil is admirably
adapted to the growth of alfalfa, but that soil, unfortunately, con-
tains a considerable quantity of alkali, mainly the chloride of
soda or common salt, and a little carbonate of soda; but after one
or two years' use with a sufficiency of water these soluble salts
seem to be washed out, and then the soils remain as perhaps the
best alfalfa soils in the state. I understand that these same con-
ditions prevail around Roswell, New Mex.

I would advise sowing in the fall as the best method of estab-
lishing alfalfa fields in Texas. This, in the northern part of the
state — say from the Texas & Pacific railroad north — may be done
as early as August, and preferably not later than September;
while in the southern part of the state sowing may take place as
late as December. The thing to be sought is to get the alfalfa
well started with a good growth before the freezing weather of
winter. Of course, every one now knows that in what is known
as the rain belt proper, the main difficulties with alfalfa during
its first year are weeds and crab grass, so far as conditions in this
state are concerned. It is therefore well if possible to have one
year's clean cultivation of the land prior to putting it in alfalfa,
and I regard it as essential that especially the summer immedi-
ately preceding the seeding of the land to alfalfa in the fall must
have been one of clean cultivation. The land also for a month
before the time of seeding should have been well plowed, not nec-
essarily deep, in the rain belt, but the surface preparation should
be of the best. The disk harrow is the best implement for this
purpose, and then keep the surface well stirred with an Acme
harrow or with a weeder, in order that when a rain comes, seed-
ing may take place soon thereafter. When the ground is caught
in just the right condition, the seed may be sown broadcast or in
drills, preferably the latter, although it is a little more trouble.
A light roller over the land will then secure a better stand.

In the spring if weeds and grass appear, it may be necessary to
mow the alfalfa when it is five or six inches high, merely to kill
the weeds and the grass. If the first summer happens to be a
dry one the crop, after having yielded one to three cuttings, may
fail and reseeding the following fall be necessary. This will not
usually be the case, but it sometimes happens. The farmer
however should not be. necessarily discouraged, He may

472 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.

harrow and reseed the spots that are most bare, or plow up the
entire field and reseed it. After the first year if the alfalfa has
done well it ought to be disked with a harrow, preferably after
each cutting; certainly twice a year, setting the disk so as to cut
about four inches, and lapping on the return round. Some prac-
tice disking both ways, after which a smoothing harrow or a
roller is passed over the field to smooth it. An alfalfa renovator
may be used instead of the harrow. Even on irrigated land some
cultivation is desired.

I do not attach very much importance in this state at least, to
the inoculation of the soil. I have never known a crop of alfalfa
to fail here from neglect of this precaution. Most of our soils
seem to be either naturally inoculated, or to become so very soon
after the growth of alfalfa is begun.

The number of cuttings varies from three to seven. I recently
saw a 60-acre field cut the third time that produced at that cut-
ting eighty tons of the prettiest alfalfa that I ever looked at. This
was in the Toyah Valley. Their practice in haying is to windrow
the alfalfa the second day after cutting, and then with buck
rakes bale from the windrow in the field, being careful to throw
aside any swaths that seem a little too green. I do not mean
green as to color, but as to sap. Such alfalfa has all the leaves
preserved and is as green and as fresh-looking in the bale as it
is in the field.

Of course this is quite a dry climate. In the rain belt I would
advise cutting in the morning after the dew is off and windrow-
ing next morning after the dew is off, and if it is to be stacked,
it may be put up that afternoon. If it is to be baled, it should be
given a little more time in the stack or shock, but this is not al-
ways necessary. One season's experience is almost essential for
successful alfalfa growing, and the intelligent farmer will soon
learn to recognize and correct the difficulties of his particular
locality.

ALFALFA IN HAWAII.

Interesting information as to alfalfa on one of
our island possessions in the western seas comes thus
from E. V. Wileox, special agent in charge of the
Hawaiian Experiment Station of the Department of
Agriculture at Honolulu:

This station has not published any bulletins on the cultivation
of alfalfa, but the matter has received considerable of our atten-
tion, and the crop is successfully grown in a number of localities.
It may be interesting to learn that during last season a fairly
good stand of alfalfa was obtained on the Parker Ranch, at an
altitude of 4,700 feet, with a total annual rainfall of only two
inches. The crop stood about 30 inches high when I last saw it
in December.

Where alfalfa stubble is promptly irrigated after each cutting,
twelve crops per year are obtained, and in exceptional cases thir-
teen. On a large dairy farm near Honolulu, alfalfa reaches the
blooming stage and is cut every thirty days the year round. A
crop has been made in 26 days. Thus far little attention has
been given to the making of alfalfa hay, since alfalfa may be
obtained green the year round.

The greatest difficulty experienced in our islands in growing
alfalfa is that furnished by cutworms. These pests eat off the
young plants when about two or three inches high. It has been
found best to plant new land to sorghum for a year or two, after
which the cutworm attacks are not serious enough to interfere
with the growth of alfalfa.

In most localities in Hawaii alfalfa does not reach the height
which it attains in the Rocky Mountain region or in the eastern
states, but the stems are perhaps less woody, due to their rapid
growth, and are abundantly furnished with leaves almost to the
ground. The quality of the forage is therefore very good. Alfalfa
is raised here chiefly for soiling dairy cows, but is also fed to
pigs, horses and other stock. I have never known of a case of
bloating caused by the feeding on green alfalfa or from pastur-
ing on the young crop. It is not quite certain why we are free
from this trouble.

The area devoted to alfalfa is being continually increased. On
the Parker Ranch one ton of seed was planted this spring and
various other ranches are increasing their areas as fast as they
are able to overcome the difficulties of getting the crop started.

(473)

ALFALFA IN ALGERIA.

In France and Algeria, according to Bulletin 33 of
Gouvernement General De L 'Algeria, deep plowing
for alfalfa is urged. The soil should be stirred to a
depth of at least 20 inches. There alfalfa is some-
times drilled in rows 16" apart. The rate of seeding
advised for Algeria is about 16 Ibs. per acre when
sown broadcast or 12 Ibs. when sown in drills. Men-
tion is made of a field where the yields of "fourraige
frais" or green fodder, in three or four cuttings in
successive years made 8, 16, 22 and finally 32 tons
per acre. In that land they have learned the need
of lime and recommend large amounts, also of phos-
phorus and advise the use of 1,000 Ibs. per hectare
or about 400 Ibs. per acre of superphosphate.

Mention is made also of the fact that there is a
native race of alfalfa in the oases of the Sahara
desert and that alfalfa from southwestern America
thrives in Algeria better than seed from France.

This bulletin states the peculiar fact that alfalfa
thrives in Algeria in small fields, well enriched, well
plowed, well cared for, but that it is not usually
very successful in large fields.

VITALITY OF SEED.

The United States Experiment Station Record,
Vol. VI, No. 5, gives in a tabular form the result of
an eleven years ' test of the duration of the vitality
of some agricultural seeds made by S. Samck, from
which the following is taken. Well matured seed
was selected, a portion of which was examined each
year from 1883 to 1894. The unused portions were
kept in paper bags in a dry airy room and seeds
taken from them each succeeding year for the test.

KINDS OF SEED.

PERCENTAGE OF VITALITY.

1

year.

2

yrs.

3

yrs.

4

yrs.

5

yrs.

6

yrs.

7
yrs.

8
yrs.

9
yr3.

10
yrs.

11
yrs.

54
2
3

22
0

Alfalfa
Reel Clover

94

90
73
74
95
46

91
90
64

72
93

47

87
88
51
63
90
41

75

84
37
5?
^8
44

72
74
15
50
86
38

71
68
7
50
79
29

68
44
6
35
66
21

66
16
5
31
39
12

63
10
3

26
15

8

59
3
3
23
1
5

Alsike
White Clover

Timothy

Orchard grass. . . .

It will be seen that in the first year of the experi-
ment, out of 100 seeds of alfalfa planted, 94 germi-
nated; of the same number of red clover, 90 germi-
nated ; of alsike, 73 ; of white clover, 74 ; of timothy,
95 ; of orchard grass, 46 ; while in the eleventh year
but 54 out of the 100 seeds of alfalfa grew, 2 of red
clover, 3 of alsike, 22 of white clover, and none of
either timothy or orchard grass. According to these
figures, age does not affect the vitality of alfalfa
seed so much as it does the other seeds used in the
experiment. No observations, however, were made
by the experimenter regarding the strength of the
plants from the old seed as compared with those
from the new seed,

(475)

INDEX.

About bacteria, 226.

Abundant nitrogen in air, 225.

Action on kidneys, 375.

Adaptability of seed, 430.

Add limestone, 113.

Adding to fertility, 186.

Adulterations, 441.

Adulteration, 442.

Advantages of grazing alfalfa,
340.

Advantages of soiling, 323.

Air circulation, 356.

Alfalmo, 418

Alsike clover and alfalfa, 222.

Amount of caustic lime, 118.

Amount of grain, 407.

Amount of pasturage, 408.

Amount of water used, 250.

Ants, 427.

Appearance reveals inoculation,
233.

Arabian alfalfa, 82.

Areas adapted for seed, 451.

As a bee pasture, 345.

Availability of lime, 112.

Alfalfa (Medicago Sativa), 78.

Alfalfa after crimson clover,
214.

Alfalfa after oats, 213.

Alfalfa after spring barley, 212.

Alfalfa dangerous after frost,
343.

Alfalfa following crimson clo-
ver, 164.

Alfalfa for brood mares, 377.

Alfalfa for cattle grazing, 346.

Alfalfa for poultry, 335.

Alfalfa for soiling horses, 331.

Alfalfa for soiling sheep, 332. -

Alfalfa for soiling swine, 334.

Alfalfa for young horses, 376.

Alfalfa growing and irrigation
in Mexico, 290.

Alfalfa harrow, the, 256.

Alfalfa hay, 411.

Alfalfa hay for brood sows, 412.

Alfalfa in arid agriculture, 279.

Alfalfa in dry farming, 463.

Alfalfa in rotations, 238.

Alfalfa loves desert soils, 279.

Alfalfa loves rich soils, 153.

Alfalfa meal for dairy cows, 390.

Alfalfa not a balanced food, 406.

Alfalfa not a grass, 84.

Alfalfa pastures for hogs, 404.

Alfalfa root rot, 266.

Alfalfa silage .for cows, 391,

Alfalfa with red clover for in-
oculation, 220.

Alfalfa and alsike clover, 269.
Alfalfa and brome grass, 270.
Alfalfa and Kentucky blue-
grass, 273.
Alfalfa and orchard grass, 275.

Bacteria, 85.

Basic slag, 176.

Basic slag a source of lime, 134.

Bloom not a test, 293.

Bread from alfalfa meal, 360.

Breaking sod in Colorado, 421.

Brome grass as a pasture grass,

2 72

Brown hay, 315.
Building soils to stay built, 146.
Bur clover (medicago denticu-

lata), 80.

Carbonate of lime is neutral,

114.

Care of machinery, 307.
Care in pasturing, 336.
Cattle-carrying capacity, 351.
Causes of failure, 409.
Chemistry of lime, the, 140.
Chilean lucern, 443.
Choice of seed, 455.
Coating seed with earth, 231.
Cocking the hay, 311.
Cold water or ice, 342.
Color of dead seed, 443.
Comparative value of the hay,

399.
Composition of the different

parts, 368.

Conclusions, 428, 462.
Conditions of silage making,

354.

Conditions favorable to bac-
teria, 232.

Cost of high-grade and low-
grade seeds, 444.
Cotton root rot, the, 267.
Cowpeas, 159.
Crab grass and lime, 117.
Crimson clover (trifolium in-

carnatum), 161.
Crimson clover in conclusion,

165.
Crimson clover for pasture and

hay, 163.

Crop failures, 242.
Curing alfalfa bloat, 341.
Curing for the mow, 300.
Curing green alfalfa, 317.

<477)

478

INDEX.

Cutting for soiling1 weakens, 89.
Cutting promotes thrift, 91.

Danger from bloat, 338.
Danger from treading, 92.
Deep tiling machine, a, 256.
Deficiency in soil, 104.
Degree of dryness, 314.
Depth to apply lime, 120.
Desirable conditions, 467.
Developing draft horses, 379.
Developing valuable strains for

seed production, 461.
Digestibility of alfalfa, 366.
Disk harrow and drag, 196.
Disk with care, 255.
Distributing lime, 128.
Do not dry hay too much, 320.
Do not overstock, 404.
Double system best, 325.
Drainage, 102.
Drilling in the seed, 220.
Driveway, 469.
Dry-land alfalfa, 82.

Early cutting hurtful, 325.

Early start desirable, 421.

Easy of transportation, 418.

Effect of bees and other in-
sects, 432.

Effects of lime, 122.

English bluegrass (Festuca
elactor), 276.

Eradicating fox-tail grass, 158.

Essentials in culutre, 95.

Essential to profit, 392.

Evidence of lime, 113.

Ewes get too fat, 395.

Example of farm practice, an,
154.

Example of spring sowing, 196.

Experiences of farmers, 412.

Experiments in Kansas, 382.

Examine samples, 442.

Fall seeding after wheat, 209.

Fall seeding of alfalfa, 204.

Farm machines for crushing,
131.

Fattening sale horses, 377.

Feeding methods, 411.

Feeding operations in the west,
399.

Feeding practices and actual re-
sults, 410.

Feeding value of hay, 396.

Fertility of irrigated lands, 278.

Fertility and abandoned farms,
132.

Fertilization, 97.

Fertilizer distributer, 186.

Findings of experiment stations,
388.

Fine alfalfa pork, 403.

Finishing cattle on alfalfa, 352.

First cutting, the, 294.
First growth, the, 88
First irrigation, the, 285.
Flooding system, the, 283.
Food character of alfalfa, 410
Forms and kinds of lime, 115.
Frame, 469.
Free tests, 444.
Further treatment, 199.

Grain needed, 407.
Grapple forks, 305.
Grasshoppers, 426.
Grassing the ditch banks, 289.
Grazing pigs on alfalfa, 344.
Grazing sheep on alfalfa, 393.
Grazing spring lambs on al-
falfa, 343.
Green alfalfa in dairy ration?.

o o o

Giving the run of the field, 415.
Good seed crop, a, 435.
Growing humus-making crops.
159.

Hardiness of the plant, 92.

Hardy alfalfa, 82.

Harvesting the seed crop, 459

Hay dealers' classifications, 357.

Hay loader, the, 303.

Hay sleds, 304.

Hog a grazing animal, the, 402.

Home testing, 444.

How long should alfalfa stand,

239.

How many cows, 247.
How much phosphorus, 187.
How often to irrigate, 286.
How to get bacteria, 229.
How to plow deep, 192.
How well will this pay, 1SS.

Ice will kill, 93.

Importance of good seed, 441.

Importation of yellow trefoil
seed, 442.

Increasing water-holding ca-
pacity, 251.

Infecting a field, 163.

Inoculated soil a fertilizer labo-
ratory, 234.

Inoculation, 199.

Inoculation an aid, 207.

Inoculation in advance, 2.11, 232.

Inoculation with soil, 230.

Insects and the setting of seed,
449.

In summary, 228.

In Wyoming, 173.

Irrigation by contour levees,
280.

Irrigation by the furrow
method, 282.

Jack's use pf crimson clover,
214,

INDEX.

479

Kansas experiments, 364.

Kansas view, a, 431.

Keep off the fields in winter,

296.

Keep hay from the air, 314.
Keep sheep from small pastures,

333.

Labor cost, the, 248.

Lamb feeding- at Woodland, 397.

Late cutting- damaging, 294.

Late mowing- harmful, 91.

Length of pasture season, 409.

Less grain needed, 375.

Life of Arg-entine alfalfa, 350.

Life of a field, 94.

Lifting to stack or mow, 304.

Lime in England, 124.

Lime in soils, 130.

Lime the basis, 111.

Limestone harmless, 127.

Little grain needed, a, 387.

Loading- on low wagons, 312.

Location of fields, 452.

Loss by weathering-, 369.

Maintaining fertility, 401.
Maintains vigor, 388.
Maintenance of fertility, 110.
Making green or brown hay,

300.

Making horse hay, 377.
Management in the mow, 316.
Manure brings inoculation, 151.
Meal and cut hay, 416.
Meal and bran, 417.
Meeting competition, 384.
Melilotus or sweet clover, 166.
Melilotus in Kentucky, 170.
Methods of harvesting, 437.
Method of seeding in rows, 455.
Method of soiling, 333.
Methods of using manure, 157.
Method of using soil, 230.
Methods in use, 399.
Mineral phosphates, 181.
Mixing grasses with alfalfa, 343.
Moisture the limiting factor,

249.
Money-making crop, a, 431.

Natural phosphates, 181.

Natural seeding of alfalfa, 105.

Need of protein, 359.

New work, 126.

Next cutting, the, 90.

Nodules on the roots, 165.

No fear of pest, 169.

No heaves nor colic, 374.

No universal rule, 295.

Not hard to cure. 309.

Nurse crops in irrigated regions,

£ 06.

Open center hay barn, the, 308.
Opening the cocks, 313.
Other factors, 432.

Other forms of lime, 118.
Other functions of lime, 108.
Other nurse crops, 201.
Other sources of phosphorus.

180.
Over-feeding with hay, 378.

Pasture for horses, 345.
Pasturing and mowing, 337.
Penetration of roots in irri-
gated soils, 289.
Personal experience, 373.
Peruvian alfalfa, 83.
Phosphates on alfalfa, 185.
Phosphorus needed, 148.
Plowing for spring sowing, 195.
Pork industry prominent, the,

413.
Possibilities of seed production

in cultivated rows, 460.
Poverty of soil a factor, 253.
Preparation for crop, 210.
Preparation of the seedbed, 452.
Preparing the land for flooding.

283.
Prevention of the drifting of

soil, 454.

Prevention of grass, best, 255.
Principles of seed production,

447.

Profit from the cows, 247.
Profits in actual practice, 246.
Protein the costly food element,

358.

Quantity of lime, 128.

Rate of seed per acre, 216.
Rate of seeding and thickness

of stand, 456.
Raw bone meal, 181.
Raw phosphatic rock for al-
falfa, 183.

Raking the hay, 310.
Red clover and alfalfa, 268.
Red clover with alfalfa, 221.
Relative value of phosphate

fertilizers, 182.
Repeating the mowing, 326.
Resisting temperature extremes,

87.

Results at Woodland, 384.
Right crop to leave for seed,

the, 459.

Right way, the, 419.
Roots, 85.
Rotation for a 300-acre farm

240.
Rotation in the dairy region,

246.

Safety of alfalfa pasture, 379.

Salting hay, 320.

Sand lucerne, 79.

Saving of labor cost in alfalfa

growing, 243.
Searching for inoculation, 233.

480

INDEX.

Second cutting, the, 295.

Securing nitrogen, 224.

Seed-growing in the semi-arid
west, 445.

Seeding, 207.

Seeding after early potatoes, 206.

Seeding in Argentina, 350.

Seeding in check rows to permit
cross-cultivation, 457.

Seeding with drill, 197.

Selection of soil, 452.

Setting the plow, 420.

Shed for baling, 468.

Sheep husbandry in the corn-
belt, 334.

Shorter rotation, a, 243.

Side delivery rake, the, 302.

Siding, 469.

Silage in rainy regions, 355.

Slings, 306.

Small waste in feeding, 400.

Soil, the, 431.

Soil building with alfalfa, 234.

Soil a living thing, 104.

Soiling for dairy cows, 326.

Soiling on pasture, 326.

Soils devoid of humus, 154.

Some troublesome weeds, 258.

Sour soil,0, 136.

Sowing alfalfa on irrigable
land, 284.

Sowing the seed, 219.

Soy bean, the, 160.

Spreading with manure, 297.

Spontaneous combustion in hay,
321.

Spring plowing and summer
sowing, 205.

Spring tooth harrow, the, 256.

Stable manure, best source, 150.

Stacking out of doors, 317.

Stacking and thrashing, 438.

Starting alfalfa by irrigation,
280.

Steamed bone meal, 181.

Steam cured silage, 355.

Stimulating flow of milk, 386.

Stops waste of nitrogen, 109.

Storing and marketing the seed,
440.

Subsequent cuttings, 201.

Subsequent treatment, 208.

Substitute for bran, 359.

Subsoiling, 194.

Suggested rotations, 240.

Summary, 131, 141, 208, 444.

Superphosphates or manufac-
tured phosphates, 181.

Sweating' of -hay mows, the, 321.

Sweep rakes, 303.

Tapping with trocar, 341.
Testing with potash, 189.
Tests of soiling, 324.
Tests in other states, 383.

Thick fall seeding wrong, 219.
Tile important, the, 421.
Tiling, 103.
Time of seeding, 457.
Time to apply, 119.
Time to cut, 88, 200, 293.
Timothy in alfalfa, 268.
Treatment of the stand the first

season, 457.
Treatment of the stand after

the first season, 458.
Trials in Colorado, 380.
Turkestan alfalfa, 81.
Turn on full, 339.
Turning under green cowpeas,

159.
Two classes of plants, 225.

Unloading hay, 306.
Use of caustic lime, 116.
Use of hay caps, 319.
Use of sweet clover, 168.
Using crimson clover, 162.
Using floats with manure, 183.

Value of alfalfa pasture, 407.
Value of barley nurse crops, 201.
Value to dairymen, 387.
Value of liming, 121.
Varying practice, 394.
Views of the Nebraska station,

412.

Visiting a stone quarry, 144.
Vital relation of bacteria, 224.

Wait for warm weather, 405.

Weather, the, 432.

Westgate's bulletin, 370.

Weed seeds, 443.

Weeds that kill alfalfa, 260.

What is alfalfa land worth, 245.

When to harvest for seed, 436.

When to irrigate, 287.

When ready to cut, 299.

Where bacteria thrive, 86.

Where the lime soils lie, 138.

Where are nurse crops permis-
sible, 203.

Where seed is grown, 99.

Which crop to save, 433.

Why deep plowing suits alfalfa,
191.

Why make barley hay, 200.

Winter-killing of alfalfa, 297.

Winter grain in alfalfa fields,
273.

Wood ashes, 189.

Work of bacteria, the, 227.

Work for rotation, 244.

Work after seeding, 199.

Yellow lucerne, 79.

Yellow trefoil (or hop clover),

80, 442.
Yields under irrigation, 251.

OF THE

IIMIVFRSITY