The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-06-06
Alfalfa i'm the South.

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as if it will solve the knotty question
of the lack of forage in the South.
The raising of alfalfa has now
passed the experimental stage with
rs. In Virginia, especially, thousands
of acres are probably grown and
cured into first class hay that, when
offered upon the markets, compares
in prices with No. 1 timothy or any
other hay that the feed dealers
handle. =.
That alfalfa is peculiarly adapted
to the soil and climate of the South
is being practically demonstrated on
farms from Maryland to Mississippi,
and it seems safe to predict that the
day is not far distant when the sue
cessful Southern farmer will depend
on this wonderful forage plant for the
maintenance of his livestock of all
kinds, not to the entire exclusion of
many other valuable forage plants
now in general cultivation all over
the South, but as the mainstay, as it
were, for feeding purposes. whether
as a grazing, soiling Or hay crop.
The writer recently had the pleas
ure of visiting mi Of the largest and
most fertile plantations in the State
Of Virginia, a plantation comprising
v $500 acres of arabic land. On
this farm over 200 acres of alfalfa
were growing. Experiments with this
crop had been carried on for several
years and under varying conditions.
The fields sown in alfalfa were of
3 S-~- - u -~S
approximately of the same nature in
the different fields or plats, naturally
was not exactly alike in all of them,
the fields bordering the river having
a deeper and somewhat more fertile
soil, while several plats further back
from the river contained clay in
some instances, and in others were of
a gravelly and sandy nature.
The crops of hay cut from these
various plats averaged about three
and a half tons to the acre, and after
the alfalfa reached it's second year it
would stand cutting from three to
four times-about a ton at each cut
ting. In the neighborhood of 1000
tons of hay was cut and harvested the
last season, which sold at from $14
to SIC a ton.
The plan pursued in preparing the
land, seeding, etc., was as follows:
The land was plowed we'll and deeply,
left to lie for several weeks before
seeding, worked into fine condition
by repeated narrowing, thus killing
weeds and preparing a fine seed bed.
The alfalfa was sown in the fall, no
fertilizer being used, as it had been
demonstrated that land capable of
producing good crops of wheat, corn,
oats or timothy would also produce
good crops of alfalfa hay. Applica-
lions of lime were used. Inoculated
seed had been tried with success, but
it was also found that seed that had
not been thus treated had done we'll.
The first crop was clipped if neces-
sary, though this depended much on
the stand. Very little success had
been realized in ~reseeding "spotty"
stands; one field had reseeded itself,
probably from the result of clipping.
The alfalfa seed was sown without
any other seed, as experiments tried
with sowing it along with German
clover resulted in the latter choking
out the young alfalfa plants.
When the hay was in condition to
cut the mowers were put to work.
The hay was left on the ground as
cut until wilted, then cleaned into
WlndroWs, then put up in cocks to
remain two or three days. Then they
were opened, the hay spread out upon
the ground, enough for the air to
go through it, and then it was hauled
to the barn. Care was taken that
the hay was not allowed to get per-
fectly dry after cutting and before
putting into cocks, as this would
cause the leaves to fall off, thereby
losing fifty per cent. of their value.
The young alfalfa was not grazed the
FIRST season, and when grazed at all
It was found best to run livestock on
it in the fall.
The experiments on this farm are
OF value, as they clearly demonstrate
the success of alfalfa in this section
and under ordinary conditions as to
SOIL, climate and cultivation.
The prevailing opinion among
southern farmers is that fall seeding
IS preferable and September is the
best month.
If the season is favorable the
young plants will get enough growth
before winter sets in to resist the
cold. Spring seeding can be done
from February until May, according
TO conditions. Very often alfalfa is
seeded too early and as a result germ
mates and is killed by a late hard
frost. Land that will bring forty
bushels of corn, twenty of wheat, or
mat will cut a ton of timothy hay,
will bring alfalfa.
On another Virginia farm the
Writer saw a very fourishing crop of