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JOSEPH E. WING.
Alfalfa Farming
In America
sie
By JOSEPH E. WING
Staff Correspondent of The Breeder’s Gazette
x
Ky
CHICAGO, ILL.: .
Sanders Publishing Company
1912
Copyrighted, 1912.
BY SANDERS PUBLISHING CO.
All rights reserved.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION ...... Siete sit Ahan end ceie shies oe Sie loa cees seee B- 45
ETISTORY fs, Zeioinins 2ctinntars seins w einely b's Waa oslo eles » 46- 77
VARIETIES OF ALFALFA 1.0.0... 000. c cece ee ceeccteeccecceseeeese T8- 83
HABIT OF GROWTH 2.0.0... eee c ccc c ccc secusucuvevcusenuneeves 84- 96
SEED BEARING HABIT, THE .............cccec ace ereeees weeee. 97-100
GETTING A STAND OF ALFALFA ......-.eeceeeeaes ee eee 101-106
“CARBONATE OF LIME .........cccccccceccecccecceecsecuaueueus . 107-149
MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL .... eee eee eee ee cece ecucueeees 150-175
PHOSPHORUS FOR SOILS 2.0... .ccceceececceecectevsuccucancunes 176-188
POTASH AS A FERTILIZER ...... ec cece e cece cee eeccncceteveenens 189-190
PLOWING THE SOIL 2... eee eee ccc ccc eee teen seen en eves es LG1-198
SEEDING AND: CUTTING 4246 cicasndedmaa ad ve emrn sae eea Shae a ww aes 199-222
INOCULATION AND NITROGEN ....... 0c cece eee eee e eee en eee 1 229-236
ALFALFA IN CROP ROTATION .......... oe ee shane vahes Padang s 237-248
YIELD OB ALBALPA. sic fi selesosos Had skis oc Mane ies BERG Wea Hao 249-253
DISKING AND CULTIVATING 1.0... ccceccee eee ceetenteeteeteneee 254-257
"(WEEDS AND GRASSES oo... cece eee c eee eee ee atte tet eee nee DS 265
ADPALTA, DISWASES: ojee:eied «asssmndie ds sudsergne'e wo minedeea ene se lice Saute 266-267
SEEDING: GRASSES) ois eeciieraciaaw ag des eins # a anaate Veda aaa cetaeed 268-276
GROWING: BY IRRIGATION iaaias isan ccautia sd Ganew pues vebeeeneee 277-292
DIME OF CUTTING: iis sirneitic Wore wists Bawa dre Hwa as Matareae Wemlane eek B= 208
HARVESTING HAY IN THE WEST ......... cc cece e eee e eee e ee eene 299-301
ELANUNG SROOBS: sie cdscteiie sd duneset grtad 4 ids, ew odee. 4 aya Sadan Sea oe aoe 302-308
HAY-MAKING IN RAINY COUNTRIES .........c ce eee ee eeeeeeeeee 309-322
SOILING AND ‘PASTURE: sc cscogss evacaa a2 644 Heats conden o baad ape 323-335
AS) A, PASTURE (PLANT sid «ccc « aaareis aickis « Suna tae wiaaeces OO OTOLE
ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA .........ceeccececeececeecteeeees 348-353
ALFALFA FOR THE SILO wo... eee cece ee en ene eter teen ns o04-B5D
BATTING ADWALMA, EVANS? eric crise wi adie ekiitea a tastes temee’s Wes 356-357
SEEDING VALUE) OF HAY siscoss ciwasay cones vysewi asia came as 358-862
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION .....-. eee eeeeuee be RAGS era aed Romero 363-372
ALFAUPA FOR: EIORSES s hiawiarinis sawn a fcc Vaca ay eas MAA ale 373-379
ALFALFA FOR CATTLE FEEDING 1.0... cece eee eee eee tere eens s 880-385
ALFALFA FOR DAIRY COWS ...scscccesscrcacctsctecsrecresesses ~986-391
ALFALFA FOR SHEEP ....--. 0c e eee ae eee eens (PiRe dn sewers 392-395
HIAY FOR SHEEP FEEDING ......-. 02sec cece ee eee eee cence eee 396-401
ALFALFA FOR SWINE ....- ee eee eee eect nett e cece een 402-414
ALFALFA FOR POULTRY ......ccccccececscunsecessensesseerease 415-416
MAKING ALFALFA MEAL ...... 0. ec ccc e eee eect cence cence ALT-418
PLOWING ALFALFA SOD ....eecccesee eee e ene e nee e ese neeeteet anes 419-423
ANIMAL PESTS AND DISEASES.......-.0 0. sc eeeeee cece eet eeeneee 424-429
GROWING ALFALFA. SEED. « ecesirs vince oie ees chee die ge siesaiee seaee 430-465
BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STORING FIAY ........ ec ce eee e ees e ences 466-469
ALFALFA IN TEXAS 3 sisi esaore ities eva eda vat ee cas meee ctacd (02472
ALFATMA IN HAWAID 35 ovwoss se varons sexs ey eeuaee cranny praeea os oie aias 473
ADPALPA ‘TN ALGEREA, ic:c gesicases soc teen ace clases old Hawa ed Mawes eere meted We 474
VITALITY: OF SEED" sai dens's 6 aoe sho ee eG cenagee deen eseees eee ATK
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING... cece ercerececececues 476-522
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?’’ ‘‘Lucern,’’ prompt-
ly replied the conductor. ‘‘And what makes it so
green?’’ ‘‘Tt’s 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 carly 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 River 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 River 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
stay 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 for 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 Range
: 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 Range
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 lesg than 5 tons to the acre.
It uséd 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. q
advent of the alfalfa changed the animal life too of
the canyon. Before alfalfa came there used to be little
aninal 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 then. 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 soon 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 help, 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 not 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. 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 of 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, he 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!”’
eried the boy; ‘‘I see a light now,’’ and he went to
the well and 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! Jovfully
INTRODUCTION. 15
the boy called his father, ‘‘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
ean’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.
‘*T 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
eared 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 verv 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
ean. 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 Gould 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: ‘‘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 he met,
20 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
I can not so much 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
mé. 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.’’
“‘Good,’’? 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,
God’s forgiveness, God’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.
Rapidly his mind went on ahead to the time when
the 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 delighttul 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
26 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 unwelcome. ‘‘It is evi-
dent that this farm is not ready for alfalfa,’’ he
said. ‘‘T’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
eareful 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: ‘‘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 lbs.
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
were free from ticks. AJ] 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 108% lbs. 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 move 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 shad overtaken ‘us.
INTRODUCTION. 31
There had been bad years, low prices, diseased
lambs, all sorts of troubles. Grimly we had held on.
‘“We can’t afford to change now,’’ we declared. ‘“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.
‘‘Warming 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 not
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.”’
82 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. 83
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 actualiy 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 ‘out 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 614.
The second lot was fed with good alfalfa hay and
corn only. With them the cost of gain was only
314c. 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 the 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 lbs. 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 300 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
88 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-
honate 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:
‘“Wrom 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 bov 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 lbs.; of fertilizer
(usually plain acid phosphate, sometimes bone meal)
we use 300 to 500 lbs. 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
eut 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. The 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. -
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 the 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 time 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. Those 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
sent 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 Rome, 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 Re Rustica.’’ 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 Roman agriculture, we
will respect him for his account of alfalfa and the
way to grow it. Many forage crops are mentioned
by Columella—mediec (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 land. All 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 brcad. 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 feeble 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-
jarity 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 Roman 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 Rev. W. L. Rham, 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 Rham
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 ‘‘Rham’s Dictionary of
the Farm,’’ published in 1853:
Lucerne 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 ina soil suited to it, will last for many years,
snooting 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 sur-
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
and save much weeding. The lucerne will soon strike down be-
56 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
low it. It is not a bad practice to cover the lucerne field with 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 March, 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 lbs. 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 gocd lucerne will keep four or five horses from
May to Octoher, 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.
Tt 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 tlie 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 cut 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 ‘‘ 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—50e per lb., 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 ready 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 IJ 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 rve 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 1 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 the 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 be 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 been 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 iand 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; tor 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 of
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?
Auswer: I have record of sowing alfalfa by W. E. 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?
Answér: 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
AN ALFALFA HAY HARVEST IN THE CORNBELT.
Vale
HISTORY. 67
Valley. lt was dry semi-arid land. Some of his associates won-
dered what he would do with it. He bought more. After a tiine,
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 ihe 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 20,000 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
70 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
in our wet Ohio climate would spoil badly. The haymakers ara
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 cailed 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 River it established
itself strongly and in the western part of the state,
while gradually, surely its roots penetrated nearly
every part of the state. Hast of the Missouri River
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
‘Cawiger klee’’ or everlasting clover of Grimm, and
from that day to this in Carver Co., Minnesota, al-
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.
STACKS OF ALFALFA AND RYE GRASS IN CALIFORNIA.
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. e
A little later than this Dr. E. Lewis 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.
Albama 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. "7
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
magie 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 oné 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.
(78)
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 vo 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 aifaifa 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 in
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. Itis 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 OF 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 thas 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
(81)
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 ag 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 or 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 Eatremes.—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 Neat 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 retains 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 frost 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 the
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 hy 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. 98
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.
Iife 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 init. 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 along 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: to 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.
imoculation.
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.
Fertilization—The alfalfa flower is probably in-
eapable of self-fertilization without the aid of bees
or other insects. F. Roberts 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 una group of stamens which en-
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-
tilizing 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. Hast of the Missouri River
little seed is grown; east of the Mississippi River
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
earefully 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 River 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
‘“‘Tue Breeper’s Gazerre,’? 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 as 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. 1038
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 were laid too
shallow; these are often taken up and laid deeper.
104 ALPALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
Deficiency in Sotl—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 loam 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
reclam&tion 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 River. 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
eutting 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 114% 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 soil it would amount to about 30
tons of carbonate of lime present. That lime is
Joing something in that soil; can we discover what?
‘VIIVTIV VNVLNOW SNTIGNVH UAMOVLIS A1Od V
a aL
GARBONATE 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 or 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
instances. 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 most 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. Ihave 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 the 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, ‘‘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, vet 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 #t 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-
ean fields; and in England the same story is often
true. These fertile foreign fields are rich in carbo-
nate of lime; and vet 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 profitablv. make them richer, and!
CARBONATE OF LIME. 111
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, Rome 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 as great an enthusiast on lime as the
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.—lIt 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 weleomes 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.—Raw 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
eausticity 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 ear-
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 River 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 Line.—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, has
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 OF 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
im 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 litle
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
at 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 Hast. 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 partieles
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. 1238
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 River, 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 potash, 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, and
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 has
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 soi] 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, ‘‘Rural
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, oftimes 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.—lIt 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 maris were nearly always
under water not much of this has been done. With
the imerease in use of concrete construction came
eall 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 preasant 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 init. Supposing one were
asked to lime one square rod spfficiently 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 that 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. Tien
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 vear, 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 Lowa:
“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
180 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 séed 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 leaching: 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.—lI 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
182 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 réaction. 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. 1383
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
184 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-
phatie 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 (Rumex 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.
188 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 ah 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 1%% 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 gandy 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. 1389
Arkansas needs lime badly, except in her alluvial
soils along the Mississippi River. 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 14% of calcium
carbonate. Prof. M. F. Miller, of the Missouri Col-
lege of Agriculture, reports that where about % 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
Towa 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 calcium carbonate (CaCO,), calcium oxide (CaO)
CARBONATE OF LIME. 141
and calcium hydroxide (CaO,H.) are ordinary forms of lime;
also that magnesium carbonate (MgCO,), magnesium oxide
(MgO) and magnesium hydroxide (MgO,H,) 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(CO,),. 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 few other easily met conditions are com-
CARBONATE OF 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 wiil
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
mill 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?
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 soil 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-
lowed 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.
Mauure 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 Canada 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 doa
most useful work in opening the soil by means of
their 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 devcid 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. 291
the 600’, and it should come out below clear. If muddy, yous
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 lbs. 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 CUTTING.
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
(298)
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-
vaneed 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—tThere 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 mav 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
ean cut alfalfa usually about June 1 and find it in
prime condition; sometimes it may he cut’a week or
two earlier. It is essential to get this first cutting
THE MOWER IN A RICH ALFALFA MEADOW.
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 eutting 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 acre 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.
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 heayy
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 toe 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 séed.
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 >of 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 tc 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
denticulata).
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 brown 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. 8. 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 Friainkische 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
hecause 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.
Experiments 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 (Bombus 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 the 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 2514 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 to 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 dry 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-toothed, 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
flants 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. 4538
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. J. 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. This
is avoided by the utilization of sod land. A 16-inch sod plow is
454 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
used to cut a furrow 24% 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 anc’ eo
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,
Utah, 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 8 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 such
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 Cross-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 Seeding-—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 farrhers leave a portion of the field unclipped 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 favorable 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 in considerable 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 under 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 ta 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:
Green Dry
VARLETY,. weight of | weight of
hay. . hay.
Weight of
seed.
1,154 lbs. 167 lbs.
1,359 lbs, 143 lbs,
908 lbs. 62 lbs.
Dry-land alfalfa (Brott's)......0..-....0e 20s
Commercial sand lucern (S, P. I. No. 20451)
Turkestan alfalfa (S. P. I. No. 18741)
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 might 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 the 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 hay
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 and 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 itis 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 cut-
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
‘Curkestan, 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 River ought al-
ways to be put under cover. In very truth it ought
to be put under cover in any climate humid enough
Snd3liava
fe)
a
I =
<0 ;
*
16' 0 16'
SIDE ELEVATION OF
PART OF FRAME
to grow the crop without irrigation. When one
builds a barn or shed for storing alfalfa he should
consider a few basal truths.
; (468)
BARNS AND SHEDS FOR STORING HAY. 467
AVH O31va Od
91 O3HS
“AVH WAIVITY ONIHOLS HOA NXVG AO
JWVvuds JO Luvd ONIMOHS NOILDAS SScOuD
6x6"-20'
pe
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 inust 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 lJaver 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. iA 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 hase.
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.
Driveway—Hay may be taken up from a trans-
verse driveway or from the end. If from the end it
ought to face the Hast, 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 there 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 thé 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 1: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 either
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 2a
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. Wilcox, 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,
(478)
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 lbs. 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 lbs. per hectare
or about 400 lbs. 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.
7
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 8. 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.
PERCENTAGE OF VITALITY.
INDE OP SEED | A Poe | ef a) ee el eT es fa | ato fa
year.| yrs. | yrs. | yrs. | yrs. | yrs. | yrs. | yrs. |} yrs. | yrs. | yrs.
Alfalfa....ccccc... o4 | 91 | sz | 75 | v2 | m1 | 68 | 66 | 63 | 59 | 54
Red Clover........ 90 | 90 | 88 | 84 | va | 68 | 44 | 16 | 10] 3 | 2
AIBIKG vieaaes anaes 73 | 64 | 51 | 37 1 a5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 38] 8
White Clover....1! ma | 72 | 63 | 52 | 50 | 50 | 35 | 81 | 26 | 23 | 22
Timothy ......5.... 95 | 90 | 90 | e8 | 86 | 79 | 66 | 39 | 15 | 1 | 0
Orchard grass... .| 46 47 44 44 38 29 aL 12 8 5
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 rogarding the strength of the
» plants from the old seed as compared with those
‘from the new seed.
(4%)
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA
SOWING.
Before sowing alfalfa some things must be known.
Has the land lime enough? ‘Test it by putting a
little in a porcelain cup and pouring dilute muriatic
acid over it. If it effervesces, or bubbles, even mod-
erately, it has sufficient lime. Some soils that have
lime enough for alfalfa will not visibly effervesce,
however, so if any bubbling is seen one can rest as-
sured that he has lime enough.
He can guess at the matter by observation. Does
the land grow red clover vigorously? Does it grow
melilotus (sweet clover) naturally? Does it grow
bluegrass spontaneously? Then it may have enough
lime. Nevertheless, if no effervescence can be seen
in either soil or subsoil one must suspect a lack of
lime. If chestnut trees and pines grow, one must
suspect a serious lime need.
Liming.—Ground limestone is surely the best
source of lime. From 4 to 8 tons to the acre, or
more if it is conveniently at hand, should be used.
In north Georgia on red clay loam soil I applied
‘varying amounts from 7 tons to 17 tons per acre
of rather coarsely-ground limestone. The strongest
alfalfa, really wonderful, is on land having the most
limestone, Four tons of finely-ground limestone has
(476)
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 477
often given good results, although I feel sure that
more would do better.
One must remember that lime is needed in both
topsoil and subsoil. Apply half of it before plow-
ing, the other half after plowing. Disk well to mix
the lime through the soil. Apply lime at any time
when the teams and men have leisure for the work.
If it is done a little before time for sowing the
seed, all the better. Do not forget that alfalfa roots
ean gather nitrogen only in the limed area of the
soil, so get lime mixed all through the soil as deeply
as is convenient. Bear in mind that lime stays
where it is put; it does not go down. For this work
the deep disk plows, or tilling machines, are the
best machines yet brought to the farmer. If these
are not available, choose any disk or other plows
that will run deeply.
Of burned lime freely slaked, 2 tons to the acre
usually give alfalfa. If it can be well distributed
and well mixed through the soil more may be safely
used, especially in strong clays where plenty of or-
ganic matter can be turned under. I have seen 6
tons of burned lime used to the acre, with deep plow-
ing and much manure, and splendid alfalfa resulted.
This was at the Soldiers’ home at Knoxville, Tenn.
Many can obtain burned lime more easily and eco-
, nomically than ground limestone. Let them use it.
Good results will foilow. Yet in comparison I have
seldom seen limedust fail to give stronger alfalfa
than burned lime.
Method of Distribution—There are now made
475 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
lime distributors that hold a tone of limedust and
apply from 8 tons to the acre downward. Among
these the Buckeye seems to be a desirable type and
is giving satisfaction. One must caution the work-
men to avoid leaving narrow strips unlimed.
Other Essentials—Other essentials are drainage,
fertility, inoculation, and seed at the right time of
year. These with limestone comprise all the essen-
tial things. Writing this four years later than the
main part of the book, I am struck with the truth
that alfalfa loves manure. One can find by the
thrift of the alfalfa the spots where manure is
buried in the field. Make the land rich. A little
manure, at least, is almost essential to success. If
one does not have it from the stable let him grow
it and turn it under in cowpeas, soy beans, crimson
clover, melilotus or almost anything that will decay
in the soil, legumes preferred.
I wish I could tell how to grow alfalfa in the East
and grow it without manure or vegetable matter in
the soil, but I have not yet learned the trick. In-
stead, I begin to fear that there is nothing new un-
der the sun. Drainage, limestone, manure, inocula-
tion—these, with seed sown at the right time, are all
there are to alfalfa growing in the East. The prepa-
ration of the soil, while important and even vital
to getting a stand, is not so much an essential of
alfalfa-growing as is the filling of the soil with plant
food and letting the air into it. ,
I receive many letters from would-be alfalfa-
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 479
growers, some of them quite amusing, although ex-
asperating. Often they will read thus:
“*T have a field that I wish to sow to alfalfa. It
slopes to the west. It was in wheat this year and
corn last year. Do you think alfalfa would grow
well there? If so, how shall I sow it?’’
Such letters simply show how superficially these
men have learned to think of their soils. To such
queries one can only answer: ‘‘I do not know.’’
The sort of letter that I love to get reads like this:
“My field is thoroughly drained. It is well limed
with ground limestone. Muriatic acid applied to
the soil will bring effervescence in any part. The
soil has had much manure and is rich. How shall I
proceed to get alfalfa?’’
One can safely reply to this man:
_ Tnoeulate with soil from some successful alfalfa
field or from a sweet clover patch. As fast as the
inoculated earth is applied harrow to cover it from
the sun. Make a fairly good seedbed and sow al-
falfa in March, April, May, June, July or August.
If you live to the southward sow it preferably in
September or October. You are sure to succeed.’’
The point I wish to make is that growing alfalfa
is a soil matter almost altogether. There are many
successful ways of preparing the land and sowing
the seed.
For the help of hurried farmers unversed in al-
falfa culture I will now present a summary of some
successful ways of sowing the alfalfa plant in vari-
ous localities—a sort of ‘‘rule of thumb.’’
480 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
Successful Practice in Ohio.—On Woodland Farm
this is our habit: The land was last year in corn,
carefully cultivated to keep it free from weeds. Ma-
nure was applied to the corn. In the fall if con-
venient, otherwise in winter or early spring, the
land is well and deeply plowed. When spring opens
and danger of hard freezing is over, but before the
time of spring frosts has passed, probably the first
week in April in the latitude of Columbus, we go on
the land with the disk harrow. This is followed by
the plank drag or smoother; then follows usually a
spike-tooth harrow, which yet further levels and pul-
'‘ verizes, then the drag again to make the land smooth
for the drill. If one disking and dragging make a
good seedbed that is all that is given.
Then follows the drill with three compartments:
one with alfalfa seed, one with beardless spring bar-
ley, and one with fertilizer. The drill distributes 15
to 20 pounds of alfalfa seed to the acre, one bushel
or a little less of barley and 400 to 500 pounds to
the acre of fertilizer. The fertilizer is either a high
grade of acid phosphate or basic slag. We are yet
uncertain which pays the better, although liking ex-
tremely well the results of the basic slag. The al-
falfa seed is usually dropped behind the drill, some-
times in front of it. The plank drag follows the
drill to leave the land level and to cover all the seed.
With one team on the disk harrow, two on drags and
one on the drill, the work is continuous and about 10
acres a day are sown. The land has had inoculation
from our having grown alfalfa all over the farm in
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 481
past years. On new fields one must add inoculation
to the list of things to be done, and on some fields
liming.
Sowing Alfalfa in the Cornbelt——Let us recapitu-
late these steps, which are needed anywhere east of
the Mississippi River and along the 40th parallel:
First, make the land rich with manure.
Second, if it requires liming, lime it, at any time
or season you prefer. Turn half the lime under,
apply half after plowing.
Third, plow the land deep, preferably some weeks
before seeding.
Fourth, get busy as soon as the land is ready to
work in April. Harrow, drag and rake a seedbed
reasonably fine and smooth.
Fifth, distribute the inoculated soil and harrow it
in. About 200 pounds to the acre will serve, sown
broadcast; much more would be better. One must
harrow to cover it as fast as it is sown or else sun-
light may destroy the bacteria.
Sixth, come on with the drill, sowing 15 to 20
pounds of alfalfa seed, 3 pecks of beardless spring
barley and 400 to 500 pounds of phosphatic fertilizer
per acre, unless you are very sure that the land will
not respond to phosphorus.
Seventh, float the land smooth with a plank drag.
Thus sown you will not fail once in twenty years
to have alfalfa. Nor is it a slow or troublesome
work, nor so very costly to do.
Alternative Nurse-Crops in the Cornbelt.—Oats?
I earnestly advise against their use; the growth is
482 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
too leafy, the plant too prone to lodge. One gets a
far better stand, as a rule, to sow barley instead of
oats. We have done considerable experimental work
with winter rye, sown out of season in April or May
as a nurse-crop for alfalfa. Some of the best stands
we have ever had were secured in this manner. In
midsummer the rye dies, leaving the land to the al-
falfa, which then makes rapid growth. If rye is
used, however, sow no more than half a bushel to the
acre or else it will perhaps stool so that it will be-
come too thick. Winter wheat sown in April or May
at the rate of half a bushel or 3 pecks to the acre
seems to do about the same as the rye; it keeps down
weeds and foxtail grass, does not head, makes in
midsummer a fine, leafy hay of no very great
amount, and dies then and gives the land to the
alfalfa.
Comparing these three permissible nurse-crops
we are yet undetermined. The beardless barley
gives us the most hay and seemingly perfect stands
of alfalfa. The stands from the use of winter wheat
and rye are perhaps even better. I advise the read-
er to test the matter for himself, on his own soil,
taking care, however, not to sow rye thicker than
half a bushel to the acre.
What to Do with the Nurse-Crops.—Watch the al-
falfa and the nurse. If the latter shows any tend-
ency to lodge and smother the alfalfa, eut it off
immediately for hay. When the barley is fairly in
head the alfalfa will be ready for its first cutting;
that is, will have formed its basal shoots, ready to
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 483
put out a new growth. Really, we cut the nurse-crop
when the alfalfa is ready. This usually comes at the
time when the barley is in head but before grain has
formed. Do not, unless under exceptional condi-
tions, allow the grain to ripen. This would weaken
the alfalfa materially.
Times of Sowing Considered.—Alfalfa is perhaps
not hardy against March freezes, but hardy against
the frosts of April. Foxtail grass and many weeds
are killed by frost. Therefore, alfalfa sown the first
week in April or thereabouts will make a cleaner
stand than it will sown in May or June. Neverthe-
less one can with success sow alfalfa in the cornhbelt
any time from March till the last of August, with
the chances for success declining as he passes July,
for then he will not get a root strong enough to with-
stand the liftings of winter’s frosts.
Spring or Midsummer Seeding.—In land much in-
fested with weeds, as are the lands of Illinois and
some adjacent states, spring seeding is advised
against because the strong growth of weeds injures
the young alfalfa. In all the regions south of the
Ohio River crabgrass and weeds (crabgrass mainly)
come up to choke spring-sown alfalfa. In these
regions then it may be best sown after midsummer,
from July 15 to Sept. 1. In Illinois it is especially
recommended that alfalfa be sown in early August.
Let us consider this by regions.
Sowing in Illinois—In Ulinois and similar lati-
tudes the essentials are:
First, the liming, if, as is likely, the land needs
lime.
484 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
Second, the inoculation, which should be from the
use of alfalfa soil in as liberal amounts as can be
conveniently secured.
Third, the seedbed. Make it fine and firm. Too
much care can hardly be taken here, as it is not so
easy to get small seeds to germinate as in the spring.
Plow some time before seeding. Harrow, roll, har-
row again, work the land down to a fine firm seed-
bed, absolutely free from weeds. Then sow the seed.
Differing from spring seeding, no nurse-crop is here
admissible. One need not use more than 20 pounds
of seed to the acre. Sow it in any manner con-
venient and cover it an inch or a little less. Here
comes in play a new machine, very successful for its
purpose, the alfalfa drill. Several types are on the
market. They are made with small disks that open
tiny furrows for the seed and that cover it evenly
and nicely. Any amount of seed desired may be
sown. One can get a good stand with far less seed
if he uses the drill than if he does not. I have seen
stands almost too thick when only 5 pounds per acre
of seed was used. Make the land very smooth for
the drill.
Fourth, the fertilization. Phosphorus always suits
alfalfa. Add to the bonemeal or acid phosphate
or basic slag, whichever is chosen, 50 to 100 pounds
of nitrate of soda per acre. Do this unless you are
sure that the land is rich enough to start the alfalfa
off rapidly. It takes a little time for young alfalfa
to get its bacteria to work at gathering nitrogen.
The nitrate of soda comes in here as a splendid aid
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 485
and pushes the alfalfa on fast and makes a strong
root to withstand winter. The oncoming winter is
the bugbear, so get the roots so big and strong that
the frost cannot lift them out. The money invested
in the fertilization, provided the soil is not quite
rich, will be generously repaid over the next season.
Fifth, do not disturb the young alfalfa. Do not
clip it nor pasture it this year. Carefully exclude
animals in winter. Let no foot fall on it before the
middle of the following May.
Previous Treatment for Midsummer Seeding.—
The land may be enriched and planted to early po-
tatoes, these kept well cultivated, dug early, and the
land at once made ready for alfalfa. Great care
must be taken to work it so thoroughly that no
moisture is lost. It may be a wheat stubble. In this
instance, as soon as possible get the wheat off; run
the manure spreader over the field; plow at once,
harrowing each day what is plowed that day, and
work it down soon to a hard firm moist seedbed.
The field may be enriched, sown to spring barley,
which will be cut off for hay, then plowed again and
made ready for alfalfa. The field may be dedicated
to alfalfa from the first, plowed in the spring, kept
harrowed all through May, June and the first half
of July, and then the alfalfa sown.
Any one of these treatments will likely give suc-
cess. The practical objection is that when nothing
is sown upon the land it is a costly way of getting a
stand. When the alfalfa follows a grain crop there
is no loss of the land, but fear lest the soil moisture
486 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
be too low to give sufficient fall growth to withstand
winter’s freezings. I verily believe that every-
where north of the Ohio River spring seeding is
best, provided one can keep his land quite free from
weeds by clean cultivation of his corn the preceding
year. I mean absolutely clean cultivation. Here
the use of the Spalding deep plows helps, as many
weed seeds are too deeply buried to sprout again.
Fall Seeding a Mistake—I do not like the term
fall seeding, because it misleads people as to the na-
ture of alfalfa. It is not at all like a grass that can
live through winter just so it gets a toehold in the
earth. Alfalfa must have firm rooting so that it will
not be pulled up by frost. It is true that it is hardy
against cold, but if the winter’s freezings lift the
roots out it usually perishes. Thus in the cornbelt
September and October seedings usually fail. Sep-
tember seeding will do in Tennessee and southward,
and in the gulf states one can sow as late as Nov. 1
and often get a good stand, although even there
October seeding is better.
Seeding in the Latitude of Kentucky—kIn Ken-
tucky summer grasses greatly trouble spring-sown
alfalfa and it is usually most successfully sown in
August or early September. The following points
should be studied in Kentucky : Is the land really well
drained? Discriminate between a sloping surface,
giving surface drainage and a true soil drainage that
takes the excess moisture from the subsoil. Thou-
sands of miles of tile underdrains should be laid in
the tier of states represented in this parallel. Exam-
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 487
ine to see that the land has enough lime in it. I made
hundreds of examinations of Kentucky soils on the
limestone area and found few indeed that were not
lacking lime. Fortunately today the state is quite well
supplied with limestone grinding plants, and no one
need delay the use of ground limestone, for it can
be had conveniently and cheaply. Even at the Ken-
tucky Experiment Station, situated on a magnificent
soil type, additional lime doubled the yield of al-
falfa.
Having drainage and lime, look to fertility. In
this state the cowpea grows well. It may be turned
under, the land at once firmed, made fine and sown
to alfalfa. Use what stable manure can be spared
to supplement the cowpeas. Then there must be in-
oculation, and on most soil types a liberal applica-
tion of phosphorus, presumably acid phosphate, as
it is the cheapest and most generally available form.
One should add to this 80 pounds per acre of nitrate
of soda for immediate effect. Stands of alfalfa are
assured by this plan.
There are soil types in Kentucky, however, that
grow alfalfa quite well when it is once established,
but are so clayey and difficult to drain perfectly dry.
that they lift with the winter’s freezes and thaws
until they lift out the fall-sown plants. If the al-
falfa goes safely through the first winter on these
soils it gets root enough to hold through the second
winter. These lands grow bluegrass spontaneously,
but are helped by giving them more limestone. They
make big alfalfa that is early crowded with blue-
488 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
grass, which after it becomes established produces
much more luxuriantly than ever before. As there
are thousands of good farmers on this soil type it is
worth while for them to try to establish alfalfa.
I suggest taking advantage of the fact that grass
seeds do not live very long in the soil. Let the field
be enriched well, giving what underdrainage it
needs, and plant it to corn or tobacco. Keep the
crop absolutely clean of crabgrass during the entire
summer and fall. In winter plow as deeply as pos-
sible so as to throw up a fresh soil to the surface.
Half the lime should be turned under at this plow-
ing, half applied afterward. Sow the alfalfa early,
according to the season, but usually in March, as
soon as danger of very hard freezes is over. Fer-
tilize it heavily and do not omit the 80 pounds to the
acre of nitrate of soda. Thus we will get a strong
quick growth and a root strong enough to admit of
harrowing, should crabgrass come in midsummer. I
should test here the use of half a bushel of winter
rye to the acre, sown out of season with the alfalfa,
but I should sow half the field with no nurse-crop
whatever, assuming that the preceding year’s use
of the land has been as described. Very thorough
inoculation is a great help in making the alfalfa
start off vigorously, thus getting ahead of weeds and
grasses. One would not dare to sow alfalfa in this
mid-southern region during May or June. At that
time weeds start so fast that I should fear they
would overtake the alfalfa.
Handling Spring-Sown Alfalfa—Allow the
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 489
spring-sown alfalfa to grow untouched for from
forty-five to sixty days, or so long as it is making
thrifty growth in height. When the time comes that
it has ceased to stretch upward, look down at the
ground and see if small shoots have appeared at the
crowns, denoting its desire to make a new growth.
If these shoots have come, cut the field at once, and
cut it close to the earth. This invigorates the al-
falfa, and it comes up stronger the second time.
Watch it again and when it has stood forty to fifty
days one can see again the cessation of growth with
the coming of new shoots. Now cut it the second
time. Rake off any hay that it may make. After
this second cutting it ought to have a strong enough
root for careful cultivation.
Alfalfa can be harrowed the same year it is
sown, if it is strong and deep-rooted, but one must
do it with care not to loosen and draw out the plants.
It is better to suffer the grasses than to tear out the
alfalfa. It will, however, hold on astonishingly when
it has grown well for sixty to eighty days. One
must use discretion, and harrow the first year if the
alfalfa is strongly rooted and crabgrass threatens,
but do the work with care. Omit the harrowing if
weeds do not seriously threaten.
Establishing Alfalfa in Georgia—In north
Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee are mountain val-
levs where hard limestone is abundant and fairly
fertile clay loams abound. It is a land easily made
very fertile, although at present quite generally im-
poverished. In the north Georgia region is a beauti-
490 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
ful valley, where C. E. Buek owns a large tract
called Kensington Farm. Mr. Buek is a manufac-
turer of iron; the farm is a side-issue. I had the
pleasure of helping establish alfalfa on this place,
through the cordial co-operation.of Mr. Buek and
his efficient manager, C. E. Huffman. I have never
in the world seen finer alfalfa than grows on part
of Kensington Farm. We think that in the end we
will make it all as fine. I learned quite a good many
things in helping establish alfalfa at Kensington.
The land, naturally fertile, had been kept in quite
good heart by the use of manure from a large dairy.
It was all deficient in lime. We set up a lime-
grinding plant and ground the flinty limestone into
coarse powder, some of it as coarse as cornmeal.
We decided that large amounts of coarse stuff ap-
plied would give more permanent results than lesser
amounts of finely-ground material. To grind the
limestone and spread it on the soil cost, the manager
estimates, 90 cents per ton, not taking account of
depreciation in the plant. We applied from 7 to
about 20 tons to the acre of this material. Where
we used the limedust most liberally we got the
strongest, cleanest alfalfa. The grinding was ac-
complished by using first a Jaw crusher and next a
swing-hammer pulverizer. Little breakage or delay
was experienced in grinding up some 1,500 tons, al-
though the hammers had to be renewed in the pul-
verizer.
The general scheme of alfalfa seeding at Kensing.
ton has been to let alfalfa follow cowpeas. The
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 491
land is plowed, usually in August, with the Spalding
deep tilling plows, running down probably 16” or
more. At first we applied all of the lime after
plowing. Later experience leads us to apply half
DEEP PLOWING AND TURNING UNDER CORNSTALKS PREPARATORY
TO ALFALFA SOWING—WOODLAND FARM,
of it before plowing and half of it afterwards. We
try always to have some manure on the land. We
make a thorough seedbed and sow the seed in Sep-
tember with no nurse-crop, inoculating thoroughly,
492 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
of course. The result has been splendid. We have
used 500 pounds of acid phosphate to the acre and
80 pounds of nitrate of soda at the time of growing,
and each year afterward about 400 pounds of acid
phosphate, sometimes in early spring, sometimes
after taking off the first cutting.
Nevertheless, we have made partial failures.
Certain galled, washed and eroded hillsides that had
grown nothing for decades we sowed to alfalfa. On
some of these hillsides we had glorious success, bet-
ter when they faced the south. To conquer a red
gall in that Southland is a difficult thing. We did it
by extra amounts of limestone, extra amounts of
manure and fertilization as well. On certain galled
hillsides that faced the north we did not succeed so
well because the frosts of winter lifted out our
young plants. There we think August seeding, or
else spring seeding, would be better. On some of
the most stubbornly barren spots we are sowing
melilotus, which seems to thrive. Red galls are a
soil mystery, not yet fully solved, their barrenness
being due perhaps to the union of their phosphorus
with iron. However, we have some of the worst
scarred hillsides carpeted with luxuriant alfalfa,
erosion absolutely stopped and the land, once worse
than worthless, a good source of profit.
Of the behavior of alfalfa at Kensington Mr.
Huffman remarked:
“T know two things: first, that in establishing
alfalfa here one one must do well each and every
part of the work; he cannot leave one thing undone.
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 493
Second, the alfalfa must have its lime, manure, its
phosphorus, its good seedbed, its inoculation. Given
these things, it is the easiest crop to grow that I
know, and the most profitable. I know also that
one cannot tell what alfalfa is going to do before
‘the second year. It may look most unpromising
the first year and splendid the year following.’’
Alfalfa in Middle Georgia—Loring Brown grows
alfalfa near Atlanta with splendid success. The
soil is typical of a vast region of red clays. He
teaches the use of abundant supplies of lime, prefer-
ably ground limestone, which is now available at
reasonable rates. He also grows cowpeas, which
he feeds well to make a strong growth for turning
under. He disks and turns under the cowpeas in
late August, and then thoroughly works the land to
make a good seedbed. He uses inoculated soil and
applies 600 pounds of acid phosphate, 300 pounds
of bonemeal and 100 pounds. of potash per acre.
Now comes the astonishing part of his advice—the
use of 50 pounds of seed to the acre. This he says
makes so thick a stand that crabgrass can get no
foothold the next year. He sows in September or
October and cuts the next year from 4 to 10 tons
per acre of hay. Personally, I believe half the
amount of seed would give as thick a stand, and that
it pays in any case to harrow alfalfa once or twice
in summer in that latitude. He top-dresses with
acid phosphate some time during the year, usually
after the first cutting, I think.
Loring Brown has a dairy and also many fowls,
494. ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
His wonderful success with alfalfa is due in part
to the manure he has made; conversely the success
of the fowls and cows is largely due to the alfalfa
that they have had. He is a good man, doing a good
work in spreading the gospel of intensive agricul-
ture in the South. Costly as is his preparation of
the land, he gets it all back, with interest, the first
year afterward.
Melilotus as a Preparation for Alfalfa.—Since we
are considering the South, with its quite general
lack of humus in the soil, we may as well glance at
the splendid capabilities of the melilotus plant.
Cousin to alfalfa, having the same bacteria and
somewhat the same root system, it is yet curiously
enough able to get along with little or no humus in
the soil. This I have not yet been able ordinarily
to accomplish with alfalfa. Only in some excep-
tional instances does it grow strongly in soils defi-
cient in humus. Thus melilotus is able to prepare
the way for alfalfa. It needs all the things that
alfalfa needs, excepting that it does not demand
manure and will grow quite well on very hard soils.
I have even seen it growing vigorously on the lime-
stone rocks of Alabama. It has been demonstrated
that a strong growth of melilotus turned under
makes a splendid preparation for alfalfa. It can
be established anywhere that the land can be thor-
oughly limed. It makes good pasture and hay of
nearly the same value as alfalfa; it enriches the soil
and paves the way for alfalfa. It is therefore well
worth considering in any scheme of soil-building in
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 495
lands where manure is not easy to get. The Melilo-
tus alba, or white sweet clover, is the strongest
growing species and best worth considering. The
yellow-blooming sort makes a finer-stemmed hay
and might perhaps sell a little better. They are
probably of about equal feeding value.
Melilotus on the Lime Lands of the South.—In
the lime soils of Mississippi and Alabama melilotus
grows spontaneously, although it is not a native.
In truth, it is said that it was first brought to the
lime lands from Chile, South America. It has now
overspread most of the region and is growing on
the lime soils. Mixed with Johnson grass, it makes
splendid pasture and hay. It is recognized that
cattle pastured on these mixed pastures thrive re-
markably well. Melilotus sown on worn black lime
soils and grown for two years, the last growth
turned under, has advanced the yield of corn from
18 bushels to 55 bushels per acre. At the present
time, curiously enough, melilottus is little sown on
these lands. It is expected to come in of its own
accord, if it comes at all. Nor has there been devel-
oped a well recognized market for melilotus hay.
Instead most farmers on the limy black soils try to
grow alfalfa, with varying degrees of success, when
they might have absolute success with melilotus.
Alfalfa on the Lime or Prairie Lands of Alabama
and Mississippi.—A strip of limestone, soft, white
and easily disintegrating, called Selma chalk, ex-
tends down the eastern edge of Mississippi, across
into Alabama and eastward to a little south of Mont-
496 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
gomery. On this chalk or limestone rests usually
a black soil, varying in depth from a few inches to
many feet, termed Houston clay. A sub-variety is
known as Trinity clay. These are the somewhat
famous lime lands of the prairie belt of the two
states. A similar soft limestone is found in Geor-
gia. Within recent years much has been written of
these lands for alfalfa growing. Naturally they are
among the best lands of the world and have marvel-
ous durability under continuous cropping. They
vary much in desirability, some being too shallow,
some fully charged with lime and some lightly so,
or even deficient in lime. I know of no other soils
east of the Missouri River so full of lime as are the
best of these black belt lands.
Having grown melilotus, they are usually natu-
rally inoculated for alfalfa. Being rich in phos-
phorus (or assumed to be rich) none is ever applied;
in fact, the only thing done is to sow the seed and
reap the crops. There is but one serious fault in
these lands: they are underlaid by the watertight ‘
chalk in a climate of excessive rains. The black
soils fill with water, and alfalfa suffers, perhaps
dies. In winter or early spring when it would like
to grow the land is too waterlogged to permit
growth. I have gone in April from alfalfa in the
mountains of north Georgia, leaving the crop 30
inches high and nearly ready for the mowers, sev-
eral hundreds of miles south to the lime lands to
find the alfalfa there less than half as high and
waiting for the land to dry out before it would
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 497
grow. Naturally the lime soils are far richer than
the soil in Georgia. Drainage made the difference.
The black lime soils are very similar to our best
black soils of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; they need
underdrainage with tiles fully as much as did our
soils. Happily, as I write, ditching machines are
beginning the work. There seems no physical ob-
stacle to drainage. It is easier than it was in Ohio;
the fall is ample, and outlets are good as a rule. I
also have an idea that these black soils, where they
have grown continuous crops of corn and cotton, in
some instances for eighty years, must be depleted in
their phosphorus content, at least in the available
phosphorus. I am undertaking to learn by exper-
iment if this is not true. Till the present time
no fertilization whatever has ever been given them.
They respond marvelously to stable manures we
know, but manures are always in limited supply on
plantations.
Spring seeding is almost universally practiced in
the black soils, for the reason given that the lands
are wet and may through frost lift the young plants
in winter. After underdrainage fall seeding can be
practiced and I think with perfect success and far
greater freedom from crabgrass.
Making Alfalfa Hay in the Prairie Lands —Many
alfalfa-growers here make their hay very cheaply.
It is their practice to let hay dry quite thoroughly
before raking. They are not strenuous to save all
the leaves, for the hay is going to a market that does
not highly regard alfalfa leaves. Sweep rakes gather
498 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
the windrows into large bunches or cocks. Thence
the rakes take it to power hay presses or balers and
it is compressed lightly into bales at the rate of 20
to 30 tons per day. It is found best not to make the
bales very large or heavy. It is then loosely piled
to let the air circulate through the bales as much as
possible and sent to market. The human hand has
not moved the hay until it is thrown into the hay
press. It is estimated that when things work well
alfalfa is taken from the green state to the finished
bale for under $1 per ton. Naturally, bad weather
interferes with this system of haymaking, and
often the quality of hay thus secured is inferior, a
large proportion of the leaves having been left in
the field. The plan may be the best one for the pres-
ent time on large plantations with insufficient labor,
and for a market not very critical. Baling hay from
the windrow would: hardly succeed under northern
skies, as the heat of the sun is so much less and the
latent moisture is so much harder to dry out.
Johnson Grass and Alfalfa.—tin this region one
sees a great deal of that rank strong-growing peren-
nial grass called Johnson grass. It is usually mas-
ter of all other crops and has taken possession of
many a plantation. Alfalfa grows well with it and
gains on it. Grown together neither yields alto-
gether, but alfalfa has rather the better of the con-
test. Alfalfa and Johnson grass hay mixed make
admirable forage.
Selma Chalk as a Source of Limestone.—The soft,
easily decomposed limestone called Selma chalk,
CORN AND COTTON FOLLOWING ALFALFA ON THE LIMESTONE PRAIRIE SOILS OF ALABAMA,
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 499
usually needs no grinding to make it decompose in
the soil. If it is broken into fragments as coarse
as eggs it will in a year nearly disappear from sight.
It could be loaded on cars with steam shovels for
probably 25 cents per ton and sent out to farmers
not within reach of the lime hills. Used liberally
on the loams, clay and sandy soils of the surround-
ing region, it would marvelously promote their abil-
ity to grow legumes of all sorts, even to alfalfa. At
Macon, Miss., E. V. Yates covered a plot of sandy
well enriched soil an inch deep with this decomposed
unpulverized limestone, and sowed it to alfalfa. The
result was splendid, the alfalfa growing there taller,
more thrifty and more healthy than in the limestone
prairie soils near by. The sandy soil was almost
perfectly drained, and that is the key to his suc-
cess. I hope to live to see millions of tons of this
so easily quarried limestone used on the lands of
Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.
Alfalfa in the Delta of the Mississippi River.—
For some years I co-operated with Bolton Smith in
an endeavor to renew the life of a number of dead
plantations in Louisiana. It was a vast tract of
abandoned land, abandoned partly because of dis-
couragement concerning the cotton boll weevil and
largely because of soil difficulties. The land belonged
to a syndicate of Scots. My part of the work was
to study the soils and how to renew them. I learned
that the land was a dense, very fine clay, deposited
by overflows of the Mississippi River, with a good
deal of lime, phosphorus and potash in it but very
500 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
deficient in humus and nitrogen. I hoped that al-
falfa might grow upon it. As an indication, our
manager, G. P. Blair, had established a few acres
on a rich old horse pasture. This looked fairly good.
Personally I felt that with so much lime in the soil,
and also phosphorus and potash, it ought not to be
very difficult of restoration.
We began the work by opening the old drainage
canals. We were 80 feet above the Gulf of Mexico
and hundreds of miles distant. This shows how flat
our land was. It was fascinating work opening the
old canals, some of them antedating the war and ap-
parently not cleaned since then. With the water, off
the land, we started the plows. The'soil was very
clammy and dead. It is a soil type difficult to man-
age. It is usually plowed with water in the fur-
rows, and in fact is hard to plow at any other time.
We planted corn the first year, with soy beans and
cowpeas also. The thin furrow slices turned up
wet bake into brick, but the first shower loosens
them and crumbles them into ‘‘buckshot,’’ hence the
name of buckshot soil. Our corn, even with nitrate
of soda fed to it, was far from good. Perhaps it
made 20 bushels to the acre. We needed drain tiles
and in fact we laid a few strings of them, with good
results, but there was neither time nor money for
much underdrainage. The Scots had not much faith
and no desire to put much money into the demon-
stration farm.
Despairing of tiles I turned to surface drainage.
If we could throw up the land in beds 2 rods wide
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 501
and 2 feet high, connecting the deep furrows be-
tween the beds with our open ditches, we might grow
alfalfa, I hoped. It was impossible to do this work
before the land became thoroughly dry, since plows
would not scour in the half-dried clay. In July
came opportunity: the land was dry. With large
dise plows heavily weighted and drawn by six mules
we broke the land, turning it up into beds 2 rods
wide. The furrows I cleaned out with a road ma-
chine. With a great deal of labor I made these beds
nicely rounded and smooth, like the best turnpikes.
Rains came and the clods, nearly as hard as stone,
dissolved and we got a seedbed.
On part of the field we put a heavy application
of manure from the old stable; on another part I
used phosphate fertilizers liberally. In October I
sowed the seed. Inoculation is natural in the buck-
shot soils. The result was beautiful, nearly perfect
alfalfa. Seldom have I seen better anywhere in the
world, although I have seen it grow taller on some
soils. The astonishing thing was that we could never
trace the line where we had put the manure, nor
find any evidence of the other fertilizers.
This was one place where alfalfa through its bac-
teria received from the air all the nitrogen that it
needed. A marvelous thing was that the alfalfa
grew as vigorously in the bottom of our dead furrow,
where the soil had been removed to a depth of about
18”, as it did anywhere, and inoculation even there
was immediate. Naturally, after a time the best al-
falfa was on the ridges, as the furrows were slowly
emptied after hard rains.
502 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
We sold the alfalfa hay for $20 a ton in the field
and mowed it five or six times a year, although the
midsummer cuttings might yield little hay because
of heat and drouth. Through an accident Mr. Blair
was unable to continue the administration and C. E.
Speed carried on the work. We disked and har-
rowed the alfalfa twice or more during the year and
it retained its thrift perfectly. _We plowed some
alfalfa sod and planted it to corn. That yielded
more than 80 bushels to the acre.
Alfalfa had shown the way to soil redemption of
all of this vast delta region, shown the way to peo-
ple the land with intelligent, home-making farmers.
Under Mr. Speed’s administration we grew alfalfa,
peanuts, corn, soy beans, cowpeas, pigs, goats and
cattle. He made the place pay handsomely until
the Scots sold it to go into rice planting. I know
of no more splendid illustration of what alfalfa can
do in the way of soil restoration than this, but there
are few soils with enough lime, potash and phos-
phorus already in them. I have nowhere else seen
a soil that would not smile when tickled with stable
manure and alfalfa roots. For such things this soil
seemed ungrateful.
There was much sandy loam on a neighboring
plantation. This was reputed to be unfit for alfalfa.
We learned that it was not naturally inoculated, so
we had an Italian tenant inoculate and sow a field.
The result was magnificent and the alfalfa grew
taller than usual on our so-called buckshot soil.
Later my friend, Mrs. Vinyard Scott, sowed alfalfa
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 503
on sandy loam with encouraging success, her alfalfa
growing nearly 3’ high. Unhappily, all of these
fields went under 12’ of water in the spring of 1912,
but that is not a catastrophe to be seen again in my
lifetime, probably. It is at least definitely proved
that alfalfa is. well adapted to most of the alluvial
soils of the delta region along the Mississippi River.
Few if any of these soils need lime. Strangely
enough, we failed absolutely to grow melilotus on
this same soil, I do not know why, but we did not
need the plant, since we had the better one, alfalfa.
Lespedeza grew luxuriantly and we made hay from
it as well as from alfalfa.
Alfalfa on Woodland Farm.—Naturally one knows
most of his own farm, and some things that we have
learned since the first edition of this book was
printed may be helpful. We have in no essential
thing changed our manner of farm practice. We
continue to grow alfalfa for four or more years on
the land, followed then by two years of corn, the
second year with manure and back to alfalfa again.
This is our plan, but circumstances sometimes modi-
fy it. We usually cut our alfalfa but three times,
learning that a strong growth left standing results
in much less winterkilling and makes a far better
growth the following season. The year 1911 was,
however, an unhappy one for alfalfa in Ohio. A
good first cutting was taken, then followed unprece-
dented heat and drouth, with a plague of grasshop-
pers that ate off the buds of the young alfalfa as
fast as they appeared. The result was that our
504 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
barns were not full when September came and at
that time stood a beautiful growth of alfalfa, 2’ high.
The temptation was too strong; we cut over nearly
all the meadows and secured a lot of prime hay. Fol-
lowed then the hardest winter ever known here with
ice in hard sheets over the earth for weeks, and in-
tense cold. This resulted in killing a large part of
the alfalfa that had been cut the fourth time. Where
it was cut but three times, and went into winter
with a strong growth standing, there was little or
no winterkilling. One could easily trace the path of
the mowers. On one of our farms, a 60-acre field,
was killed outright; on another farm 40 acres was
seriously crippled and an 18-acre field destroyed.
There were, however, interesting lessons. In the 60-
acre field belonging to my brother we had excavated
a ditch with horses and scrapers, afterward plac-
ing a tile deep under the bottom of it. This soil
has in its subsoil many small pebbles and particles
of carbonate of lime. We left the raw clay, with
these lime fragments in it, on the surface of a strip
a rod or so wide and of some length. Alfalfa had
grown especially well in this spot, but we had given
it no notice until after the freeze, when we found
that the alfalfa growing here, in the midst of so
much carbonate of lime, had not winterkilled, al-
though cut as close as the rest and at the same time.
There seemed here a striking lesson of the preser-
vative effects of limestone on alfalfa plants. Maybe
the lesson learned was worth all that the disaster
had cost us, although the 60-acre field had the year
&
ALFALFA AND JOHNSON GRASS FIELD NEAR DEMOPOLIS, ALA.
Third cutting.—Total yield for season 1912 about’ five tons per acre. Two more cuttings to follow. The blended
hay is superior to either Johnson Grass or Alfalfa, and is a better money crop. July 18, 1912.
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 505
-tefore made above $60 worth of hay per acre, be-
cides a lot kept at home for feeding a dairy herd.
Lest one might think this behavior of the alfalfa
on the lime-clay accidental, I will say that there were
other places in the field where ditches had been dug
to great depth and the pebbles and subsoil thrown
out; wherever these appeared the alfalfa survived.
We had not supposed that the field was in need of
lime, since there is so much of it down only about
16”, but we now see that could we plow deep enough
to turn up this lime-impregnated subsoil we could
greatly benefit the field. With a deep-tilling plow
we can reach a part of this material, and shall do so.
Phosphorus for Old Alfalfa Fields——One part of
the field at the home farm was not mowed the fourth
time in the fall of 1911, the reason being that the
growth was too poor to warrant it. This part did
not winterkill and there was a thick, even stand. It
is a corner of the field remote from barns. In our
father’s day it had little manure; since his death
it has had little. Studying this corner at the time of
the first cutting, I was disappointed in its growth.
The alfalfa was too short. Something was lacking.
What was it? I suspected a deficiency of phosphorus.
We had made a practice of going over our alfalfa
meadows with acid phosphate each year, allowing
about 300 pounds to the acre. This corner had for
some reason missed getting its proper share. The
first cutting of hay would have satisfied some; it
made more than a ton to the acre, yet to my eye
something was wrong.
506 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA,
Our first step was to put in the spring-tooth alfal-
fa harrow and loosen the surface, where little fox-
tail grass was just showing. This was done imme-
diately after the hay was taken away. Then fol-
lowed the fertilizer distributor with basic slag at
the rate of 500 pounds per acre, as nearly as we
could estimate, putting it on in strips and leaving
THE SPRING-LOOTH ALFALFA HARROW,
strips unfertilized. For comparison, we also used
acid phosphate, in similar strips. The field was
then harrowed again crossways with the alfalfa
harrow. This turned over every inch of the soil,
running about 3” deep, and left a clean surface. Dry
weather followed and the result was not so striking,
as we had hoped to see, until after the next cutting
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA ‘SOWING. 507
had been taken; then came good rains, dissolving
the fertilizers, and it was as though a miracle had
occurred. The alfalfa stood in tall, thrifty fresh-
colored ridges where the fertilizer had been put; it
remained healthy but small where it had not been
fed. While we did not weigh the strips separately,
I have no doubt that the fertilization more than
doubled the yield of alfalfa. A dollar spent in phos-
phorus for this field would return at least $4 or
$5.
The lesson was not new; it was merely striking,
and it illustrates the fact that we can not get the
maximum profit from alfalfa unless we feed it; that
practically all the lands of the United States are
hungry for phosphorus; that alfalfa bacteria can
not appropriate atmospheric nitrogen well unless
they too have plenty of phosphorus with which to
work. That alfalfa got no nitrogen from us; it gave
us, after being fed with phosphorus, twice the nitro-
gen that we had before. Under our system of farm-
ing, as we feed the alfalfa hay to animals, we keep at
home much of the fertility thus gained.
Basic Slag, Acid Phosphate or Raw Rock Phos-
phate——Admitting that we can make large profit by
purchasing phosphorus in some form, how shall we
best buy it? We admit that we are yet undetermined
in this matter. We have used three carloads of
fine-ground Tennessee phosphatic rock and think
that we got results from its use. We put it out
directly on the land at the rate of 1,000 pounds per
acre, followed by spreading manure over the land
508 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA,
and turning all under. Untreated phosphatic rock
becomes available only by the action of the decay
of vegetable matter in the soil, and it is probable
that the phosphate should be in intimate contact with
the decaying vegetable matter. It seems to me that
this substance should always be used in stables,
sprinkled over the manure. Unhappily we left no
check strips to determine the effect of the phos-
phorus that we applied, so we do not know. Dr.
Cyril G. Hopkins in Illinois gets undoubted results
from turning under raw phosphate in connection
with green manures or stable manures. Prof. C. E.
Thorne of Ohio gets undoubted results when it is
used in connection with manure, in intimate contact.
Theoretically the raw phosphate, very finely ground,
is the material to buy for soil-building. One gets
about four times as much of the element phosphorus
for his dollar in raw rock phosphates as in any other
form. He should be sure that he gets the fine
ground material—the finer the better. In my
opinion he should then as much as is possible use it
in his stables, in boxstalls, directly on manures.
Thus used, it seems always to become available.
Immediately Available Phosphates.—Neverthe-
less, we shall continue the use of immediately avail-
able phosphates for starting alfalfa and for feeding
it year by year after it is established. For this use
nothing seems quicker than acid phosphate, which
is the raw rock treated with sulphuric acid. It is
so soluble that even if it is not harrowed in it will
give results. Basic slag, when it can be harrowed
1. Alfalfa with manure and phosphorus—Woodland Farm. 2. Alfalfa cut but
three times in 1911—unharmed by the hard winter of 1912. 3. Effect of
cutting too late in the fall—four cuttings in one year—Woodland Farm.
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 509
into the soil, seems nearly as prompt in action, and,
as it carries a large percentage of carbonate of
lime, it serves a double purpose in the soil. It was
notable in 1912 that where we used basic slag the
alfalfa while growing rapidly had a darker color
than where we used acid phosphate; it had in fact
gathered more nitrogen from the air because the
lime in the slag helped the bacteria do their work.
We have tested applications of raw rock phosphates
direct as a top-dressing of the meadow with unsatis-
factory results; in fact, on the very land where we
secured such splendid effects from both acid phos-
phate and basic slag, we had two years before ap-
plied 800 pounds to the acre of raw phosphate, so
it seems clear that for annual applications to alfalfa
meadows the immediately available carriers of phos-
phorus are preferable, and, in fact, indispensable.
Maintaining Fertility on Woodland Farm.—Our
farm is devoted chiefly to the production of mut-
ton. We buy lambs in the fall and fatten them dur-
ing the winter, feeding our alfalfa hay, and corn.
We feed 1,400 lambs and make a gain on each one of
about 50 pounds, counting wool and live weight.
Thus the farm produces about 70,000 pounds of
growth on the lambs each year. This we sell away
from the land. There is a serious drain of nitrogen
and phosphorus—the nitrogen in the flesh and blood
and the phosphorus in all parts of the animals. The
nitrogen comes, of course, mainly from the alfalfa
consumed; this does not trouble us in the least;
over the farm is the vast store of atmospheric nitro-
510 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
gen, and we can draw on this freely whenever we
wish, so long as we have alfalfa growing in well-
aerated soil, its roots close to limestone and sup-
plied with phosphorus; but how about the drain of
phosphorus in 70,000 pounds of living animals? The
body of a lamb contains about .005 per cent of the
element phosphorus, more or less, according to its
fatness. Thus we sell away from the farm each year
in mutton alone about 350 pounds of phosphorus,
equivalent to about 800 pounds of phosphoric acid to
replace which would require the purchase of 5,000
pounds of 16 per cent acid phosphate. Now we know
that when we add phosphorus to the soil we do not
get it all back in the crop; that is impossible, so to
be on the safe side we ought to purchase, for mak-
ing up this drain alone, at least five tons of 16 per
cent acid phosphate per year, or its equivalent in
some other carrier of phosphorus. And as our farm
is not as fertile as it would be profitable to make it,
we decided to apply phosphorus yearly in liberal
amounts to nearly every acre of land bearing alfalfa.
There are small areas on the farm where phosphatic
fertilizers do not show an increase. Ordinarily the
use of 400 pounds per acre of 16 per cent acid phos-
phate has given us much more than a ton of hay in-
crease in yield the year it has been applied, and far
stronger and better alfalfa the succeeding year.
The purchase of Nitrogen.—Thus far we have seen
little need of more nitrogen than we produce on the
land. In fact, the nitrogen content of our soils is ap-
parently far in excess of what it was when we began
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 511
growing alfalfa. One can afford to be liberal in his
purchases of phosphorus when this is the one ele-
ment that he must buy. We have had no difficulty
in growing corn on alfalfa sod to a maximum yield
of more than 100 bushels of shelled corn per acre
over a 50-acre block, which nearly satisfies us that
we are on the right road.
Potash for Alfalfa.—On Woodland Farm are cer-
tain low spots, once pond bottoms, with black soil
and appearing rich, that are so deficient in potas-
sium that they have refused to grow corn or alfalfa
without potash. This substance works a miracle on
these spots and makes corn ear splendidly and al-
falfa show fine thrift. We use commonly muriate
of potash, once in three or four years, at the rate of
200 pounds to the acre. On our clay soils we note
no need of this compound. Hach man must experi-
ment for himself in order to know what his own
soil type lacks; nearly always it will be phosphorus,
occasionally potassium and usually nitrogen as well.
Weeds, Foxtail, Crabgrass and the Alfalfa Har-
row.—F oxtail will come in alfalfa meadows despite
all one’s care. It may do little harm; it may seri-
ously choke the alfalfa. Crabgrass comes less often,
and is worse when it comes. Of weeds only a few
trouble; the broad-leaved plantain is one of the most
common. Usually it is a sign of needed underdrain-
age. We have tested nearly all modes of harrowing
alfalfa to rid it of grass. The disc is the most com-
mon implement. We found it efficient enough but it
decreased the yield of the alfalfa in some instances
512 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
through injury to the crowns. We tested the spike-
tooth arrangements; they were not satisfactory be-
cause they wound up with grass too rapidly. John
M. Jamison, of Ohio, took his spring-tooth harrow
to the blacksmith and had the points of the teeth
made narrow and sharp, when, presto! the trick was
done. The perfect implement for cultivating alfalfa
is now in our hands, since manufacturers are mak-
ing the tool in any desired width. This alfalfa har-
row will pull out any sort of grass and not hurt the
alfalfa. The time to use it is just after taking off
the first crop. Rake the land very clean. Go over
it in two directions with this harrow. It may bury
the crowns a little; this will do them no harm. All
foxtail grass, crabgrass and all young plantains,
will be destroyed. I feel that, thanks to this tool,
coupled with the use of phosphorus and the avoid-
ance of fall grazing or late cutting, we can hold our
alfalfa meadows for an indefinite number of years,
perhaps for 10 or more.
The Engine in the Alfalfa Field—However, all
was not solved yet for Woodland Farm. We had no
surplus of horses and haying time was often a
strenuous time. How would we get to do the har-
rowing? The advent of a kerosene-burning tractor
finished the solution. We hitched to the engine one
of these spring-tooth harrows cutting a swath 21
feet wide. My 16-year-old boy ran the engine. It
drew the harrows with ease and could have drawn
more of them. It was a joy to watch it work. I
feared that the heavy wheels might injure some of
1. Alfalfa with basic slag on Woodland Farm, 1912.
tilization—check strip—1912. 3.
Woodland Farm, 4.
2. Alfalfa with no fer-
Alfalfa with acid phosphate, 1912—
Check strip in acid phosphate plot—no treatment—
1912,
*
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 513
the crowns; it seemed not to do so. We harrowed
the alfalfa in two directions, tearing up every inch
of the surface soil, destroying grass and making a
soil mulch. The result was little less than marvel-
ous. Even the old alfalfa weakened and thinned by
the previous year’s bad treatment came to life in
large part, thickened up by stooling and seemed too
good to break. I do not know what place the tractor
has in farm economy; its weight may preclude its
use for spring plowing, but it has evidently a great
field of use on an alfalfa farm. It will plow in the
fall, using the deep tilling plows; it will with ease
keep the fields in garden-like tilth, free from grasses
and weeds. In the South, on the prairie lands, this
combination should have an especially good field
and result in great good. In fact, the advent of this
broad-sweeping alfalfa harrow with the tractor to
draw it seems to me to mark the final completion of
the necessary means to alfalfa growing in the region
east of the Missouri River. It should be of nearly
equal use west of that line.
The Bierwagen Method, or the Buried Crown in
Alfalfa.—Daniel Bierwagen is a picturesque individ-
ual in Stanley Co., S. D. From his own observation
and experience he has evolved a new system of al-
falfa culture, especially applicable to cold and arid
regions. This is the system of the buried crown. In
studying the native legumes of his region, he ob-
served that they grew thriftily where the wash of
the hills continually tended to deposit silt, and more
deeply bury the crowns. Acting on this hint, he
514 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA,
sowed alfalfa on a field that had by overflow been
covered deep with mud, which on drying had cracked
open to a depth of 4 inches to 6 inches. His seed
falling on the hard surface rolled into the cracks,
germinated there and after a while the leaves
emerged, followed by the stems leaving the crowns
buried several inches. Later he harrowed the land,
filling the cracks, but not of course before the plants
had become strong enough to withstand treatment.
The results were most promising, the alfalfa stand-
ing the winter perfectly and also resisting drouth
well. He could cultivate without injury to the buried
crowns. This led him to experiment to see how he
could bury crowns on land that did not crack open to
give him any natural opportunity to do this. I quote
his words:
“Having arrived at these conclusions, I was so thoroughly
convinced that this is the proper method of alfalfa culture
that I risked a large amount of Turkestan seed on a field
which had been overflowed and had received a deposit of
mud, which after being dried, was from 4” to 6” in depth.
This mud, in the drying process, cracked, leaving openings
from 2” to 3” wide and as deep as the thickness of the mud.
This field least appeared to be in shape for a coming alfalfa
field of any field I ever saw, that is looking at it from a
standpoint of common alfalfa philosophy. But believing in
my discovery, I proceeded, without any further preparation
of the ground, to sow this land to alfalfa, trusting that most
of the seeds would roll into the cracks. I seeded it broadcast
at the rate of from 5 to 7 pounds per acre. After seeding,
I ran a common harrow, with teeth slanted back, over it
once. This served to make enough loose mulch on top of
the crusted mud so the first rains could cover the seeds
sufficiently to germinate. Then I left matters to nature.
“The first result was that by this act I fully established
the correctness of my philosophy concerning the nature of
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 515
alfalfa; for this field for the last four years has been the
talk and admiration of the county and its fame has spread
over the state. The last two very dry years fully proved
that the crown covering method is the only method by
which alfalfa culture can be carried to complete success in
the northwest; for this part of my large alfalfa field has
produced well in spite of the extreme drouth.
“To make my method clear, I will explain the workings
of nature in this field. After the seed had germinated in
these cracks, the little plants grew rapidly, forming their
crowns at the bottom of the cracks. The action of the air
and later rains gradually dissolved the dried mud into a
fine mulch and gradually covered up the crowns; later wash
from the surrounding hills added more cover to it until now
the most of the plants are covered up to the depth of 6” to
8".
‘After I was fully convinced, in my own mind, that the
superior growth of this part of the field was due to the
buried crown, I began experiments on lands not so situated
as to receive any soil deposits carried by water from ad-
joining highlands. On this kind of land, certain methods had
to be resorted to in order to obtain the same results. Here
the land was thoroughly disked, setting the disc so it would
leave trenches. The seed was sown in these trenches and no
harrowing done. All was left for the rains to cover the seed
and gradually level the land. Good results were obtained
only in spots, owing to the different texture of the soil over
the field as the disc would not make even trenches. In some
places the trenches were not deep enough, and the crowns
did not receive sufficient covering; but in every case where
the trenches were deep enough—say a depth of at least 4”—
the alfalfa sown last August has gone through the winter
without any apparent harm from the winter’s severe weather.
“In another test, where one-year-old plants were set out
py hand in trenches and covered up to a depth of 4” (the
covering being done gradually), the results are extremely
promising. The sprouts present at this time indicate a growth
for the coming season of as many as 150 stems from one
crown. While my method of the buried crown has not, as yet,
to the following very well based ccnclusions;
516 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
“First, that in order wholly to overcome winterkilling,
caused either by extreme cold or heaving by ice gathering
around the crowns, and also to overcome sun scalding dur-
ing extreme summer heat after the first crop is taken off,
the farmer must plant his seed in open trenches which are
from 4” to 6” deep and from 14” to 18” apart. Care, how-
ever, must be taken that the trenches are not run down steep
grades, which would cause the water to run in the trenches.
The covering of the seed must be left to the rains and the
wind. After the plants are about 6” above the surface of
the ground, then the final leveling process must be begun by
means of a common harrow by frequent harrowing. This
harrowing should be continued until the field is leveled, and
the crowns well buried to a depth of at least 4”.
“Second, that by the buried crown method, the farmer
can easily gain an extra crop, for the reason that the buried
crown will throw out, late in the fall, a large number of
sprouts, which will remain below the surface of the ground
and thus keep alive, waiting for spring that they may start
growing again at the first call of growing weather; thus often
making a growth of from 6” to 8” before the exposed crown
recovers from the rigors of the past winter.
“Third, that the covered crown method is the only way
by which an alfalfa field can be made permanent or ever-
lasting; thus is explained and established, the truth em-
bodied in the German name for alfalfa, which is Ewiger Klee,
or Eternal Clover. By the buried crown method, that part
of the top growth which is covered with soil, never dies.
Frost does not affect it. It lives through the winter, and
not only lives, but develops independent small roots; if any
injury befalls the main tap-root or the crown, these little
feeder roots become independent tap-roots, and a new crown
is developed just above the old crown; so it often happens
that where one crown is destroyed by a mole or other rodent,
as many as 20 new crowns take the place of the one dead one.
“Fourth, that by the buried crown method alone, soil cul-
tivation and moisture conservation can be practiced continu-
ously without matefial injury to the crowns. A field, under
this method, can be disked or harrowed with a spring-tooth
harrow, as often as a crop is taken off; or, if only a top mulch
is desired to retain moisture, a common harrow can be run
ALFALFA HARROW IN THE MEADOW. | ..
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 517
over the field without touching the main crown. While in
the case of the exposed crown, disking or even harrowing will
wound the crown, which causes rot to set in, the result being
weakening and consequent death of the plant.
“Fifth, that by the buried crown method, alfalfa culture
can be carried to a successful issue in sections of the United
States where heretofore, under the common practice, it had
proved a rather uncertain speculation, owing to climatic ex-
tremities and heaving by ice, both being guarded against by
a four-inch soil cover.
“Sixth, that by the buried crown method, never more
than five pounds of seed are required per acre, if seeded
broadcast, and considerably less if planted with some kind of
a drill. The thin planting gives the best results both in dry
and wet seasons. In wet seasons, the plant will throw out
several hundred stems and completely take up all the avail-
able space. In dry seasons, the plant not only adjusts itself
to the amount of available moisture, but owing to its stronger
root development, is enabled to collect more moisture and
thus produce a crop where thickly planted fields fail.’’
There must be great merit in the Bierwagen sys-
tem for the dry and cold plains of the Northwest.
It seems hardly worth while for the region east of
the Missouri, although it may well be worth testing
even here.
Hardy Alfalfa—aAlfalfas vary immensely in
hardiness, depending on the variety and whence
they come. Thus Arabian and Peruvian alfalfas
winterkill in the northern states; seed from Arizona
is not hardy in Nebraska, and the new alfalfas
brought by Prof. N. E. Hansen from Siberia are
hardy almost everywhere. Unhappily some of the
hardiest alfalfas are not the most desirable in char-
acter of forage. There are, however, new alfalfas
coming that are far hardier than the common ones.
518 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA.
Some of these newer sorts are the result of Prof.
Hansen’s explorations; some are the result of elimi-
nation by planting alfalfa in the cold Northwest and
growing seed there; that is, if one will plant any al-
falfa in a cold region and allow it to remain for a
series of years, he can save seed from what is left,
if any, and feel sure that it is hardy.
The Grimm alfalfa from Germany via Minnesota
is now understood to be a hybrid alfalfa, the result
of an accidental cross between the yellow-blooming
Medicago falcata and the common purple-blooming
Medicago sativa. One can note the peculiar greenish-
colored blossoms resulting from this cross. On
Woodland Farm in an alfalfa nursery we have a
large number of strains of hardy alfalfa, among
them the Grimm. While they differ in productive-
ness and value, yet all that we have grown from
seed from the Northwest have been quite hardy and
nearly equally good. Unhappily seedsmen have been
too enterprising in sending out new ‘‘varieties’’ of
‘“‘hardy’’ alfalfa, not always being scrupulous to
send the thing advertised. However, with the in-
crease in seed production in the Northwest we are
sure to have sooner or later hardy varieties avail-
able. We have found for our conditions seed from
Nebraska almost perfectly hardy and as productive
as any.
The Yellow Blooming Medicago Falcata—In
Pommern, Northern Germany, in the summer of
1911, I visited the great farm of Herr Ernest
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 519
Schlange, at Schonningen, near Colbitzow. This is
well north, farther than Hudson Bay. Herr
Schlange’s soil is in part sandy. Growing along the
roadside, in the grass and from the sand, was the
yellow-flowered alfalfa, Medicago falcata, behaving
like a weed, only a beautiful weed. I think he
thought me a bit mad when I sprang from the car-
riage and exclaimed in wonder at this plant, which
I had never before seen growing wild in its native
region. It did not make a tall growth, but it was
thrifty and growing out of a very sandy and I think
lime-deficient soil. There is a story about this ‘‘sand
lucerne.’’ I enthused over it so much that the Ger-
man farmer offered to have his men gather me some
of the seed when it was ripe. I was delighted. In
due course a bulky package arrived by parcels post
from the farm of Herr Schlange. I opened it with
happy expectation; it contained a neat, orderly and
fine collection of plants gathered by the well-mean-
ing peasants, but not one alfalfa plant among them!
I am sure after seeing this yellow-blooming alfalfa
grow wild in the sand and holding its own against
the grass, that it has a place in American agricul-
ture. Why not for Michigan, for example?
Transplanting Alfalfa—The work of increasing
special strains of desirable alfalfa is being hastened
by transplanting the roots. Prof. N. E. Hansen has
inaugurated this interesting work. It is of espe-
cial interest to all that great region of semi-aridity
in the West and Northwest, where alfalfa seed pro-
duction is easiest and where it should naturally all
520 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA,
be produced, since there grown it is certain to be
hardy. I quote from Prof. Hansen as follows:
“On May 2 at Ipswich, S. D., alfalfa plants were set at the
rate of 100 per minute, or 6,000 per hour by machine. Dem-
onstrations of this machine planting were first made April
23 at Brookings and a half dozen other points later. The
plants were set with plow, spade and hoe. I claim no origin-
ality for the method except that this is the first time where
a machine has been used for transplanting alfalfa. I have
combined an old oriental method with an American machine,
one of the standard transplanting machines used for tobacco,
cabbage, tomatoes and many other plants, which used a nine-
inch shoe slightly widened at the back by a local blacksmith
to allow more space for the alfalfa roots.
“My alfalfa studies indicate that transplanting is an an-
cient practice, reported from India, France, England and
South America. Under certain conditions in intensive agricul-
ture it would naurally come in for such a long-lived plant as
alfalfa. I have used the method since the spring of 1907
with the new alfalfas I brought over from Russia and Siberia
as Agricultural Explorer sent out by the Secretary of Agri-
culture. I have been much pleased with the wonderfully
vigorous growth of these alfalfa plants and with the good
results obtained by the many farmers who have set out these
one-year plants. When set in good garden soil 2’x4’ we get
plants with over 100 shoots to the crown, and bearing as
much as 3 ounces of seed per plant the third year, on plants
transplanted the first year from seed. This means 1,029
pounds of seed per acre. The variety was the one secured in
Russia, which I have named the Cossack. From present pros-
pects they will yield much more the present season. Some
farmers report obtaining 7,000 to 8,000 seeds per plant the
first year, and one North Dakota farmer reports raising one
pound of seed in 1911 from eight plants set in the spring of
1910, which means 25,000 seeds per plant.
“At present I give this out simply as an item of agri-
cultural news and do not advise the method until its value has
been demonstrated. However, here are some of my reasons
for undertaking the work:
“That 20 pounds of seed per acre means 106 seeds per
SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 521
square foot. Instead of that every plant should have several
Square feet.
“The parasitic vine known as dodder is a serious menace
to the alfalfa industry, as many fields are infested with it.
In Europe such fields are put out of commission by the
government. Plants in hills could easily be kept clean.
“The drouth resistance would be increased by giving the
Plants more room.
“The growing of plants on well-inoculated soil would pro-
vide perfect inoculation.
“A very important reason is that it would avoid injury
from disking. Splitting the alfalfa crowns by the usual discs,
harrows and spike-toothed renovators affords easy access to
the soil fungi and the plants soon become black-hearted and
decayed at the heart. This may have some bearing on the
root rot, which is reported to be quite destructive in Arizona,
and the Texas root rot, which has been very destructive in
Texas since 1892.
“Iam fully aware that this is contrary to all the present
teachings of the experiment stations, farm papers and farm-
ers’ institute lecturers, but why should we mutilate or maim
a plant that should last several centuries? Alfalfa fields in
the orient are shown 400 years old, but the orientals do not
mutilate their plants as we do. The heart of an alfalfa plant
should be held as sacred as the heart of an oak tree.
“Alfalfa is a poor fighter the first year, as the strength
goes below ground, hence it is often choked out by weeds,
which make more top than root. But by setting out a good-
sized alfalfa plant, often as big as one’s middle finger, they
can hold their own better against the weeds.
“All this has come from studying the individuality of the
alfalfa plant. I think it will be the best method for growing
pure seed, and that it will work out from the forage stand-
point also. If transplanting proves to be a good thing, no
doubt men of mechanical genius will soon invent machines
with mechanical feeds and using four horses instead of two,
so as to do the work more cheaply. But even at this present
preliminary stage I believe that the method will greatly hasten
the spread of the hardy Russian and Siberian alfalfas through-
out the prairie Northwest. The plants are grown the first
522 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA,
year in drills much like carrots and beets, and are dug with
a tree digger.
“Finally, so many new questions are raised by this new
departure that they cannot all be discussed in a brief article.
But remember that the method promises improvement in the
following respects: Overcrowding, dodder, drouth resistance,
inoculation, crown rot, choking from weeds and increased seed
production.”
INDEX.
Air, nitrogen in the,
Alabama, alfalfa in, re 495.
Alfalmo, 418,
Algeria, alfalfa in, 474.
Alfalfa, a balanced feed, 406.
a desert plant, 84
a soil enricher, 234.
action of on horses’ kidneys,
after crimson clover, ‘164. .
after oats, 213.
alsike clover and, 269.
ants in, 427.
Arabian, 82. i
as a pasture plant, 336.
Babylonian, 48.
bacteria, 37, 85, 86, ‘224.
baling hay, 356.
barns for hay,- 466."
bees and,
bloating on, 338,
bloom test, the, sind time to
cut, 293.
bran and, 359.
bread from, 360.
brome grass and, 270.
brood mares and, 377.
cattle feeding on, 380.
cattle finished on, 352.
cattle grazing on, (346.
cattle on in South America,
chemical composition of, 362.
corn after,
cost of growing, 243, 245.
crimson clover with, 163.
crop rotation and, 237.
cultivating, 254.
culture of, 95.
euring in ‘the mow, ‘300.
cut, when to, 157.
cut when shoots appear, 90.
cutting for soiling weakens,
8
9.
cutting invigorates, 91.
cutting in the West, time of,
299.
cutting, the first, 294.
cutting, time ‘of, 293.
dairying and, 387. :
developed in dry. Feptons, 48.
digestibility of,
diseases of, 266.
disking, 254.
dodder in, 264.
Alfalfa—
drainage for, 102.
drouths and,
duration of stand, 239.
early cutting of harmful, 325.
ewes on, 395
experiment station on feeding
dairy. cows, 388
fall seeding of, 204,
fall seeding of a mistake, 486.
first growth of,
for horses, 373.
for poultry, 335.
foxtail in, 41.
frosted, dangerous, 343.
Germany, alfalfa in, 52,
roe yellow-blooming
gophers in, 424,
grasses. in,
grasshoppers in, 426.
grazing, advantages of, 340.
grazing sheep on, 398.
Greeks and,
green, curing, 317.
green in dairy rations, 328.
Grimm, 82, A
growth of, 84.
hardy, 82, 517.
hardiness of, 92.
hardy types of, 81.
hay, feeding sheep, 396.
green or brown, 300.
havvestie in the West, 299.
making lands, 497.
ing in rainy countries,
ane of, 121.
yields of, 41,
haying tools, 302.
Hawaii, growing in, 473.
history of, 46.
honey from, 99.
hogs fed, 402.
hogs on, 344.
hogs on in Nebraska, 413.
hogs on in Oklahoma, 410.
ice will kill, 93.
inoculation, 199, 207, 211, 220.
irrigating, 277.
ae tion of, grown for seed,
Johnson grass and, 498.
lambs. fed,
late mowing of injurious, 91.
“lifecof field of, 94,
aT . (528) :
§24 INDEX.
Alfalfa— Alfalfa—
liming, 476. spring-sown, handling, 488.
meal, 360. summer seeding,
meal and bran
vania, 417.
meal for cows, 390.
meal, making, 417.
melilotus prepares for, 494.
midsummer seeding, 485.
moisture a factor in growing,
in Pennsyl-
not a grass, 84,
nurse-crops for, 201.
oats with, 202.
orchard grass and, 275.
pasture,
pasture for horses, 345.
pasturing, with hogs, 404.
Peruvian, 83.
plant food from, 37.
plowing for, 191
potash for, 511.
poultry and, 415.
prairie dogs in, 429.
profits from, 247.
protein in, 358.
rain and haymaking, 309.
red clover and, 8.
rich soils and, 153.
rock phosphate for, 183.
roots, 38, 85, 1038, 120, 139.
roots in irrigated soils, 289.
roots, nodules on, 165.
root rot, 266.
second cutting of, 90.
seed, adulteration of, 441.
coating with earth, 231.
drilling in the, 220.
examine samples of, 442.
growing, 430.
number of in bushel, 216.
vitality of, 475.
where grown, 99.
seeding, 199, 207.
after wheat, 209.
in fall, 204.
rate of, 216.
thick and thin, 218.
with a arill, 197.
work after, 199.
sheds for hay, 466.
sheep and, 2.
silage for cows, 391.
siloing, 354.
sod, plowing, 419.
soiling,
soiling for “hogs, 334.
soiling for horses, 331.
soiling for sheep, 332.
soiling weakens, 89.
soils, 104.
sowing on irrigable land, 284.
sowing, summary of, 476.
sowing the seed, 219,
spring sowing, 196.
spring sowing, “plowing for,
apring or
Spain and, 52.
stacking outdoors, 317.
stand of, getting a, 101.
stock on fields of, 296.
summer sowing, 205.
sweet clover in, 261.
temperature extremes and, 87,
tiling land for,
time to cut, 293.
timothy in, 268.
transplanting, 519.
treading, danger of, 92.
Turkestan, 97.
types of, 80.
varieties of, 78.
water used by, 250.
weeds in, 40, 258.
weeds kill, 260.
wheat and, 210.
when to cut, 88, 200.
wild in Montana, 105.
winter-killing of, 297.
yields of, 249.
yields of hay, 41.
yields of under irrigation,
American Seeding Machine Co.,
186.
Ants in alfalfa, 427.
Argentina, alfalfa in, 348.
Arkansas, alfalfa in, 75.
Arlington, farm at, q.
Ashes, wood, for potash, 189.
Bacteria, about, 226.
ae ae conditions favo-ing,
Bacteria for alfalfa, 224.
Bacteria, how to Bet, 229,
Bacteria, work of, 227.
Baling alfalfa, 386.
Baling, shed for, 468.
Barley hay, 42, 200.
Barley hay from alfalfa land,
Barley, spring, alfalfa after,
Barns for hay, 466.
Barn, the open-center hay, 308.
Basic slag, 507.
Basic slag, analysis of, 185.
Basic slag for soils, 1
Bees and alfalfa, 345.
Benitz, John, quoted, 349.
Bicknell, Frank W., quoted, 348.
Bierwagen, Daniel, quoted, 513.
Blair, G. P., mentioned, 500.
Blinn, P. K., quoted, 422, 463.
Bloat, curing, 41.
Bloat, danger from, 338.
Bloat’ from alfalfa, 10.
Bluegrass and alfalfa, 273.
Bluegrass, English, 276.
INDEX. 525
Bluegrass in alee Ps 260. Dodder, eradicating, 264.
Bonemeal, raw, 181. Drag, plank,
Bran, alfalfa for, 359.
Brand, C. J., quoted, 446.
Bread _ from alfalfa, 360.
Breaking sod in Colorado, 421.
Brome grass and alfalfa, 270
Brown, Edgar, quoted, 442.
Brown, Loring, cited, 493.
Buek, c E., cited, 490.
Burnett, E. A., quoted, 413.
California, alfalfa in, 65.
Canada thistles in fields, 259.
Carbonate of lime, 107.
Carlyle, W. L., quoted, 380.
Castle Valley, alfalfa in, 11.
Cattle feeding, alfalfa for, 380.
Cattle finished on alfalfa, 352.
Cattle on alfalfa, 346.
Cee on alfalfa in Argentina,
Chalk, Selma, and lime, 498.
Chemical composition of alfalfa,
Chili, land in, 65.
Clover, alsike, and alfalfa, 222,
269.
burr, 223.
crimson, for hay, 163.
crimson, for pune. 161.
red, alfalfa with, 221.
red, and alfalfa, 268.
sweet, 80, 166.
Colorado, alfalfa in, 70.
Colorado, feeding in, 400.
Columella on agriculture, 50.
Corn after alfalfa,
Cornbelt, sowing nifalta in the,
481.
Cottrell, H. M., quoted, 417.
Cows and alfalfa, 247.
Cows, dairy, alfalfa for, 386.
Come dairy, alfalfa silage for,
Cows, dairy, soiling for, 326.
Cowpeas for humus, 159.
Crabgrass, 158, 511.
Creighton University, alfalfa
meal at, 361.
Crop rotation, alfalfa in, 237.
Curtiss, C. F., omueneds 152.
Cultivating alfalfa,
Cutting alfalfa, 294.
Cutting, the first, 294.
Dairymen and alfalfa, 387.
Day rations, green alfalfa in,
3
Dakotas and alfalfa seed, 99.
Dawley, F. E., quoted,
Deep-tilling machines, 256.
Desert, alfalfa and the, 279.
Disc harrow, use of the, 196.
Disking alfalfa, res
Disking in lime, 477
Ditch banks, grassing, 289,
10.
Dragging alfalfa “soil, 196.
Drainage and lime, 107.
Dudding, Henry, quoted, 125.
Duggar, J. F., quoted, 167.
Egypt’s soils, 111.
Engine-harrowing, 512.
England, alfalfa in, 52.
England, soiling alfalfa in, 89.
Ernest, ‘Herr, 518.
Europe, old fields in, 110.
Ewes on alfalfa, 395.
Heche alfalfa hay in Kansas,
Feeding cattle, alfalfa for, 380.
Feeding experiments in ‘Kan-
sas, 382.
Feeding in Oklahoma, 411.
Feeding lambs, 397.
Feeding sheep alfalfa hay, 396.
ee and Feeding” quoted,
Fertility, adding, 186.
Fertility, maintaining, 110.
Fertilizing alfalfa, 95.
Fertilizer distributor, 186.
Fertilizers, 480.
Flax with alfalfa, 202.
Flooding system, the, 283.
Florida phosphatic rock, 184,
Forks, grapple, 305.
Foxtail, 511.
Foxtail, eradicating, 158.
Foxtail in fields, .
France, alfalfa in, 52.
France, crimson clover in, 161.
Freeman, G. F., quoted, 78, 97.
Grange: establishing alfalfa in,
Georgia, middle, alfalfa in, 493.
Germany, yellow- blooming al-
falfa in, 518.
Giltner, Robert, quoted, 274.
Gophers and alfalta, fields, 424.
Grasshoppers in alfalfa, 426,
Grasses in alfalfa, 258.
Gne7ing alfalfa, advantages of,
Grazing lambs on alfalfa, 343.
Grimm, Wendelin, 71.
Griffith, C. J., quoted, 380.
Hansen, N. E., quoted, 517, 520.
Haggard, Rider, on lucerne, 125.
Harrington, H. H., quoted, 470.
Harrow for "weeds, 511,
Harrow, spring-tooth, and en-
gine power, 512.
Harrow, the spring- -tooth, 256,
Harrowing alfalfa soil, 196.
Hawaii, alfalfa in, 473.
Hay, baling, 356.
baling, shed for, 468,
526
Hay barn, the open-center, 308.
brown, 315.
caps, the use of, 319.
cocking, 311. :
cocks, opening, 313.
degree of dryness of, 314.
feeding in the West, 399.
feeding value of, 358, 396.
green or brown. 300.
keep from air, 314.
loader, the, 303.
mow, management of the, 316.
mows, sweating of, 1.
overfeeding with, 378.
price of in South, 502.
raking, 310.
salting, 320.
sleds, 304.
i Neca
the heating of, 315.
unloading, 306.
yields of, 341,
Haying tools, 302.
Haymaking time, 43.
Headlee, T. J., quoted, 424, 427.
Hoard, ., cited, 413.
Honey from alfalfa, 99.
Hopkins, Cyril G., cited,
140, 166, 227, 508.
Hogs, alfalfa for, 402.
Hogs, soiling for, 334.
Horses and alfalfa, 373.
Horses, fattening sale, 377.
Horses on alfalfa pasture, 345.
Horses, soiling for, 331.
Huffman, C. E., cited, 490.
Humus, deficiency of, 154.
Humus in black soils, 108.
Humus, legumes for, 160.
Humus-making crops, 159.
combustion in,
127,
Illinois, sowing alfalfa in, 483.
Indiana, alfalfa in, 75.
Inoculating crimson clover, 163.
Inoculation, 223.
Inoculation and manure, 151.
Inoculation in advance, 232.
Inoculation, signs of, 233.
Inoculation with soil, 230.
Iowa, alfalfa in, 75, 129.
Irrigate, how often to, 286.
Irrigate, when to, 287.
Irrigation contour levels, 280.
Irrigation, growing alfalfa un-
der, 277.
Irrigation, the first, 285.
Irrigation, yields of alfalfa un-
der, 251.
aie J. F., mentioned, 184, 194,
Jamison, John M., cited, 512.
Jefferson, Thos., and alfalfa, 74,
Judea and lime, 112. .
INDEX.
Kansas, ‘alfalfa ‘in, 71, 78.
Kansas experiments, 382.
a feeding experiments,
Kansas, seed in, 431.
Kent, alfalfa in, 58.
Kentucky, seeding in, 486.
Kentucky, sweet clover in, 170,
Kensington Farm, experience
on, 490.
Kessler, Alf., quoted, 290.
Kinzer, R. Ts quoted, 378.
Lambs and alfalfa, 28.
Lambs and sweet ‘clover, 173.
Lambs on alfalfa, 343.
Lime, 1.
adding to soils, 113.
Alabama and,
airslaked, 118.
apply, when to, 119. .
as a basis, 7
availability of, 112.
basic. slag as source of, 134.
burned, 114.
carbonate of in Montana, 106.
carbonate of neutral, 114.
caustic, 115.
caustic, amount of, 118.
chalk, Selma, and, 8
crabgrass and, 117.
crushers of, 126.
crushing,. 131.
depth to apply, 120.
disking in, 477.
distributing, 128, 477.
effects of, 2.
England’s nee of, 124,
evidence of, 113.
forms of,
functions of, “107.
ground, 119.
humus and, 108.
in basic slag, 180.
in soils, 0.
in Tennessee, 116.
Iowa’s use of, 129.
Mississippi and, 495.
soils, location of, 138.
Texas has, 8.
uses of new, 126.
Liming, value’ of, 121.
Limestone pebbles, 38.
Limestone gravel, 110.
Livingstone, Robert, 73.
Louisiana, alfalfa in, 74:
Lovejoy, ’A. Je, cited, 413.
Lucerne (alfalfa), 55.
Lucerne in Utah, 3.
Machinery, care of haying, 307%.
Manures and humus, 150.
Manure, methods of using, 157.
Manure, spreading, 297.
Mardis, J. T., quoted, 170.
Mares, brood, and alfalfa, 377.
Maryland, alfalfa in, 94,
INDEX.
Maryland, lime in, 113,
McDonald, J. P,; and lime, 116.
Meal from alfalfa, 0.
Meal, making, 417.
Melilotus (sweet clover), 80,
6
Melilotus and alfalfa, 494.
Mexico, alfalfa in, 290.
Mexico, methods of irrigating,
290.
Milk flow and alfalfa, 386.
Milk from alfalfa, 4.
Miller, Henry, quoted, 66.
Miller, M. F., quoted, 139.
Minnesota, alfalfa in, 71.
Mississippi, alfalfa in, 74.
Mississippi, lime in, 495.
Missouri, alfalfa in, 122.
Moisture for alfalfa, 249.
Montana, wild alfalfa in, 105.
Mooers, C. A., quoted, 160.
Mow, lifting hay to the, 304.
Mowing or pasturing, 337.
Mowing, repeating the, 326.
Nebraska, alfalfa in, 71.
see tala feeding experiments,
Nebraska porkmaking, 413.
New Jersey, alfalfa in, 59, 72.
New York, alfalfa in, 30, 73.
Nitrogen and inoculation, 223.
ee cost of commercial,
Nitrogen, purchasing, 510.
Nitrogen, securing, 4.
Nitrogen, waste of, 109.
Nodules on alfalfa, 165.
Nurse-crops, 482.
Nurse-crops, value of, 201.
Oats, alfalfa ae ie
Oats with aitelia, 2
O’Donnell, I. D., tee "252, 295.
Ohio, introduction of alfaifa in,
Ohio, practice of sowing in, 480.
Oklahoma, alfalfa in, 408.
Orchard grass and alfalfa, 275.
Overstocking alfalfa fields, 404.
Pasturing, care in, 336.
Pasturing or mowing, 337.
Pasture plant, alfalfa as a, 336.
Paterson, J. W., quoted, 176.
Pennsylvania, aifalfa in, 129.
i a Santa bulletin on alfal-
a,
a a a nam work with meal,
Peoria Drill & Seeder Co., 186.
Phosphate, acid, 507.
Phosphate, acid, for sweet
clover, 169.
Phosphate, mineral, 181.
Phosphate, natural, 181.
Phosphate, rock, 507.
527
Phosphates, available, 508.
Phosphorus,
cost of, 188, 234,
exports of, 135,
for old fields, 505.
how much? 187,
needed, 148.
sources of, 180.
nee of on Woodland Farm,
Piper, Cs We
Plowing, 191.
Plowing alfalfa sod, 419.
Plowing, deep, 1
Plowing; spring and
sowing, 205.
Plow, setting the, 420.
Pork’ from alfalfa, 403.
Porkmaking on alfalfa in Ne-
braska, 413.
Potatoes, alfalfa after, 206.
Potash as a fertilizer, 189.
Potash, cost of, 234.
Potash’ for alfalfa, 511.
Poultry, alfalfa for, 335, 415.
Prairie dogs in alfalfa, 429.
Protein in alfalfa, 358.
Puget Sound, alfalfa along, 123,
Quinn, C. E., quoted, 408.
Rain and haymaking, 309.
Rake, side telyerys 302,
Rakes, sweep, 30
Range Creek, aifalta on, 5.
Range Valley, alfalfa in, 6.
Roberts, H. F., on alfalfa, 97.
Roberts, I. P., quoted, 163,
Roman ‘agriculture, 50.
Rome upon limestone, 111.
Root rot, 266.
Rotation on 300-acre farm, 240.
Rye and alfalfa, 203
Saintfoin, 60.
Salting hay, 320.
Rene Nicholas,
67, 215
Scott, Mrs. Vinyard, 502.
Seed adulterations, 441.
bed preparation, 481.
growing, F
growing in the West, 445.
production, principles’ of, 447.
purity of,
vitality of, 475.
Seed- -bearing habit, the, 97.
Seeding, midsummer, 485.
Seeding, spring or summer, 483.
Silage made from alfalfa, 354.
Silage, steam-cured, 355.
Silo, alfalfa for the, 354.
Selby, A. D., quoted, 118, 132.
Sheds for hay, 466.
Sheep, alfalfa for, 392.
Sheep in the cornbelt, 334.
Sheep on small pastures, 333.
mentioned, 215.
summer
mentioned,
528
Sheep, soiling for, 332.
Short-horns, milking, 10.
Slag, basic, 507.
Slag, basic, and lime, 134.
Slag, basic, for soils, 177.
Slings, hay, 306.
Smith, Bolton, mentioned, 499.
Smith, H. R., quoted, 413.
Soil for inoculation, 211, 230.
mach manures and humus in,
Soil, plowing for alfalfa, 191.
Soils, acidity of, 136.
and alfalfa, 101.
alfalfa and rich, 153.
and bacteria, 104.
building, 146.
phosphorus for, 176.
Tich for alfalfa, 153.
sour, 136.
Soiling alfalfa, 324.
Soiling on pasture,
Sour soils, 136.
South America, alfalfa in,
South, sweet clover in the, 495.
Soybeans for humus, 160.
Spalding deep-tilling machine,
the, 256. i
aba colonists and alfalfa,
Speed, C. E., mentioned, 502.
ShoTenecue combustion in hay,
326.
Spurrier, John, on alfalfa, 60.
Stack, lifting hay to the, 304.
Stacking outdoors, 317.
Stephenson, Robert, quoted, 125.
Stock, alfalfa a balanced feed
for, 406.
Storer, F. H., quoted, 315.
350.
INDEX.
Stone quarry, visiting a, 144.
Subsoiling, 194.
Ten Eyck, A. M., quoted, 431.
Tennessee, lime for alfalfa in,
116.
Texas, alfalfa in, 470.
Texas and lime, .
Thomas phosphate, 136.
Timothy in alfalfa, 268.
Transplanting alfalfa, 519.
Tull, Jethro, cited, 446.
Utah, lucerne in, 3.
Virginia, alfalfa in, 74.
Vivian, Alfred, quoted, 180.
Voorhees, E. B., on alfalfa, 72.
Waptaneton, Geo., and alfalfa,
Water in soils, 154.
Weeds in fields, 258.
wae harvesting hay in the.
5,
Westgate, J. M., on alfalfa, 60,
81, 215, 278, 370, 388, 446.
Wheat, alfalfa after, 209.
Wheeler, G. C., quoted, 378.
Wickson, EB. J., quoted, 65.
Wilcox, B. V., quoted, 473.
Willard, J. T., quoted, 364.
Williams, Glyne, quoted, 349.
Woodland Farm, alfalfa on, 503.
Woodland Farm in early days,
34,
Wyoming sweet clover feeding
experiment, 173-174.
Yates, E. V., cited, 499.