The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1914-03-26
ALFALFA GIVES
PROFITABLE YIELDS
THREE TONS OF GOOD HAY TO
THE ACRE PER SEASON IN
NORTH DAKOTA.
TWO CUTTINGS A YEAR
GOOD Success Reported With Grimm
AIfalfs-lnoeulatlon Very Bene- ,
ficIaI--Methcds Used in Pre-
pairing the Soil for a
Good Stand.
BY GEO. H. HooeLE, Hoople, N. D,

by 1EO. NJ 6OOTLE, FtOOplet ". ps
My father and / work his farm to-
gether. Father is manager OF the
state demonstration farm for Walsh
county, established on his farm, and
it was the superintendent Of the dem
o~nstration farms, Mr.. Porter, who
started us raising alfalfa.
He had us seed the lanes between
plats to alfalfa. There is about three
acres adjoining the demonstration
farm, for which he obtained Montana
seed for us four years ago. lie ship
ped dirt from the agriculture college
to inoculate with. We did not get this
field and the lanes very well inocu-
lated. There is still a little alfalfa in
lanes, but il Toes not amount to much
as It is too thin.
We cut the first field once the first
year getting about n ton per acre
Of alfalfa and weeds, The second year
I'm two cuttings, We got about three
tons good alfalfa hay per acre. There
was very little snow on it the next
winter and IL partly winter killed, and
we disked IL a little too strong in the
spring, | think. II did not look very
good 80 we broke it and put it into
potatoes.
The seea was poor, having heated in
the bin. We had bought the seed and
did not know about 1t till the pota-
toes came up. / do not think there
was half a stand but we got two hun
dred bushels OF Irish cobblers. This
spring we put it back into Grimm al
faifa. The spring being SO cold, we
could not get the weeds started be-
fore It was time to seed alfalfa, and
so II is very weedy, Il has also been
very dry here all summer. Just about
five inches Of rain fell from April LIST
UP to date, but we have clipped weeds
and we believe we have a good catch
Of alfalfa. We Will not cut what We
put in this year for hayi-just clip the
weeds.
We put in about acres OF
Grimm alfalfa on potato ground this
year. It Is all good stand. We seeded
eight pounds per acre, and inoculated
with about two hundred pounds OK
dirt per acre, scattered broadcast and
narrowed in.
We have about two acres Of Mon
tana alfalfa seeded on potato ground
three years ago. 1t is a fine stand.
We inoculated with dirt from an alfal.
ia field. We cut one ton the first year,
about 1--WE tons in two cuttings last
year, and about four tons in two cut.
tings this year.
We dlsked the field this spring run
ming the disk nearly straight so as not
to cut the crowns. We ran the disk
over IL four times at II disking Disk
ing IL lightly seems to do 1t lots OF
good in the spring. We can almost
see il grow after we disk Il. We got
about four tons per acre in two cut
tings this year as dry as it has been,
We have about an acre next TO this
piece which we put in in August last
year. We had potatoes on it. The
weeds got the start of them and we
plowed them up. The ground was
moist and we had a little alfalfa seed
so we seeded Ii, Did not inoculate
this piece. We got a good stand, and
the weather was cool and rainy all
fall. SO 1t got a good start before il
froze. 1t is pretty well inoculated this
summer. We got about ms ton the
first cutting and one-half tor the sec.
ond cutting. We just happened q
strike the right kind of weather OF
| do not think we would have gotten q
stand of alfalfa by seeding that late
We have about one acre of Grimm
we drilled in a year age. We cut il
once this summer for hay and we hope
to get a seed crop from 1t this fail.