The Advocate and news., 1898-11-02
Seeding to Alfalfa.

Inv huHodo experiment STATION has
issued very valuable bulletin on tho
value Of alfalfa and the preparation nee
esssary to get 1t successfully started. II
says:
Alfalfa is necessary to the cheapest
production, under Kansas conditions, of
beef, milk and pork. For young stock of
all kinds II supplies the materials need
ed to develop bone, muscle and rapid
growth. When alfalfa hay is used as the
roughness in fattening steers, a large
saving in grain is made, conservative
feeders estimating the saving to be from
% to so per cent. Alfalfa can be COM
bined with the ordinary feeds grown on
Kansas farms to make good milk-pro-
ducing ration without the need OF any
purchased feed, and induces an abundant
flow Of milk with good butter-making
qualities. In pig-raising, alfalfa pas
ture with corn or Kaffir corn makes a
rapid growth at low cost, the alfalfa
supplying the material lacking in the
other feeds. At this college pigs were
pastured through the summer on alfalfa
with light feeding Of corn. After de-
Quoting the probable gain from the corn
we had a gain per acre from the alfalfa
pasture Of 776 pounds of pork.
"At least one good crop Of alfalfa can
be harvested in the dryest year in any
part Of Kansas, and in most years under
favorable conditions from three to FIVE
crops are harvested. When once estab-
lished it lives for years; it roots deeply
and withstands drought we'll.
alfalfa collects plant food from the
air, storing it up in the SOIL Where a
Kansas farm has been cultivated until
the crop yield is reduced, then alfalfa
grown on a part Of the farm and fed to
stock together with the grain raised on
the remainder Of the land, will produce
as much or more beef, milk and pork
as the grain from the whole farm, and
at the same time will increase the fertil-
ity Of the soil. BY rotating after part
has been made fertile, the whole farm
can be brought back to it's original con-
dition of fertility and a profit secured
while the work Is being done.
alfalfa is weak when young and on
many soils is hard to establish. 1t grows
best on a rich loan with porous clay
subsoil where water is not over twenty
feet from the surface, but we have found
in growing on high uplands in both the
eastern and western parts Of the State
where water was from 125 to IT'S feet
from the surface, and 1t Is probable that
1t can be grown on some spot on almost
every section Of land in the State.
alfalfa needs q fine seed-bed in ground
free from weeds Seeding should be done
early in April and the ground handled
so that at seeding time it will be moist
for at least fifteen or twenty inches.
This condition can be secured on many
soils by fall plowing pulverizing the soil
to depth Of five or six inches with
disc harrow before plowing, making the
whole depth plowed mellow Soil in
clined to blow can be lightly ridged or
packed after plOwing. In
western Kansas a successful alfalfa
grower runs burrows through the prairie
surrounding his alfalfa to conduct the
surplus water from each rain to the field.
This may be done to get moisture into
the soil during the winter before seeding.
alfalfa roots deeply and must have a
subsoil which it can penetrate. Where
the subsoil is impervious, a subsoiler can
be used, or where there is no danger from
washing the ground can be thrown up
into high, sharp ridges just before the
freezing The frost will thoroughly pull
verize the ridges, putting them in good
condition for seed-bed when levelled in
the spring, and will pulverize the subsoil
IN the burrows deeper, better and cheaper
than subsOil plow.
Each farmer must use his judgment
as to the best method to follow, using
that method which will put his land In
proper condition at least cost With few
exceptions, every farmer in the State
who does not have a field of alfalfa
should SOW one next spring, and 1t will
pay many farmers to enlarge the area