The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-05
ALFALFA FOR FEEDING
 CAN NOT BE EXCELLED
Montgomery County Lands Are We'll Adapted for
 Its Cultivation.

/, lords the very finest winter pasture. It requires temperature of 10 to b degrees below freezing to kill 1t down, and a few days of bright weather VIII naDs Dike 1s almost any other plant, the younger ana | tenderer the growth the more nutritious the forage (U. s. Bulletin a. p. 2O.
 As crop for green manurns rsns alfa1fa hsSer | than any other member of the legume | family. In U. S. Bulletin 16. p. 13, E. w. Allen, Ph. D., give a table of the | amounts of fertilizing materials in ioo | guminous crops. I select for compari- | sion only two of the highest and best known, the ycowpea and re dclover:
 AfafaaMltrogen ogsds 5s phosphorio ac'd acid, 13; potassium oxide, A
 Cowpea-Nitrogen. 27; phosphoric acid. | 10; potassium oxide. 31.
 Food for Hogs.
 As a food for hogs it is said to the | wonderful Jared c. Smith of the D. $. l Department of Agriculture, says: "One acre of alfalfa will furnish forage for fom 10 to 20 hogs per season. Al a conservative estimate. 10 pigs per acre will gain 100 pounds each during the season from May to September. and 1000 pounds of pork can not be produced so cheaply on any other feed" This esti- mate is based on growth of alfalfa at tic AL tne oOutn tuc Std1ihB io seven, months longer in each year. A | letter from a gentleman in the West says that the farmers do not feed near so much corn as in former years to hogs, but depend very largely on alfalfa pas lures In the same letter he says that the very best way to retard the prog .. ress of alfalfa in community, where it Is known, is to tell the truth about 1t. | The real facts arouses doubt" I do not mean. by anything I have said. that alfalfa is a better feed than | eithern corn or oats or a complete sub sttute for them, but my experiments for | nearly two months have convinced me | that stock can do the heaviest of farm work and keep fat without anything ex- cept green alfalfa. Time and again during the past month I had no alfalfa cut and would simply turn the horses in the field both at night and at noon. | and let them gather their own feed.
 Alfalfa is nothing new: Fully 300 years R. c. the cavalry horses of the | Grecian and Roman armies were fed als most exclusively on this plant.
 In regard to the soil best adapted to | alfalfa Western writer says that any
 land where cottonwood trees grow to
 large size and the soil
 is well drained will grow alfalfa to per | fection. must confess that this has
 been my experience
 Try It.
 T must ask an indulgence for even | presuming to impose my experience upon | you, but the interest being aroused in | alfalfa means so mu :h to our people and | If can be the means of inducing even l one to try it and he succeeds I will feel
 greatly pleased
 My first cutting has entirely paid for
 all expenses incurred in planting. | The County of Montgomery is practi-
 cally owned by the members of the Com
 mercial and Industrial Association. Why couldn't the Association investigate this
 plant! Make report on its merits and | distribute printed matter on how to grow
 1t. that would fit local conditions. The l united States bulletins are entirely toe | general and are written from a Northern
 and Western standpoint. The entire cost | or such work would not exceed $50
 land on every plantation in the black belt the State.
 The effect of alfalfa on stock is pretty
 much the same as when fed pea vine hay
 where the pods are left on the vines. Yet 1 l would much prefer alfalfa.
 | All that l Say on the subject of alfalfa | Is from a poor land standpoint. I am now | experimenting with fertilizers and, so far,
 find that ashes best suits my soil I have | not made a commercial success of alfalfa, | but don't have to buy corn and oats | any longer and that is enough.
 The great incumbus in our system of
 farming is not how to feed the nigger but
 how to feed his mule. There's the ruh. | Any farmer knows that you can cut off l a nigger's ration at any season and he | will remain sleek, fat and black But, l like Banquo'S ghost, you can not down | that everlasting call for 'hosS fede.'"