The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-21
ALFALFA IN
 NEW ENGLAND
.Bv George French1


 farmers The oId-styIe farmer will not succeed with it. because he will not have the courage to put the nec- essary amount of money, time and fasth-not to mention brains-into the
 exposition
 In the first place, it requires faith, and a lot of it. A man cannot simply plow any convenient field, SOW alfalfa seed and expect al harvest the next autumn Quite otherwise. He must first assure himself that he has the right sort of soi1 and that all of the other conditions are right In New England the soils suitable for alfalfa are those .claSsed as Gloucester ana Flushing .loam-loam with some sand silt. The river valleys, and like for nations are the best Upland is all right if it has plenty Of loam ana is not too poor Probably. there would not result much success from alfalfa on light sandy soil. though some of the farmers who have been most success f1l with alfalfa claim that 1t can be made to grow on any soil except where there is a clay subsoil There misst be thorough cultivation The z1e1d designed for alfalfa should be enriched for two or three years in \ advance of putting in the seed. Plen- ty of stable manure, well worked in. and the land cultivated to crops that will not exhaust 1t but give opportun- ity to kill all the weeds resulting from the manure. The fields should be of the right soil, to begin with, and should. be made rich and very mellow ana free frozn weeds and other grass es Then alfalfa may be put ia, and then the real work of getting it fairly l rooted and started begins. It yields prodiEallv- and is a very valuable crop. if 1t is neglected These essentials are apecifed by one of the govern ment soil experts, with special refer ence to New England
 The land must be well drained If not. you will see the young plants dy- ing in the depressions where the wa ters does not freely drain of. and thriving within New feet. where there is a good drainage
 The snhsod1 must be mellow to the depth Of several feet as the alfalfa roots will go down from six to twelve l feet There must be no clay. or oth- CT solid subsoil
 There must be lime in the land, nat urally., or added by the farnner. in 1 the praportfon of one ton of caustic l lime or two tons of ground hnlestone l to the acre
 weeds must be killed ssT1ie best weed to have in alfalfa is more al- l faIfa- The weeds can be killed only | by thorough tillage If the field has corn the year before 1t is to go to | alfalfa. the corn should be cultivated | so thoroughly as to kill the weeds be- fore they come to seed The land | should be p1oHed in the falls and in | the. spring 1t should be thoroughly | narrowed before the weeds get much l of a start-sA
 land must be fnoculated by sov- ing 503t OF more pounds of screened soil frnm the surface of an estab1fsh- cd field for every acre Then sow the alfalfa. seed at once, while the inpcll- lated dirt -ia .fresh-apd q moist.s s.ss,zrls ssi
 1t75s necessary to cut at just theaI right time. # a second crop is desir- cd. when Shenerop is just coming into !. blossom, or more especially when the little buds around the top of the tap-eI roots are from one-fourth to half inch high These little buds are for the second crop of stalks, and they ought to be given the right of way by l. cutting out fine mature stalks. A good make a cHrpet to protect the roots from the snow
 If the KzrmeFz1les the right sort of land, and does not get a good crop. it he has failed in not providing good dEainaSes enough 1llnes sufficient inoc- ula1ions or few enough weeds. Let him pick hisS Hints and try again s'
 As to the crop 4hat can be expected i'm New England. it will vary as widely as other forage crops. but=there is the possibility of big crops and many of them A very eonseETat1ve estimate ss from two to three tons tos the acre, and from two to four cro11s each sea- A man in Somerset county, Me, has a three-acre field of alfalfa, and last season he took off 14ztons in three cuttings seven tons in July, four tons in August and three tons in SeDtefnf5er of ordinary hay. and the alfalfa is h much better to feed Alfalfa has h per cent more dry matter than tim otnys 5 per cent less water, and per |, cent more ash Thus it is better for flesh making. and bone making It's food value is 12 cents greater per hun f. dred pounds than timothy, or nearly F 1s per cent So the farmer who is thinking of going into alfalfa may reckon thai he can hope to produce about twice as much. in weight, on the same area as of the best timothy and that it viii be f19 per cent better as 1p0d for his stock The alfalfa will NR, therefore, if he has good luck Wtth 1t. worth about 2.20 times as Much as timothy would be, if he had Eood luck with it and raised big crop 4 Another man in the same county of Maine figured his costs for alfalfa at <51s60 per acre He got this all back with the crops of the first season, which averaged five tons to the acre. A Connecticut man got four crops from land that was WoodIot and worth after the wood was cut off not | over $3-50 an acre It cost him. $1OO an acre to clear and prepare 1t for the |. croR<s andc he got approximately six tons to the acre of alfalfa Suppose he had 100 acres, and had edualfy. |, good fortune every year, he would be I1 making good Interest at least s5O,- GOO off of land that was not before worth more than $350. Pretty good Business Another man. in a location quite similar got three tons an acre |, the first cutting. one and one-haIf |: khe second four-dffhs the third, and ene ton. the fourth-an average of five tsns to the acre for the season, and he left enough on the ground to pro- ; tsct the roots through the winter.
 Connecticut man has so acres of alfalfa that yields him from four to |,