The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-08-23
IGROW.ING ; ALFALFA
 IN. CONNECTICUT
lCheapestss Forage Crop We Gan Produce, So Says Col.
 Jarvis-His Experience
tIntereststnProductive Grass

mt0eoo4 In akfal1a na9 grown apAco fhsrsahsuts since the meeting at the teadd fAzuz in South Windsor a few day1 Aeo, many of the visitors being dstsrminsd toi oitast..4he grass on their farms. Therss is no more practical student of szother, earth and its pos sfbfAeies than the Hon. c. M. Jarvis. i1eriin:s foremost citizen. and his ex-i tpezdence with the new grass. printed dn tbo current ssRura1 New Yorker" win attract attention beyond the limits of his town and state. He writes: | soYed my first patch of a1falfa-itI fwa6 G "trip about 20 feet wide by 1000 feet long. The plants came up m soafterfng patches, and, after nursing | If naonx for some months abondon- cd the experiment 5as complete fall I ura. About two years afterwards II |notioed one spot on the top Of a grav- ely knoll where there were ten to noscieson. nasssn % This % was fne soth Of May. h measured some of the stems and EfhSv- were 36 inches long. It was |exidant: there, vas some reason why and under the same conditions pf lsoN as existed in that particular spot alfa1fa ought to grow all over my farm. First plowed up the growing alfalfn and scattered the earth around . spot about thirty feet in diameter. then reseeded it. There was a. slight increase in the number of plants but around the outer circle the alfalfa grew spindiing and soon died out, not enlarRing :the~ original area. to any appreciable extent. I concluded rom this that something was needed in the soil besides bacteria. For the sec | ond expsrinient q plowed up the old al-
 6alfa and Timed the soil and scat Itered the old alfalfa soil over space about thirty feet in diameter and re- seeded. This experiment proved a ! alfalfa luXur1. autly throughout the entire area of about thirty feet in diameter. there fore concluded that lime was neces- sary as well GA bacteria and thought fI had solved ae problem.
 | immediately plowed two acres of land ad1oining this spot, gave it a thorough coating Of about 1000 pounds of lime to the acre, distributed the 1 eotl from the alfalfa spot over the ftotal area and sowed the seed. The lime that I used was caught in railroad wreck and delayed and was obliged to put on the bacteria and | SOW the seed within twenty-four hours after had lined the soil. The ex- pertinent was a complete failure, ex- cept Toxer the original spot where the 1 alfalfa grew luxuriantly as before. Tho next year I repeated the exper1- I ment exactly in the same form as before, but sowed the lime about three
 weeks in advance Of the seed. This
 was in the fall. and it was very dry, 1 and but little snow fell throughout | the winter, a good deal of the alfalfa I did not come up and a large number l Of plants were killed during the win- 1 ter. The next fall repeated the ex- perimeht in exactly the same way as fhe year before, the season was fa- vorable and the alfalfa went into the winter looking well. The spring of 1891 found two acres more or less in good shape, and during that summer T cut three good crops. The alfalfa did -soually as well during the sum- mer of 1908:
 Mxery. farmer will recall that here 1 in Connecticut the summers of 1907 land 1908 were very dry. and yet I cut lone large crop and two small crops lfrom my alfalfa field estimating not Hess than four tons to the acre. Last lfa1l there appeared to be a good deal iof grass in the alfalfa, so that early
 this spring I put a cutaway harrow on lpart Of it. and gave it a severe cutting, 9oiug- over it both ways at right tanSies and then dia .onally. The re- suit has been to i'm rove that portion | of the field where it received this lfraafment. demonst, ating conclusively. Ito my mind. that where grass and lforeign matter grow with the alfalfa
 a good application of the cutaway harrow early in. the spring will im- prove the condition. Last fall sowed about ten acres of alfalfa. which came 1 up well and yielded at the first cut tfine. this spring about two tons to the
 acre. At the present time August s.) 1t stands from eight to ten inches
 high, and will yield about one ton to
 the acre.
 After an experience of some eight
 years I have no hesitation in saying
 that believe alfalfa can be grown in
 Connecticut: that it can be profitably
 grown, and that it should receive the
 attention of all our farmers. I want
 others to learn from my failures and
 mistakes. but advise every farmer in
 Connecticut to try a little piece of all
 falfa. and would urge upon him the
 following rules: First. the land should
 beweu drained. as alfalfa will not live
 where water stands on the surface of
 fhe soil for any considerable length of
 time. Second. the land should have
 thorough application of lime-not less
 chan one ton of good. fresh-burned
 limo, or two tons of air-slaked lime. to
 the acre Third. the land should be
 rich -5oxd mellow. as free as possible
 from weed seeds: therefore blow early.
 and a& least once week. before seed
 lnG go over the land thoroughly with .n cuttaWax harrow Fourth. bacteria
 Eho0ld be applied from Q field of