The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-05
Letters to The Editor.
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A Test of Alfalfa.

Montgomery County, Ala,
 R. F. D., No. 2, April 4 1908. Editor The Advertiser:
 At the time of my communication to The Advertiser on alfalfa, little more than a week ago, l had under way an experiment that would satisfy my mind as to the truth or falsity of the incred- ible statement that had come to me as to the merits of this wonderful and eternal clover"
 closed that test today and not to re- port 1t in its every detail, would be an | injustice to the farmers of Alabama. l admit that 1t requires considerable cour- | age to sign ones name to what will fol. | low. and will predicate a report of my | test, by saying that the accuracy of my | every statement Is open to investigation. | seed to sell and will never have them for sale. They can always be had from any seedman.
 All during last year I made minor ex- periments with alfalfa. on horses, colts and milch cows. 1 collected small quan- | tieis of the hay, while moving it to keep down the weeds, and would frequently turn a rundown horse or milch COW into the alfalfa field for several weeks at a time. Each test was so satisfactory that l much of my skepticism vanished,I resolv- ed then that if my alfalfa ever got big enough to cut, and could get enough of the plant to make a practical test, even If 1t killed every horse I had, l intended to find out if the directors of experiment stations and professors of agriculture, all over the country, were truthful men or modern Ananiases.
 |l I have found out.
 As I stated in a previous letter, be- gan feeding the alfalfa on March 11th. My horses had been fed on shelled oats. from one-half hushel to three pecks each per day, without any hay. They had been doing heavy work all winter and were pulled down. All of them had the so-called 'lampas' and would eat rotten } weeds. and bite at rails or blanks, bark fruit trees. and had an ugly coat of hair. yet, were not poor. I began feeding the green alfalfa cautionasly and cut down the oat ration to one peck per day.
 On March 18th I cut down the oats to one-half peck per day and gave them all the wilted alfalfa they would eat. They began to improve e.. at s. once ae ana ana very nnery ing the whole time three horses were pulling Hancock disc blow. cutting fully ten inches deep. bottom land for the test that had not been plowed in four or five years. It was sodded in Johnston grass and Der. muda. set the blow to cut from to l: inches deep. The work was done around the fields, and hence the pull was con- tinuous from sun rise until noon. and the horses did not have the benefit of the rest usually afforded at the end or the one peck of oats between the three horses at noon. At night I turned them in an open lot and allowed them just as much of the green alfalfa as they would ing. I allowed as. much alfalfa at noon , as they wanted. During the last three days of my test, the alfalfa was cut just before sundown and carried fresh to the lot. I staid in the field all day and would frequently drive the blow myself in an effort to detect any sluggish ness or other evil effects from having } eaten such enormous quantities of green l feed. The alfalfa acted only as a mild laxative that indicated healthful condi- ! ton. A neighbor who was familiar with i the facts remarked that 1t could not be done in hot weather, which suggestion could be readily parried by saying that no sane man would expect horses to do , such work, under any conditions, during , ter six days of such work than they did when they begun 1t. The team consisted of a sixteen hands high mule. and two mares, of equal size: one to foal in June. | They were driven abreast
 I admit that six days is very short time to make test for anything. but l have no more such land to blow and If had. would not hesitate to continue the test without an increase of grain. I ex- pect to begin preparing sixty acres of light land for cowpeas, next Monday, with the same team of horses and will cut of the grain entirely, but give one hour longer at noon.
 There is nothing so rem arkable in my experiment., when the chemical analysis of shelled corn ana alIalid nay are com pared,
 free extract. 7S.4; fiber. 2.5; ash. IT. (U. ;. Bulletin s1, p. 1O.
 AIfalfa-Crude protein, S.1s: fat S.6l crude fiber l2.sS: nitrogen free extract, 45 59; ash. 11.62; water, S.n. tU. S. Bull .etin 31. p. 20.
 Tn order to make alfalfa a perfect feed, some such hay as Johnston grass, cut corn or sorghum should be- fed with it.
 have been flooded with letters for the past week and nearly everyone is anxious to know some practical results. To all such can truthfully say that my Vest ern corn and oats for the past six months has cost me s7.5O per week. but for the
 asst six days 1t has been 70 cents, and | nenceforth will be nothing.
 Alfalfa Is nothing less than an eternal corn crib.
 There must be wonders in the plant l when the L, S. Census shows that since 1890 more than 1,26ooo0 acres of alfalfs | have been planted in Kansas, and that
 oo on land that will produce from 5 to foo bushels of corn per acre.
 At the Colorado experiment station | was demonstrated, by actual feed test 9f cattle, that ono acre of land that grev k9a bushels. of cora would hays to produe'