The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-05-17
Established 1877
BY Dr.. Cyril C. Hopkins.

Alfalfa is g. hard crop to start. It
IS delicate and tender, and to put al
falfa on ordinary land without any
protection or any help, is about like
throwing away 81 an acre. The
money Is ordinarily wasted IL you
SOW it as you would clover or most
other crops.
We want to prepare and enrich
the land and give alfalfa the best
possible chance to start with. If the
land is sandy, put on 20 loads Of
manure per acre, 80 loads would be
better You are preparing the land.
not for one year, but for ten years.
You can afford to do almost any
thing to get it in shape.
The land should be worked until
IT is free from weeds. You cannot
have alfalfa prosper with weeds and
foaI grass; destroy them before you
SOW the CROP
If YOU viii have the land free from
weeds and the surface soil enriched,
so that the alfalfa will live say two
years, then it will grow and take
care Of itself.
below where any other crop has been.
1t draws phosphorus and potassium
from the deeper soit It is not nee
essary to apply phosphorus to alfalfa
land IF the soil is acid, put on plen-
" Of ground lime stone and manure.
Get five cents worth Of blue litn1us
paper from the drug store, break in
two q mass OF the moist soil, insert
q piece Of the litnlus paper and press
the soil firmly together again.
After ten or twenty minutes re-
move the soil and allowed the paper
to dry If the dried test paper is pink
Or red. as compared wit hthe original
color the soil is acid and needs the
ground limestone, about one ton per
acre, thoroughly mixed with the
soil.
If you have clean, rich land. you
can seed alfalfa early but from a
good many years experience we ad-
wise sowing alfalfa between the mid
die Of July and the middle of August.
Have the ground made rich the year
before, and we'll drained. PiOw the
ground in the spring at the time you
would fer corn, then disk it or har-
TOW it about every week or ten days
until you are satisfied the weeds and
f0ul grass are practically all started
and killed. IF it takes until the mid
die OF August why work it until then!
When the weeds come, kill them with
Your harrow.
In few days there will be another
crop Of weeds spring up. Go on with
your disk and harrow your ground,
and let the weeds up as long as they
VIII; kill each crop. You have both
killed the weeds and preserved mois-
ture
Then thoroughly inoculate and
ground and SOW 20 to 25 pounds OF
good alfalfa seed and harrow it ir
well If the ground has been wei
manured the year before, I cannot
tell you any better way than this
but l don't believe it is necessary tt
thus give up the use Of the land
and / think after you have found
that you can grow alfalfa you vii
follow the plan of taking d field tha
mas been in the winter wheat o.
clover. plow it Immediately, work /
a month and SOW it about the last o
July.
If you have harvested the Glove
nay crop you can give up the Ian,
The last Of the year to get the alfalf
started After the oats crop it i
getting too late; follow winter whea
is better and following clover ha;
IS best Of all. See that the soil
inoculated SO that you will have bac
trela there to enable you to get nj
Oosen from the air The best meth