The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-26
Alfalfa.

N 'A SN' VI oA . we nave been press
 Ing on the attention of Southern farm CTS the importance of alfalfa as a crop TOT production in the South Irntil within the past two or three years our eHorts seem to have been rewarded
 with but little success. As with al- falfa so with grasses and clovers if has been difficult to convince Southern planters that there was anything in
 these crops worthy of their attention. And yet if they will give heed to what
 mas been the result of growing alfalfa Tn the West, they will realize that if has been worth more to the farmers
 of that section than all the wheat and
 corn raised there, for 1t has not only directly brought them money by en-
 abling them to feed large herds of cat- | tle, sheep and hogs to be sold at prof l itable prices, but it has enabled them to maintain and increase the fertility 1 Of their lands, and thus permit of the continued production of large crops of corn ana wheat It has also directly brought them thousands of dollars as
 sale crop Tor the feeding of horses in the large cities. What it has done
 for the farmers of the West 1t is al- so doing for many farmers in one of the southern States. In Louisiana one | or these farmers, MT. Foster, who has
 400 acres planted says:
 IL seems to me that this queen of all hay and forage plants is too little
 understood, otherwise there would not be ton of hay shipped into Louisiana. On the contrary, there would be thous- ands or tons shipped out of the State at better profit than is made on cot
 ton, even at present prices I am not
 chemist or botanist enough to say on
 what lands in the State 1t will grow prohtably, but believe that with proper
 expenditure of time in preparation. ma nuring and nursing it can be made to grow anywhere in the State. l have seen 1t growing luxuriousIy on the poor and worn hill land of the Experi- ment Station in North Louisiana. but
 much time and expense was required.
 on the river lands between Baton Rouge and New Orleans it seems to
 thrive well, and on the Red River 1t
 seems to be perfectly at home. I may
 say that l use 1t as a profit crop on
 our low, stiff, red lands that will not
 produce protitably any other crop. It's
 value as a feed for horses, mules, cows
 and hogs Is unequalled by any other
 food. Hogs will make splendid growth
 on 1t and fatten readily without any
 other feed, and that. too, with twenty or
 twenty-five to the acre, where 1t grows well. Aga4Tl, it is a fine fertilizer SIbp' 1puI ldHu IS improving each year it grows on it, and when you wish to
 get rid of it (which will be never, un- less you want to plant 1t somewhere
 else), 1t is as easily killed as oats or corn. l am free to say that
 If alfalfa hay is worth as many dollars per ton as cotton is worth cents Der
 pound, l would prefer to raise the aI- falfa. On our soils, with ordinary sea- sons for growing and harvesting. We get three to five cuttings, ayeraging from one-half to a ton of cured hay per cutting, and bringing in our mar ket at Shreveport from $S to S15 per ton. The cost of handling varies of course, with the seasons. It costs just as much to cut and rake one-half ton
 per acre as 1t does to cut and rake n
 ton per acre. From my experience. and
 my alfalfa account, it costs an average
 of $l.26 to $2 per ton to put in shape
 for the market. An intelligent negro
 near our plantation, who works twenty
 mules raising cotton, told me he had
 sold $500 worth of surplus hay per year
 off twenty acres For the last two
 years off sixty acres he has sold enough
 to very nearly make his cotton crop clear I think a very conservative es-
 timate would he $l5 to $s0 per acre net
 per year, not counting the pasturage in fall. winter and spring. My advice to every one who works land would be
 to plant a small patch of alfalfa for have the most valuable crop that grows: if he failed 1t would be the
 most Iaudahle failure he ever made, In