Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-04-23
ALFALFA.
Mr.. Poas Makes an Interesting and
Successful Experiment.


Editor Yorkville Enquirer:
Noticing Mr.. ]. 8. Glasscock's arti-
Gle on alfalfa, concluded my expert
ence might be worth something to
your readers.
We have six or seven acres In a.
field on the A. A. Barron place att
Ebenezer; sandy clay, gravelly soil,l
slightly rolling that I thought would
grow alfalfa, and concluded to try II.
In obtaining information from all
those of experience whom / talked
with, I was told that the soil must be
made very fertile with stable, or barn.
yard fertilizer. They all said 1t would
be failure with any other kind of
fertilizer, and that should plant only
half an acre, or so much as an exper-
iment as could fertilize on this plan.
I told them I did not have any Of
that kind of fertilizer. and that half
an acre was too little for me to waste
time on. The whole patch Of six or
seven acres or none with me- Mr.. j.
M. Cherry Is our partner in this farm
and he. also thought II would not do,
as he had had some experience with
alfalfa himself, and noticed II grow
ing on the state farm. and on Mr..
Whitners farm. I told him wanted
to risk II, and did not want any lip
about II, II IL was failure.
The patch was In wheat, and our
farmer, Mr.. Fred Spears, was very
busy in the crop, and he, too. did not
seem to have enough faith In II to neg
lect his other work. However, Mr..
Cherry ordered the lime, and I got
Mr.. Spears to scatter It broadcast over
the land, about one and half tons
per acre. Then he did not have time
to plow and SOW the patch In peas,
and got Mr. John f. Williams to as
sist him in plowing them in with his
teams. am mentioning all the small
details to show how much discourage
ment I had In getting the alfalfa
planted
In September, 1910, we turned the
peas under with q four-horse disc
plow, followed by four horse subsoil,
making q total of about fourteen and
one eighth inches. Then we narrowed
the land twice with q four-horse disc
harrow and inocuated the land with
soil obtained from River View" farm
I told Mr.. Spears to haul all Mr.. Whit
ner would let him have, as IL was
splendid fertilizer OF itself. -"
We then applied the following fer
tilizer per acre:
Potash .......y...... ...sss100 fbsst z
Cotton seed meal .........400 fbs.
Acid -. ..... ..........400 fbs
sag ........ ..... .4OO IDS.
Total ........ !, 800 fbs...
We bought the lime at CARNEY. 8. C.
It was rough on the men. and should
be put in with a lime distributor, in
stead Of by hand, as we did. We haul
ed 1t from the cars and put 1t on the
field, and let II slake out there. The
fertilizing was followed by two plow-
ings with disc harrow. rolled once
or twice with clod crusher, followed
then by a smoothing harrow once.
We then laid 1t off in lands about six
feet wide with an iron foot pl0w-
stock, with no plow on II. We sowed
the alfalfa seed unmixed. Then laid II
off the same way across this, and Sow
ed the seed again. We then ran O
weeder over this twice to cover the
seed lightly. The seed cost about $50.
The crop showed up nicely In the
spring of 1911, and Mr.. Sam Fried.
helm offered me s35 an acre for the
crop that year. We would have done
we'll to have accepted his offer, as it
good cutting. We applied 400 pounds
of lift per acre as top dressing on
the stubble after the first crop was cut
In 1911. It was so dry that the stub
BILE looked as II It was dead nearly all
fail. The roots grow deep in the
ground, and of course, the older, the
pa tch, the deeper the roots; thus the
crop Is less affected by dry weather.
We recommend commercial fertilizer,
because you are less apt to have weeds
and other litter In the crop. Ours has
very little.
I think we planted on the poorest
land that has been planted In alfalfa
in this community, and as to the crop,
1t is there to speak for itself. ! am
right proud of 1t, because / had so
much discouragement, and think 1t Is
as good, or better than any In the
We ran short of lime on
a part of the field, and that part Is not
half as good as where we applied
good coating.
This proves to me that there is not
much use listening to what the people
have to say. 1t takes game people to
do business, and there In great deal
to be made out of our land, IL We had
the people that would spend the mon-
ey and the labor on 1t.
]. Edgar Poag.
Rock Hill, S. c., April 20.