The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-04-25
FARM AND GARDEN.
MATTERS or INTEREST TO
AGRICULTURiSTS.
Some Tp-to-Date Hints About CuItiva-
ton of The sou and Yields Thereof
Horticulture, Niticulturs AMI Fioricul-
ture.


h' VI 80
A correspondent of the Kansas state
board of agriculture says:
After the alfalfa has been sown in
the spring, it will be necessary to run
a mowing-machine over the ground
two or three times during the summer
to keep down the weeds. The sickle
bar should be set high, so as to in
as possible. If the vegetable debris is
SO abundant that it promises to
smother the young alfalfa, it should
be raked up and removed. In harvest
ing NOW down as much of the crop at
once as can be handled in one day.
Let it wilt in the swathS and then rake
it into windows TO cure. If the
weather is fine. it can be stacked from
the windrow by using a sweep rake
and stacker. IL the weather is threat
ening, bunch the windrows and cock
the punches TO allow it % finish cur
ing. It should be put into the stack
with just as little handling as possible.
farmers to store alternate layers of dry
straw and fresh alfalfa hay together
in the barn or stack. The straw need
not form more than about one-fourth
of the total weight. think this meth
cd especially applicable to the first
crop in localities where old straw
stacks can be easily acquired.
When possible, alfalfa should be
stored under a roof, as it does not turn
rain well. A cheap hay shed can be
built by setting telegraph poles in
the ground, braced by two-by-sixes,
and putting a good single roof on
the structure. The sides should be left
open and the hay stacked under this
shed in Ticks. A stacker of some sort
or other should be used, as it does not
pay to hire men to handle the hay
with a fork. They waste too much by
shaking off the leaves, which are on
siderably better to feed than wheat
bran, pound for pound. Where a roof
cannot be had, the hay should be
stacked in high, narrow ricks and COW
cred with long slough grass. Alfalfa
should be cured and stacked, if posi-
ble,- without being rained upon. No
other crop is so easily injured by rain.
Alfalfa hay rained upon is worth
about half what it would be were it
unexposed.
Harvesting alfalfa at the RICH time
and in the right manner very largely
determines it's feeding value. The ma
jority Of farmers wait too long before
starting the mowing-machine. Alfalfa
should be cut for hay when one-fourth
to one-half of the blossoms have open
ed. When let stand longer, many of
the leaves fall off and are wasted.
Moving early stimulates the growth
of the following crop. Allowing it to
go to seed seemingly exhausts the
plant for that season.
Alfalfa fed green, either as a pasture
or as a soiling crop, has few equals in
it's nutritive value. In localities where
there is no difficulty in getting a stand,
the cheapest way to feed it is prob
ably to pasture it. 1t should never be
pastured until the plants are more
than a year old. Owing to their liabil-
ity to hoven or bloat, it is always risky
to pasture cattle or sheep upon alfalfa.
Before turning animals liable to bloat
upon the alfalfa give them all they will
eat of some other foou. Death from
bloat is often very sudden.