Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1910-06-03
ALFALFA.
Things to Know in Starting
This Crop Successfully.
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1t is delicate and tender, and to
put alfalfa on ordinary land with.
out any protection or any help
Is about like throwing away 81
an acre. The money is Ordinar-
lily wasted if 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 twenty
loads Of manure peracre, thirty
loads would be better. You are
preparing the land, not for one
year, but for ten years. You can
afford to do almost anything to
get it in shape.
The land should be worked un-
til it is free from weeds. You cal
not have alfalfa prosper with
weeds and foul grass; destroy
them before you SOW the crop.
If you will 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.
Alfalfa gets its roots away down
below where any other crop has
been. 1t draws phosphorus and
potassium from the deeper soil.
1t is not necessary to apply phOs-
phOrus to alfalfa land. If the soil
is acid put on plenty Of ground
limestone and manure.
Get 5 cents worth Of blue lit
mus paper from the drug store,
break in two a mass of the moist
soil, insert a piece of the litmus
paper, and press the soil firmly
together again.
After ten or twenty minutes re-
move the soil and allow the pa
per to dry. If the dried test pa
per is pink or red, as compared
with the original color, the soil
is acid and needs the ground lime
stone, 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 exper.
fence we advise sowing alfalfa
between the middle of July anG
the middle Of August. Have thu
B., ground made rich the year before
and well drained. PlOw the lane
m the spring at the time yOU
would for corn, then disk or har
row it about every week or tel
days until you are satisfied tn,
weeds and foul grass are practi
cally all started and killed. If i
takes until the middle of August
why work it until then. Whel
O. the weeds come kill them will
your harrow.
In a few days there will be an
other crop of weeds spring up.
Go on with your disc and harrow
your ground, and let the weed
come up as long as they will; xii
each crop. You have both kill
ed the weeds and preserved tn
moisture.
Then thoroughly mOculate tn
ground well. If the ground ha
been well MANFRED the year be
fore, | cannot tell you a bette
way than this, but | don't believ
it is necessary to thus give up tn
use of the land, and | think afte
you have found you can grow al
falfa you will follow the plan o
TAKING q field that has hppn i
the winter wheat or clover, pillow
it Immediately, work it a mont
and SOW it about the last of July
If you have harvested the clOv
Ir hay crop you can give up tn
land the last of the year to ge
the alfalfa started. After the Ga
crop it is getting too late; follow
winter wheat is better, and fol
lowing clover hay is best of all
See that the soil is inoculated S,
that you will have bacteria Their
to enable you to get nitrogen frOr
the air. The best method is Il
, use soil that has bacteria in it al
: ready. You can get this from al
old field where alfalfa has beel
growing several years, or you cal
get it from an old patch Of swee
e clover.
Sow it In at the time you SOW
the seed. When the soil for in
OculatiOn becomes somewhat dr.,
it is easily scattered by hand frOl
the wagon or from sack whicl
g" one can carry.
Sometimes it is applied by mea
Of an end gate Seeder or a fertil
iZer drill. Don't scatter infected
soil over the land and LET If Ii,