The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-17

cultural lecturer in the world He is a
former college professor, a chautauqua
lecturer, and in the race for governor of
Iowa last year he came so near being
elected that for time he was reported as
the successful candidate He is a man
of enormous technical agricultural knowl-
edge, which he has coupled with a wide
experience in actual farming work, and
both added to pleasant and pronounced
ability tc put his knowledge into words
combine to make him a man of much
value to the farmer. The men of the
black belt received him with enthusiasm
and they have been shown new paths to
follow by his intelligent talks.
alfalfa King" Joe Wing
alfalfa King Joe Wing is another
man of much experience and practical
knowledge. His presence in the automo-
bile train that toured a large part of the
black belt country was of great benefit
to the farmers who heard him. He has
truly done some wonderful things with
alfalfa; he was the first to successfully
prove to the world that alfalfa can be
grown almost any place and he gave the
farmers of Alabama the full benefit of
his experiments. A. P. Grout is practi=
cal farmer from Illinois and he in n4pressed
uFon the farmers of Alabama the Reces-
sity of raising stock on their farms to
which must be fed as much as possible OF
their crops, instead of selling the crops
All farmers of Alabama know, or ought
to at least, Professor Dugger of Auburn
and Mr.. Kinds. Both are men of great
ability and they are rendering services
for the farmers of Alabama whose value
will never be fully estimated
Professor Holden's Views
alfalfa is of such enormous import
ance," said Professor Holden in his
speeches to Alabama farmers last week,
because of two main factors: 1t produces
one of the richest and most valuable
crops that can be grown and instead of
taking vitality out of the soil it deposits
nitrogen and humus there and enriches
the soil so that much greater Yields of
other crops can be had when the field Is
planted to something else This is the
way alfalfa is going to keep cotton in
Alabama. 1t will so inrich the soil that
the cotton plant will grow so fast and
SO sturdy that the boil weevil cannot
harm it.
Alfalfa is probably the richest in pro-
tein of any crop raised. When corn and
alfalfa are, therefore, combined as
ration for stock there is nothing that
will equal it. Corn is nearly all starch
and starch is nothing but wind and wa
ter. Alfalfa is nearly all protein and
protein is what makes bone and muscle
in an animal. But when the two are
combined the animals that are fe> on it
become twice as large and twice as val
raoie In the same length of time as If
they were fed on corn alone
In Iowa we want corn and the wav we
raise corn is to grow alfalfa with it, here
you want cotton, and the way to grow
cotton Is to grow alfalfa with it, In grow
ing alfa q second farm down under the
farm you ordinarily cultivate is brought
INTO service. When you raise corn or cot
ton the roots of the plant enter the soil
to the depth of some or 10 or y inches.
and when alfalfa is planted it is no un-
usual thing for the roots to penetrate the
soil for 13 or IA feet. AS far as | know no
one has sever been able to actually un-
cover the end of an alfalfa root and
measure its full length. We have dug
them up 13 or ID feet long and usually
ABOUT that time they break and we don't
know how much farther the fine tendrills
ran into the ground. Through these roots
the alfalfa plant puts nitrogen into the
SOIL and nitrogen is what is needed to
grow corn and cotton. Besides, on every
root of an alfalfa plant there are hum
dreds of little bacteria through which the
plant is fed. When the plant dies these
bacteria fall off and die and there is no
better fertilizer made. Those many and
many feet of roots rot in the ground.
thereby depositing humus; they leave
holes through which the air and the water
enter the soil and when the next crop is
planted on the former alfalfa patch the
results are almost unbelievable to the
eye.
There are some requisites to successful
growing of alsfalfa, and one Of these is
lime. Where the soil does not contain
lime, it must be applied, but here in Ala
bama you have plenty of it. / have never
in my life seen a soil better adapted to
the successful growing of this remarkable
crop. There is none better in the world
All that is needed is to go about IL in a
careful, systematic way. There are rules
that have to be followed and if this is
done, success is bound to come.
Drain the Land
"Since you already have a soil that is
perfectly adapted to the growing of alfal-
ia, said Joe Wing, the first and prob
ably most important thing for the Ala
bama farmer to do is to properly drain his
land. Instead of making the land dry out
proper tile draining will aid it to with
stand drouth. Your land is rolling and
you may think it is well enough drained.
1t is surface drained, but does the water
run out of the land? The little bacteria
on the roots of the alfalfa cannot live
without air and as soon as they get down
to a depth where the soil is fun of water
they die and the plant grows no further
This water must be let run out of the coil
and the roots will penetrate that much
further. and just far the roots go down
into the ground just that far the stem of
the plant will come out of the ground"
Professor Holden, Mr.. Wing. Mr.. Grout
Professor Dugger and all the experts
agreed that one of the first things to be
done in the agricultural districts of Ala
bama was to break up the large planta-
tions into smaller farms. They declared
lit was ridiculous for any man to try to
farm two or three thousand acres and said