The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1904-11-15

years ago last spring / sowed one and a half
acres in alfalfa as an experiment. This year !
have sold off of that acre and a half $7S worth
of hay and have kept the last cutting, a light one,
for winter feed. I have cut it five times this
year. The only manure put on the land during
the year was a top dressing of SIS worth of nj
trate of soda after the third cutting. I sowed
another piece this spring and cut that piece four
times this year.
In the extreme North and in many places in
the West they do not exrect to get any hay the
first year. [ mention this that our people may
better appreciate the advantage in climate we
have over many sections North and West.
1t is not considered at its best until the third
year. In some sections where crab grass grows
profusely, it is better to pillow up the alfalfa after
live or six years and cultivate the land with some
clean culture crop a year or two to destroy the
crab grass, and then resow in alfalfa. Mr.. Co
burn, whom L have already quoted, says to get
best results from alfalfa it should be plowed up
every five years and the land put in corn or
wheat or some shallow rooted crop a year or two
that will utilize the nitrogen stored in the soil
by the alfalfa, and which the alfalfa itself does
not need.
BENEFITS OF ALFALFA GROWING.
L have seen this practice tried near Hillsboro
and some of the finest fields of upland corn T
have ever seen grew after alfalfa. This is true,
because alfalfa is a very deeprooted plant. the
roots penetrating the soil the first year from two
to five feet, and in five years have been known
to go down, when on dry land, many times that
distance thus affording drainage and aeration of
the soil for quite a distance down. Besides. be-
ing a leguminous plant, like clovers, peas, vege-
tables, etc., alfalfa has the power to gather nj
trogen from the air and store it in the soil. In
fact, wherever it lacks this power to take nitro
gen from the air, it is a failure. Therein lies
the secret of success in cultivating this wonder
full plant.
THE NITROGEN. BACTERIA.
Its power to take nitrogen from the air and
store 1T in the soil for it's own use and the en-
rlchment OF the soil is dependent on minute or
ganlsms called bacteria, the kind peculiar to the
alfalfa plant. This bacteria is already present
IN some soils, and is absent in others. Wherever
alfalfa naturally grows luxuriantly, unless it is
IN very rich soil, it is a sure sign that the bac-
terra is already in that particular soil, and where
ever 1t fails to grow successfully, in fertile soil
properly prepared, its failure to grow can almost
invariably be attributed to the lack of bacteria
IN the SOIL. This fact can readily be ascertained
Dy carefully digging up a plant of alfalfa and
examining carefully the roots. If there are no
Dacter1a IN the soil the roots will be perfectly
smooth, but if there are bacteria. there will he
Warty looking excrescences on the roots or some
part OF them, from the size of a gin head up to
the srze of a pea or larger. These nodules or
tuDercles are the home of the bacteria, and it is
SAID millions of them will infest one of these
small houses, take nitrogen from the air and
store it in the plant.
This discovery is comparatively of recent or;- ;
gin, and is what is giving alfalfa growing its :
present impetus all over the United States Ala Z