The new era. (Walden, Colo.) 1906-19??, 1911-10-25
ALFALFA ON DRY FARM
Row Cultivation viii Have Great
Place.
stooiIns Habit 10 Of Extreme Inn
portanee to Dry Farmer-GroW-
or Can Thin Out DrIlis ~
Beets Are Trimmed.

1t is doubtful II the system of SOW
ing alfalfa in rows would be a success
in the middle states. doubt it. as I
do not believe sufficiently thorough
cultivation could be maintained in a
humid climate to keep out the
grasses. That row cultivation will
have a great place in dry farming is
beyond question. for hay as we'll as
for seed production. Where ordinary
seeding is practced there are usually
too many plants and they often ex-
haust the entire available moisture,
resulting in a general death instead
Of the survival Of the httest, writes L.
Ogilvy in the Breeders Gazette. The
yields of hay on dry and irrigated
lands. so far as experiments have
been tried, have been greater when
drilled in rows than where the plants
occupied the whole field. With the
Spanish or straightgrowing kind the
hay is coarse. but with Grimm and
varieties having somewhat the same
stooling habit this drawback does not
exist
This stooling habit is of extreme
Importance to the dry farmer, as will
be easily seen II we consider what
usually happens to alfalfa. There is
as rule fair amount Of precipita-
ton In the spring or an amount Of
stored water in the soil in June. All
the little plants start at once and
flourish for awhile. and then as the
little tap roots reach down through
the cultivated land and engage in a
desperate struggle to pierce the plow
sole and harder uncultivated sub
stances, the heat, grasshoppers and
other adverse conditions check plant
growth on top. On the other hand,
alfalfa planted In rows "a inches apart
on even If the drills are continuous.
II the grower desires he can thin the
drills as beets are thinned and thus
make practically certain of sufficient
supply of moisture except in a very
abnormal season. He can with har-
row. weeder or cultivator cheaply re-
tain a soil mulch to prevent evapora-
tion--in other words, he can do all for
alfalfa that he can for any other cul-
great deal more than it does with a
big plant like corn. producing a
heavy tonnage and calling for lots OF
moisture for Transportation.
If the alfalfa plants are thinned to
"a inches they can almost be made to
grow, and that is what the dry farm
er has to do-make plants succeed
S,ykr Mt v~ata mt
normal even If not entirely adverse
Adverse they are If he persists in
farming as If they were normal, and
he must come to see this II he Is to
succeed.
Given alfalfa with a stooling habit
the plant can first be established and
its roots reach deep permanent mois.
ture before 1t produces crop of any
magnitude. Once firmly established
1t will no doubt, like all other plants
that have enough room, begin to stool
out and do business to the limit of
Its capacity. In dry seasons for a
time at least the stools will not be
SO well established. but they will first
succumb, leaving the main part OF
the plant still in possession.
The same methods will apply equal
ly to the Spanish or non-stooling va
rieties and will be great success for
seed, but the hay will be coarser.
They can never fill the ground with a
multiplicity of shoots AS the others,
but must coarsen their branches and
stems at the expense of the leaf
bearing properties of the plant. This
disadvantage can be largely overcome
by early cutting. AS 1t will be long
time before there is sufficient sup
ply of seed of other kinds. on the
market, row cultivation of the kinds
available should be begun and pushed
at once in the dry region.
hare~ k~ou,Inda>