Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-11-05

Georgia which have been properly pre-
pared for this crop. To be successful with
alfalfa you will need to expend some time
and effort in putting the land in good
shape. You should, for instance, SOW 1t in
vetch this fall, turn the vetch under in
the spring and follow with cowpeas which
should again be plowed down. This will
add some vegetable matter and nitrogen
to the soil, two of the essentials for sue
cess with this crop, we would advise
you then to top dress well with at least 10
to 20 loads Of well rotted farmyard ma
anire or compost, Apply at least one ton
Of caustic lime to the surface Of the soil
and work in with a harrow. The cow
peas should be plowed under during the
latter part of August and the land pre-
pared to receive the lime not later than
the first of September. In two weeks af-
ter applying the LIME put on 500 to 1.0Oo
pounds Of a fertilizer containing not less
than 2 per cent OF nitrogen, 10 per cent OF
phosphoric acid and 5 per cent Of potash.
II the land Is very sandy it would be bet
ter to increase the potash to 6 or per
cent Seed about the middle Of Septem-
Der, using 20 pounds of recleaned seed per
acre and cross drill. Later seeding than
the time suggested is inadvisable because
freezes are likely to inJure the
crop before it has become well
established. You should inoculate
the land with at least 200 pounds OF
earth from a field where alfalfa has
been grown successfully. The earth is
simply scattered over the surface and
worked in with Q harrow. Even after the
plan suggested has been followed you
will often fail to secure stand of al
falfa. The only thing to do in that case
is to put the land back in peas in the
spring and turn under again in the fall
and reseed to alfalfa. Seeding alfalfa
in the spring in this section of the south
will hardly succeed because the crab
grass will nearly always choke it out.
Alfalfa gives it's best results on deep
rich loamy soil that is well-drained and
yet retentive of water. 1t is a ravenous
consumer of plant food and unless our
soils are made much richer than they
naturally are we can hardly hope to sue
coed with this crop. The writer knows
of small patches of land which have
been prepared along the lines suggested
and laid down to alfalfa in Georgia
which produced as much as three tons of
cured hay last year and made four cut
tings during the season. This hay Ia
worth at least SIS. hence one can afford to
go to much trouble and pains to secure
stand Of alfalfa
We have had very little trouble IN
growing lima or butter beans success
fully in the home garden. We prepare
the land very thoroughly and enrich it
we'll with farmyard manure, putting the
compost material under the drill row. We
put also about a 3-10-4 or fertilizer on
the garden. using cotton seed meal as
the basis of the nitrogen. This fertilizer
should be used at the rate of 1000 to 2,000
pounds per acre. The beans are planted
in the spring as soon as danger of frost
is past after the manner of planting or
binary snay beans. Care is taken to
keep the crust which forms on the sur
face of the ground broken so the beans
can come through easily. We have
grown bush lima and pole lima with sue
cess after the method suggested, but we
much prefer the bush lima, as in our
experience they have proven easier to
cultivate and have yielded better than
the pole lima. We have found the bush
lima to yield crop early in the sum-
mer, and then II the weather is favor
able to keep on yielding sometimes until
frost. In dry August, such as we had
this year, the crop will not do much.
blu twhen the rains came in September
the vines put out fresh shoots and blooms
and are yielding beans at the present
time. We think the enrichment of the
soil, careful cultivation of the crop to
keep weeds and trash out Of the way, ana
the use of good seed will enable you to
grow this crop successfully.