Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-06-26

sunshine. Cultivate with very
light, small weedsr Or harrow at first,
finishing up with larger cultivators.
Thin out to width of common hand
hoe. In the Piedmont section plant
ing may be done from the middle of
August to middle of September. The
later paintings are less woody, more
nutritious and keep better through
the winter. Bank as you would po-
tatoes. ..
Planting alfalfa or lucerne seed /:
If you have the soil in fine fix and
comparatively free from weed seed,
as will be the case if you have COM
menced preparing the soil in time,
there is no doubt in my mind that
thick broadcast seeding is preferable
to seeding in the drill. The only ad-
vantage in drill-seeding is that it
permits the killing of weeds and
grass by cultivating after planting,
and my experience is that if oultivat-
ing is commenced after planting that
it must be kept up at great cost or
weed seed will keep on coming, and
eventually choke out the alfalfa dur
ing some rainy spell. In the Pied
mont belt seeding is best done in
September to last of October. Sow
seed on smooth, loose soil, end rress
in the soil with roller. If you have
no roller smoothing-board will do
fairly we'll to press the seed in if done
just right.
About incubation Wherever
plenty of stable manure is applied
new, or has been used in considerable
quantity during last few years, you
need not worry about inoculating !;
your lucerne will not need anything
of that sort. But where commercial
manures are used on land of uncer-
tainty as to inoculation, no doubt
about it being safer to have the seed
inoculated by reliable firm. where
inoculated soil cannot be obtained at
reasonable cost.
Caution.-Now there is a great
deal of rot passing around through
the stereotype press these days that
no doubt leads the novice into the
delusion that the mere seed sown on
almost any soil will mysteriously
bring forth a wonderful crop, all
brought about by the magic proper
ties in the seed alone.
Anyone possessed of reasonable
amount of common horse sense ought
to know that unless the stuff it takes
to grow alfalfa is there available and
in the right preparation in the soil,
you need not expect the seed to
gather up something from the soil
that is not available in the soil. Per-
haps the writer has lost more money
on alfalfa during the last 35 years
than all other seed combined, simply
from the lack of experience we now
have. A good rich loose clay loan
of all soils is best for alfalfa. Any
old salt lands that have been manured
heavily for years, make fine soil for
alfalfa. Alfalfa roots 60 down deep
into this ground and utilize the rich
salts that have leached and gone too
deep in the soil to be reached by the
roots of ordinary crops.
Good crops of lucerne or alfalfa and
ruta-baga turnips furnish all stock
and poultry on the farm with good
nutritious and healthy succulent food
the year round. All stock love alfalfa,
either green or in hay. Many years
back our minister to France, Gen.
Davie, stated that in portions Of that
country the poor people used and eat
this lucerne or alfalfa as green's.
From early in the fall until late in
the spring all stock, poultry and peo-
pie enjoy turnips and when the last
of March comes, lucerne is ready to
take the place of winter turnips for
all stock, and keep this food supply
going again until turnips come again
in the fall. For winter feed for hogs,
turnips and cotton seed boiled TO-