The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1916-05-04
Henderson Pleads
For Raising Of
Alfalfa

Editor Bottineau Courant:
Through the courtesy u
Chief Of Police Andy Carlson |
am sending to you this copy 81
the Sycamore True Republican,
q paper published in Mr.. Carl,
sons home town. as Showing
the interest in the growth 81
alfalfa in that locality, which
il in one of the richest and
highest priced land localities iii
Illinois.
The interest in alfalfa in our
own county is a little on the
wane, owing to the failure in
some instances in growing this
crop, due largely to the meth
ods of cultivation and to the
dry and other unfavorable con-
ditions that have prevailed ii.
parts of this county for several
years past. But when the i'm
portance of a dependable forage
crop is considered aud the high
value alfalfa has for that pur-
pose we should not be more
easily discouraged than are the
farmers of other localities. We
have the advantage of plenty
of lime in the soil here which
has to be supplied in many in
stances in other states, in fact
a brief survey of the soil analy-
ses taken of the soil in this
county last year shows that in
three of the principal compon-
ents of soil fertility our soil
compares very favorably with
Mclean county, Illinois, which
holds the third rank in the
matter of soil fertility ia
the counties in the United
States. Our observation leads
us to conclude that the largest
success in the growth of alfalfa
in this locality with our aver.
age rainfall comes with the
row cultivation method and
few failures have occurred
where this method has beer
employed. It means more
working of the area used, but
so much more satisfactory re.
suits are obtained that the in
creased effort is justified; il
fact we have arrived at the
conclusion that five acres Of
alfalfa of the Grimm origin and
planted in rows and cultivated
is more dependable for a good
yield under our moisture con
ditions than four times that
amount of land seeded broad
cast. But the point we wish
to emphasize in this article il
that farmers in a much higher
land price region and in a 10.
cality that is much further adj
vanced in farm conditions think
it worth their while to persev-
ere and recognize the value OF
this best of all forage crops. A
large amount of the farmers
hard earned cash goes out Of
our county each year for baled
hay that might be saved to the
farmers if a larger and more
persistent effort were made in
the growing of alfalfa, which
with the proper care succeeds
well in all parts of this county.
Neither should the late
spring discourage the plantin e
of corn which has been proved
a success in most years and
gives a larger return per acre
as forage than any other crop
grown and fits the land for
succeeding grain crops. The
temptation to the farmer to
think in acres rather than in
bushels produced is a prevail.
ing menace to good farming; il
always pays TO do well that
which we attempt to do and
not sloven in a crop because
the season is late or unfavora-
BILE, Two-thirds Of the area
put in well and the remainder
put in cultivated crop or sum
mer fallowed will give better
results in a term of years than
the larger area put in a crop in
a slovenly way.
A. ~, Henderson,
Agric. Agt. Bottineau Co.
Agt. Us. Dept Agriculture.