Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-08-21
early European settlers did not adopt

early European settlers did not adopt
alfalfa as crop.
Meantime, just after the discovery
of gold in California, alfalfa first
was grown along the Pacific coast,and
from that beginning it has spread
through the far west, where today it
ranks as the most dependable of all
crops and one most rapidly increas-
ing in acreage.
Last year in Kansas, the brand al
falfa State, the seed gathered after
three cuttings Of hay had total value
of more than $S,OO0,OOO. And last
year was the drought year out there.
1t is alfalfa's fine disdain of rain
fall that constitutes it such a certain
asset. It's wonderful root-habits ac-
count for this. While the plant itself
commonly grows no higher than three
or four feet, its roots go down ten
or twenty feet or even deeper. In one
case reported by the chief of the de
partment of agriculture's irrigation
inquiry, the roots were found pene-
trating through crevices in the roof
of q tunnel 81 feet below the surface
of an alfalfa field.
The New Jersey station reports
that the average yield per annum CT
green clover to the acre is $4,000
pounds, and of green alfalfa, 36, 400
pounds; the protein in the clover is
GIG pounds and in the alfalfa, 2,214
pounds; one ton of alfalfa has 265
pounds of protein, and clover only
246 pounds. But alfalfa will produce
three, four or more cuttings each
year, while clover will produce but
one or at most two. Further, clover
will ordinarily survive but two years,
while alfalfa will last from ten to Il
hundred.
The Wisconsin experiment station
says that zone acre of alfalfa yields
rs much protein as three acres of
clover, as much as nine acres of tim
othy and twelve times as much as an
acre of bronze grass"
AS to its nutritivc and economic
value, we need go no further than
quote Prof. Perry G. Holden of Iowa,
everywhere recognized as one of the
foremost experts in the world. He
says:
"There is no other combination of
feeds so economical for the produc-
ton of beef, pork, butter and eggs,
and for growing animals as corn and
alfalfa. Neither will give the best re-
suits alone. We need alfalfa because
1T balances up the corn ration and
saves the large waste of starch which
always takes place where corn is fed
alone.
eve need alfalfa because we can in
this way grow on our own farms the
protein more profitably than we can
buy it in food stuffs. We need alfal-
IA because it feeds the soil and en-
ables us to grow larger crops of corn
and oats. We need alfalfa because
1T produces on an average double the
feed value per acre of clover or any
other forage crop.
In 1909, the latest year for which
official figures are obtainable, there
were 5000 acres of alfalfa in Penn
sylvania, which produced at the rate
OF two tons per acre, or nearly twice
as largely as any other forage crop.
In addition to this high percentage of
production, every acre thus planted
was being enriched without cost to
the grower.
Since that time the acreage has in
creased, but slowly, and in small vol
ume. AS rule, farmers in this part
of the country seen disinclined to
plant much of it, because some extra
care is required in the preparation
of the soil and such matters as drain
age, time of seeding and primary cul-
tivation. Yet the department of ag-
riculture in Washington, or any state
agricultural college, is more than will
ling to furnish all needed informa-
tiion regarding its care, and it has
been demonstrated in our own state
that no other forage crop returns so
large when this care is bestowed.
We think it would be we'll to start
in Pennsylvania a movement similar
to that organized in Wisconsin three
years ago, and known as the "Alfalfa
Order" This is an organization Of
farmers whose primary object in thus
banding together is to create enthu-
siasm over alfalfa and to demonstrate
it's remarkable virtues.
Although city folk seldom stop to
think of such thing, Pennsylvania is
one Of the leading agricultural states
in the Union. In 1909 the total value
of its crops was $167,0OO,OOO, and it
ranked thirteenth among crop-pro-
ducing states.
Growing of alfalfa on much lar
CNaIn