Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-06-18
ALFALFA NOTES.
June IL, 191!

(National Stockman and Farmer)
This is peculiar spring, especially
so for alfalfa. The warm days and
frosty nights of March made more
honey combed" conditions than +
ever saw in one year before, / think.
| began sowing alfalfa this time on
February 9, and will enclose few
plants of that seeding. The freezing
and thawing referred to made ideal
conditions for sowing alfalfa la
Jack Frost which method | now use
almost entirely. The warm weather
made old alfalfa grow too and / be-
gan cutting on May IA, just two
weeks earlier than l began in 1914.
| now have about 35 acres cut and not
a load of it hauled in or raked as yet.
The alfalfa is of good height and al
most free from weeds, but the I'M
usually dry weather of March, April
and the first half of May blasted or
retarded many of the alfalfa buds so
the stand of alfalfa is thinner than it
would have been with normal rain
fall. Many of these retarded buds,
since the rains we have had lately,
have burst out into plants, and, on
this account, / began cutting a week
ago today. Part of the time I have
used three moving machines; the OBJ
ject was to cut all we could before the
expected rain, and then put it up after
the sun comes out, if it does so, be-
fore the next crop begins to grow up
through the first one too much.
mean to keep on cutting (if rain does
not prevent) until the hay is in con-
dition to rake and to shock. Then
want to get about 20 Hungarians to
shock it at once. They are good hay
shockers. l had seven of them in the
hay field last year. My friends tell me
| ought to wait till nice sunny wea-
Their to cut Italia. But I tell them no.
l like to cut before rain and put the
hay up in sunshine. 1t doesn't hurt
fresh-mown alfalfa to get wet and if
dent cut now will injure the alfal-
ia by cutting the next crop, which is
starting already in the first one; so
l shall continue to run as many now
ers as possible whether l get to save
any of this crop or not.
| see that an adviser in one of the
Maryland counties carries a ground
auger" with him to "hunt for hard
pan" or other things that would pre-
vent alfalfa growing! Why doesn't
he cary sack of alfalfa seed and
sprinkle a little of it over his county?
Alfalfa will grow through hard-pan,
| am told, at least the Indiana Expert
ment Station says it has been known
to do so. l am sure that any soil that
will raise five bushels of corn per
acre can, with profit, be sown to l.
falfa, as it doesn't make much diff
ference how poor the ground is, it has
plenty of nitrogen over it, in the air,
and alfalfa gets this nitrogen, if it is
noculated. BY the way, l sent several
hundred pounds of alfalfa noculated
soil to Maryland man about IS
years ago and two tons to one man in
Pennsylvania about the same time;
also about ~ years ago l shipped two
tons of soil to man at Sherman,
Michigan, and he wrote me that the
following winter his alfalfa (under
the heavy snow took root at the
joints of the stems. This reminds me
that alfalfa will take root along the
stems if it is buried in. the soil. !
know this, as last summer in examin-
ing a plant that had been partly cover
ed up in clay soil / found what l
thought was a lateral root. pulled
it out and found it to be an alfalfa
stem that had turned to a root with
numerous laterals or fbrous roots
Why could this not be utilized to fill
up vacant places in an alfalfa field ?
Just dig little trench and bury some
stems of alfalfa plants around the
bare spots, and am sure new hardy
plants will be formed in this way, that
will not be shaded by the surrounding
plants or smothered out by weeds.
like new-seeded plants would be. l