The Dickinson press., 1914-02-07
I[FA[FA GIVES
PROFITABLE YIELDS
'HREE TONS OF GOOD HAY 10
THE r.cRE PER SEASON IN
NORTH DAko-A
rWo CUTTINGS A YEAR.
Hood Success Reported With Grimm
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Very Bone
fieIaI-Methods Used In Pre-
pairing the Coll for q
' Good Stand. s

BY GEO. i. HooPLE, Heeple, n. ..
My father and 1 work his farm 70.
yether. Father 10 manager Of tho
Itate demonstration farm for Walsh
county, established on his farm, and
t was the superintendent Of the dem
pnstration farms, MI. Porter, who
Itarted US raising alfalfa.
He had us seed the lanes between
plats to alfalfa. There is about three
lcres adjoining the demonstration.
harm, for which he obtained Montana
seed for US four years ago. He ship
ped dit from the agricultural college
10 inoculate with. We did not get this
feld and the lanes very well inocu-
lated. There is still a little alfalfa in.
lanes, but it does not amount to much
Rs it is too thin.
We cut the first field once the Arst
year getting about one ton per acre
Of alfalfa and weeds. The second year
in two cuttings, we got about three
IONS good alfalfa hay per acre. There
was very little 10Y on 1t the NEXT
winter and 1t partly winter killed, and
I'VE disked it a little too strong in the
spring, I think. It did not look very
good SO we broke # and put 1t into
potatoes.
The seed was poor, having heated in
the bin. We had bought the seed and
did not know about It till the pota-
toes came UP. I do not think there.
was half a stand but we got two hum
bred bushels of Irish cobblers. This
spring we put it back into Grimm al
falfa. The spring being so cold, we,
could not get the weeds started be-
fore 1t was time to seed alfalfa, and.
so it il very weedy. It has also been
very dry here all summer. Just about
five inches of rain fell from April 1st
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 hay,-just clip thu
weeds.
We put in about seven acres Of
Grimm alfalfa on potato ground this
year. 1t is all good stand. We seeded
eight pounds per acre, and inoculated
with about two hundred pounds OF
dirt per acre, scattered broadcast and
narrowed in.
We have about two acres Of Nom
tana alfalfa seeded on potato ground
three years ago. It is a fine stand
We inoculated with dirt from an alfal1
ia field. We cut one ton the first year,
about five tons in two cuttings last
year, and about four tons In two cut
tings this year.
We disked the field this spring run
ming the disk nearly, straight so as not
to cut the crowns. We ran the disk
over it four times at one disking.. Disk
ing it lightly seems to do It lots Of
good in the spring. We a almost
see Il. grow after We disk it. We got
about four tons per acre in two cut
ltings 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 star. Of them and we
lplowed them up. The ground wat
moist and we had a little alfalfa seed
30 we seeded It.. Did not ~inoculate
this piece. We got q good stand, and
the weather was cool and rainy all
fall, so 1t got a good start before il
froze. It is pretty we'll inoculated this
summer. We got about one ton the
first cutting and one-half ton the sec
ond cutting. We just happened to
strike the right kind of weather OF
I 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 o year ago. We cut II
once this summer for hay and we hopt
to get q seed crop from 1t this fall.