Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1886-05-01
GREAT FALLS TRIBUNE.
PUBLISHED BY THE
Tribune Publishing Company.
I-scoRPoRATkDl
GOOD WORDS FOR ALFALFA.

Some time ago the Pioneer Pres!
explained, in an article which awak
ened extraordinary interest among
Northwestern farmers, the virtues o
alfalfa, or Chiiian clover, and It.
adaptation to the needs of this section
of the country. We are pleased tt
find in a recent issue of the North
western Farmer, some practical trib
utes to the benefits Of the new grass
and some proofs Of the ease and sue
cess with which it may be cultivated
The following shows the result Of one
experiment:
Mr.. ]. r. Lowe Of Bijou Hills
Oak, writes me that tive years ago he
received from the agricultural depart
ment a package Of alfalfa. which be
scattered thinly over a patch of ground
that had been worked two years (be-
ing outside a fence he intended to let
it go back and paid no more atten-
ton to it. Naturally the weeds took
possession, but the alfalfa caught.
For three years the weeds had the
upper hand, and, being an eyesore he
moved them. But the following year
being very dry, the alfalfa gained the
ascendancy, and in tho spring Of IS
every plant was IN its place, alive and
vigorous, and showded its color three
weeks before anything else started,
and was full SIX inches high before
cattle could live on the prairie. He
is absolutely certain that not a plant
has died from any cause, and that it
extends the time Of green feed at
least two months in the year, early
frost not killing it down.
The writer Of the article referred to,
after quoting several experiments in
the culture of alfalfa as successful as
this, sums up the advantages Ct It's
Introduction as follows:
1t is relished by all kinds of stock:
it takes the place Of corn: alfalfa-fed
beef resembles corn-fed; pigs riot in
in it and grow fat during the mild
months by having portable fences Or
different lots, as it will not stand con
slant feeding; it will enable Dakota
to compete with the corn states in
raising stock; it will produce on album
dant yield every year in spite Of hail,
frost, or drought; it will renew the
soil.
The farmers ef the Northwest will
do we'll to give mors and more atten-
ton to this subject. It has been a
uniform rule of our development that
stock raising comes in to succeed or
diversity exclusive reliance upon cere-
and that the culture of the fatten-
ing grasses follows the culture OF
It appears to have been SUI
ficlently shown by experiment that
natural conditions in the North
west are favorable to the growth Of
Even without proper care it
does well. AS soon as there comes a
Try season, it takes possession of the
soil by virtue of it's extraordinary
root growth, reaching supplies of
moisture denied to mere surface plants.
1t stands well the severity of winters,
which has been the principal doubt
'ul point, And the property which
makes it of greatest value is the fact
hat the flesh Of animals fed upon it
resembles that Of those fattened upon
The chief obstacle to extensive
took raising in the nearer Northwest
been the difficulty of raising corn.
t it can produce alfalfa for its stock, I
t will be without a rival in the sup !
'ly Of superior dairy products and :
be quality and quantity of the meats :,
7hlch it can put upon the market. [
he introduction of alfalfa is likely '
, be of more Importance than the d
iscovery of improved processes of :
griculture. The good words spoken .
{ il justify and require experiments
pom a larger and moro decisive scale. S
Pioneer Press. c