The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-30

4 AnGE0k8G
 Your description to your bottom land makes me think there is a chance there for alfalfa if the land is quite free from crab grass and trouble some weeds and if the soil is thor oughly inoculated with alfalfa soil (not depending entirely on artificial cultures), and if slacked lime is used at the rate of one or two tons per acre.
 You cannot afford to try Canada peas. They are uncertain and too lit- tie suited to this climate.
 Sofa beans are very promising for hills.
 good rotation for the hills would be a mixture of turf oats, two bush els per acre and one or two pecks of hairy vetch, thoroughly inoculated or one and one-haH bushels of beardless wheat and one or two pecks of hairy vetch. Cut this mixture. preferably for hay. or even for grain, and fol- low with cowpeas; on the richer spots follow with sorghum.
 On your bottom land after leaving out a patch for alfalfa. you might all ternate corn, seeded down at last cul- tivatioR in broadcast cowpeas, with either sorghum or small grain. sorg. hum would tend to impoverish the land
  peas to enrich it.
 One of the. plants you send is lespedexa. This is an annual, spread fng freely from the seed. It seeds so near the ground that ordinary pastur- inx does not prevent reseeding. Flow ing before frost may inture 1t but blowing after frost, if the furrow Is not completely inverted, should leave enough seed near the surface for Eermination next spring.
 JF. D.
 Mintures for Permanent Pastures.
 Talladeea county subscriber who asks what to plant to make perma- nent pasture, does not give sufficient details for me to be very sure as to the character of his soil. Hence I am sug- resting here only such plants as are suited to any of the soils of that por- ton of Alabama.
 The most satisfactory permanent pasture Is Bermuda grass. This may be propogated by flushing the land and planting small sods or portions of root stocks, two to three feet apart each way Where the roots cannot be ob- tained. seed may be sown at the rate of about five pounds per acre. The seed may be sown in April or the root stocks planted at any time between February and August, preferably in the spring. There are frequent dis appointments in sowing the seed of Bermuda grass, the seed being very small germination being uncertain, and nnfaverabie soil conditions often preventing stand.
 The quality of Bermuda grass pas- ture can be greatly improved by the addition of Japan clover Oepedeza Striata). This is a small annual clov- CT making an excellent quality of sum- mer pasturage and being somewhat aggressive, it may be best to sow 1t only after Bermuda grass has been established for one year. This plant is extensively distributed in Alabama and would in time doubtless enter the pasture as a, volunteer growth. but It's coming would be hastened by sowing l from one to four pecks of seed per acre in February or March, and har- rowing in.
 While Bermuda and lespedeza afford | no winter pasturage, yet Bermuda can be combined with two winter growing plants either of which affords good pasturage after Christmas. These are vetch (Yicia villosa or Vicia sativa), and burr clover (Medicago maculata-) Burr clover should De sown in August pr September at the rate of at least two bushels of burrs per acre. The vetches can be sown from August to the middle of October, using from one to three pecks of seed per acre. Both of these Iegumes are adapted, I think, To all soils around Talladega and will give about equally satisfactory results for pasturage. With either, 1t will be necessary to remove stock for a few weeks in May or June to permit re- seeding. It will be necessary to inocu- late vetch seed but not to inoculate burr clover. if, as usual, the unthrash- J. F. D.