The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1911-07-07
Wake to Value Of Wonder Crop.
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under this great organization-the
Mormon church the bishop said:
"You have always been the envy of
all the rest of the farming communi-
ties of the world on account of what
you have accomplished in this great
desert; your farms and your homes have
ever been admired and called forth just
praise from all who passed your door.
This was due to your love Of toll and
close application to the teachings of
the church; now all is changed and you
are becoming among, the worthless
and shiftless, afraid to do full or hon
est days work, and 1 say. cursed be the
day when alfalfa was introduced into
your country, which enables you to
earn living for yourself and families
practically without labor or thought
for the morrow"
The bishop did not call their atten-
ton, to the fact, however, that his
practitioners were really making more
money from their alfalfa fields than
they had been able to make from the
growing of grains and other products.
or that by rotation of crops with alfalfa
as one, the yield of wheat, oats, rye
and barley was increased from Is to 20
per cent and that of all the root crops
such as potatoes, sugar beets, carrots,
turnips, rutabagas and all the yege-
tables were augmented fully 80 to 100
per cent. have seen 500 bushels Of
potatoes per acre taken from field of
81 acres, which had been in alfalfa for
few years previous.
USES ARE MANIFOLD.
The..grea stories of the wonderful
yields of the fields of the west are not
myths, but are founded on facts; these
yields do not come as a matter of loca-
ton entirely. but from the application
of modern scientific agricultural meth
DDS. Let the farmers of western Michi-
gan adopt the same methods and they
will enjoy the same returns in produc-
ton, with the added increment of diff
ference in cost of placing their product
before the consumer. so greatly in their
favor.
The uses to which alfalfa is put. the
forms in which it is consumed, are
manifold. AS pasturage in dry weather,
it has no superior. Fed dry, it is ever
a toothsome morsel to all the forage
eating animals. haye seen hogs leave
chopped grain to 20 to alfalfa, newly
cut out of the stack and just thrown
into the feeding racks. For lambs and
sheep generally, there is no better fat
tener, and alfalfa fed lambs from the
west always command the highest prices
on the eastern markets.
1t is only within the past very few
years that alfalfa mills have been
operated in Kansas, Nebraska and
Colorado, though these have been sue.
cessfully operated in California for
many years. Alfalfa meal sells to
dairymen, livery stables, feeders of
stock for market, and is used by every
one requiring feed for stock prepared
in such manner as, to give up it's full
value with, least effort. That it is really
worth while is proven by the fact that
when alfalfa hay ie selling at SIS per
ton alfalfa meal sells for $22 so to $e5
per ton. The alfalfa meal market has
never been supplied in any section
where its value has been proven. This
meal is not ground as fine for stock
feeding purposes as is that which is
now being tested out in Montana for.
food purposes.
AN ALL-ALFALFA BANQUET.
At banquet given in Bismarck last
winter, alfalfa bread, alfalfa cakes,
alfalfa ,dumplings served with fowl
Iattened on alfalfa, alfalfa buildings
served with mutton which had neve r
led on anything but alfalfa; spinach"
being the tender young leaves and
'hoots of the alfalfa; peach cobbler, the
,rust for which was made from the
Alfalfa meal, and the beverage was tea,
picked from the alfalfa fields of Bis
narck. This occasioned no little com.
nent from those present and all were
oud In their praises of this as one of
he coming real food products.
Alfalfa is q great vegetable Sub
'oiler, the extensive root system going
INTO the ground to q great depth open
up, the soil and bringing up fertility to
The surface for the use Of other more
plants.
When plowed under, its decaying
'oots furnish large amount of humus,
,ot only in the top soil, but through.
,ut all the subsoil penetrated by it's
,oot system. The mechanical condition
If soil after growing alfalfa is excellent.
SOIL PREPARATION IMPORTANT.
One of the most important factors in
he production of alfalfa is the prepare.