The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1911-06-29
GROW ALFALFA
INTERESTING ARTICLE ON GET.
NG1FsTARTED.
par..s. "a. CFd1n's Experience and

NIX. Ss II. CrGrn's Experience and
How He Managed Alfalfa With
Good Success.
There, are possibilities with alfal-
Ia In South Carolina. Many farmers
have been making paintings In the
aast three or four years, and some
have obtained good results. Many
who have made, failures do so be-
cause they have not known how to
plant alfalfa properly. It is not yet
fullr determined whether alfalfa will
be an economic success in. this State,
but in view. of the importations OF
hay, and the wonderful, results that
have been obtained in western States,
1t is we'll worth q trial by any farmer. rl!
A. G.. Smith, Scientific Assistant
OF the United States Department of
Agriculture has been doing, work with
alfalfa, and where his, directions for
planting have been carefully, followed
good results have uniformly been OBJ
&ained. Anyone desiring specific d.
rections for planting alfalfa can OBJ
tain them by writing to him at Co
lurbia. The following report by Mr..
s. II. Crum, of this city, Is interest
ing in that it describes his difficult
ties the first year and tells by under
standing the crop little better, he
was able to obtain good results for
the second year:
81 have one-half acr eplanted in
alfalfa. In October 1909, had corn
and peas on this plot of land, which
is a sandy gray loams one-half OF
which has solf yellow clay su bsoil,
the other half pipe clay: It Is what
is called here low sand, but well
drained. / broke this land with a
two horse plow in October 1909, and
turned under a good crop Of cowpea
vines along with five two horse loads
OF stable trash manure. l then
broad-easted 1000 pounds cf~strong
builders lime after having first slak-
ed it with water. I also applied sos
lbs. OF 16 per cent phosphoric acid
and thirty lbs. Of muriate Of potash,
all OF which T disked narrowed In by
going several times over the patch
first one. way and then the other. ]
also purchased 200 lbs. of alfalfa
inoculated soil from the North Caro-
lima experimental station and broad
casted that on damp day and her-
rowed 1--WE or six times with n smooth
ing or, section, tooth harrow. then
sowed rs lbs. of alfalfa seed and COW
cred it by dragging the, bushy tops OF
g small tree over. them several times
and Iii all directions
"In due time the seed came up to
to a beautifui stand and grew nicely
for a while when it began to turn a
redish yellow, and did not seem to
thrive. we'll except in small places.
However it stood the winter very
well and in the spring commenced
TO grow faster and reached freight
of about eight inches when I moved
it about May 1st, 1910. On account
of the extremely wet weather, did
not pretend to cure It but left 1t on
the ground, as moved, to decay. 1t
did not turn out but a very small
quantity Of hay the first cutting. Al
ter that the weather was very wet and
rainy nearly al the time, and the
crab grass grew faster than the alfal-
ia SO it soon had the appearance or
crab grass hay. cut the hay which
was also lost on account OF too much
rain. -
.sThss made my first experience
with alfalfa a failure, but deter
mined to- try again, and In August
1910. I broad casted ten more two
horss, loadssof stable manure on the
same plot Of land and turned under
with 8 two horse plow followed by a
two horse sub soil plow, breaking the
land about 1S inches deep. Then !
narrowed in 1900 lbs. more lime and
1000 Lbs. of S-4-4 fertilizer with a
disk harrow. Then used a tooth
harrow several times more until !
got it as smooth as garden. in
tended to plant seeds in September,
but was unable to get the seed in be-
fore October 18th, when disked
narrowed again and also used the
tooth harrow until I made the first
two inches of soil very firm. In my
opinion 1t was perfect seed bed.
Then I broad casted by hand 20 lbs.
of seed and covered as before with a
drag1brush. This also came up
beautifully and grew fine until the
frost came in January. This spring
during March and April it grew OF
beautifully without having any red
or yellow appearance as 1t did last
year, but kept perfectly green until
April 18th, when I cut it and cured
720 lbs. Of dry hay from the half
acre. About one week after moving,
the patch was green again and grew
fine until Nay goth, when / cut 1t
again and secured 100 lbs. of dry
hay. After the second cutting the
drought came on and it did not grow
any more, but did not die, although I
thought it would. We got gooo
rain on June 1st, 1911, which start
ed it off. 1t Is now growing fine,