The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1906-01-20

lengths and pack in the silo as tight as l can.
The corn should be well cared and yield 80 to
100 bushels to the acre. The cowpea should
have plenty of pods on the vine, as the animal
must get the grain from the silo, in addition
to its succulency.
DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
Professor Clother, of the Kansas Expert
ment Station in his admirably written article
on alfalfa, says: The cultivation and feed.
ing of alfalfa marks the highest development
of our modern agriculture. Alfalfa is one of
natures choicest gifts to man. 1t is the pre-
server and the conserver of the homestead.
1t is peculiarly adapted to country with a
republican government, for it smiles alike on
the rich and the poor. 1t does not fall from
old age. 1t loves sunshine, converting golden
sunbeams into gold coin III the pockets of
thrifty husbandmen. 1t is the greatest mort
gage litter yet discovered. The alfalfa plant
furnished the protein to construct and repair
the brains of statesmen. 1t builds up the
muscles and bones Of the war horse and gives
his rider sinews of iron. Alfalfa makes the
hens caclle and the turkeys gobble. 1t in
duces the pig to squeal and grunt with satisfac
ton. 1t causes the contented COW to give
paisful of creamy milk and the shorthorn and
white faced steers to bawl for the feed racks.
Alfalfa softens the disposition of the colt and
hardens his bones and muscles. 1t fattens
lambs as no other feed and promotes wool
clip that is a veritable golden fleece. 1t COM
pes skim milk calves to make gains of two
pounds day. 1t enables the Kansas farmer
to produce pork at u cents a pound and beef
at cents. Alfalfa transformed the Kansas
upland from a sometime waste of quilted clay
banks into an unduiating meadow fecund with
plant food. 1t drills for water, working 965
days in the year without recompense from
man, 1t brings gold into the farmers purse
by process more mysterious than the alchemy
Of old The farmer with 50-acre meadow of
alfalfa will have steady, enjoyable employ
ment from June to October for as soon as he
has finished moving the hay at one end of the
field it will be ready for the mower again at
the other
WHAT IT Will. 20 HERE.
What alfalfa has done for Kansas it viii
more than do for Southern Maryland-your
people can buy ia Kansas City, Omaha and
Chicago and in the panhandle region of Texas
grade stock calves rich in the blood of the
beef breeds-short horns, white faces and
polled Augus--at lay down cost of $15 to
SIS a head, and in eight months you can, with
alfalfa in conjunction with corn and cowpea
siage, ripen these steers into baby beef and
realize $40 to $50 for them. This will enable
you to retain and build up the fertility of your
land. This line Of the animal industry would
be out of the question without the alfalfa plant;
for if you were compelled to buy from the
various mill trusts the protein, in the shape of
mill feed which you must have to balance
your carbouaceous food-aud, with the ex-
ception of your clover, hay and cowpeas, all
the foods that you have growing upon your
farms are excessively rich in the carbohy-
drates and correspoudingly poor in protein,
aud so the carbohydrates being in excess and
frequently going TO waste in the shape Of corn
fodder. straw and timothy hay-it does not
add to your wealth to grow them, for if you
feed them you must buy from the various
trusts nitrogenous foods at an enhanced cost
of nearly one-third more in value since the
mills have created a trust, and if sold from
your farm in the shape of corn and corn fod-
der. timothy hay, rye and wheat straw, you
simply sell your plant food at half price and
pay transportation and commission charges;
and then to replace the same plant food by
buying from the fertilizer trust IN the shape of
phosphate, and then again pay commission
and transportation charges to haul it to your
farms-land farmed under this system rapidly
deteriorates and the owner grows poorer.
The most expensive and easily depleted ele-
meut Of fertility in our soil is nitrogen. All
crops except alfalfa, clover, cowpeas and the
yetches simply draw on the available stores in
the soil for their needs, aud as nitrogen is
essential to the growth of all plant life, when
/ exhausted the soil is run out Alfalfa, clover
and cowpeas belong to the leguminous family,
/ which, By the aid Of micro organisms in the
nodules Of their roots. are able to take nitro
gen from the air and shape it into plant food.
| This is the reason why clover, alfalfa and cow
peas improve your farm, and in any rotation
that you may adopt that does not include one
of the eguminous family you cannot hope to
enrich your land. Should you find animal
| industry irksome, alfalfa can be baled and
/ sold ike other hay, and as soon as it is once
tried it will take preference over all other
/ hays. The English Government found its value
/ in the Boer War and thousands of tons were
purchased and shipped in bales to Capetown.
| Our own Government is today feeding its
horses in the Philippines OF American baled
] alfalfa