The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-01-21

aha SIOWl III liz q IN
exhibit shown registered a purity test
neighbors went miles to see the en-
CINE rum, he too, more to prove that he
was right than that he was curious,
went to the station. There it was
standing on the track, gently purring,
mildly Kissing. And the old gentle
mar vas nightly pleased to find it
standing stock still instead of pranc-
ing back and forth like an anxious
horse. But they pointed out to him
that the fire boiling the water gener-
ated steam which passing into the cyl
inder pushed the piston and caused
the wheels to revolve. But the old
mar shook his doubling head and an
swered, "Boys, she'll never do it.
She'll never start" But presently the
passengers we're all aboard and bag
gage loaded. The conductor gave the
signal. the engineer pulled open the
throttle and the giant iron monster
like a thing come to life pulled and
groaned and wheezed and Kissed speed
ing off down the track. With bullying
eyes and open mouth the old man star
ed after the departing %apparation until
it swung around the curve out of sight
then he turned with evident alarm and
shouted, "By jing, they'll never stop
her."
And so the cry rings out from the
very man who said that alfalfa will
not grow, that now it will be over
grown. There are three things that
have been in recent years started in
Tho ,,o,%loc% ,r1toh IN oil 1;1-1;LooI
will never stop-livestock, corn and al
falfa. 1t is not the voluntary choice
of the Montana farmer to adopt these
infants. He has nurtured the fast de-
generating progeny of wheat bred with
wheat until his agricultural house is
foul with smutty disease and weedy
corruption and it is a measure of self
preservation that he is introducing
new blood.
Proper Methods of Growing Alfalfa.
So much has been written and said
about the proper methods of growing
alfalfa as suited to the varied sec
tions of the northwest that | hesitate
to sav much on this point, though |
am like the minister who had preached
the same sermon for five consecutive
SUNDAYS and when asked for an ex-
PLANTATION replied that when he found
that %precepts of that sermon were
needed and practiced, then he would
preach from a new theme.
Thin Sowing.
l want to make another plea for the
thin planting or sewing II alfalfa.
This applies more especially to
those sections where rainfall is de-
%icient. The stand must be proper
t%ionate to the moisture supply. Again
let me quote the findings of Professor
Waldron. He found that a stand of
five plants to the square yard gave
the greatest yield of hay with the
stand of two and nj half plant to the
square yard as close seconds. One
tenth of a pound of alfalfa seed scat
tered evenly over an acre will place
live seeds on each square yard and 10
pounds sown to the acre will place on
each square yard 500 seeds. Now 500
plants of any kind growing on a single
square yard is preposterous. In my
w fields that are now eight years
old | find that plants which have had
as much as one square yard of soil
to themselves are giving me the great
est YIELDS of both hay and seed.
How much space do we give our
corn plant in which to grow and de-
velop? Approximately three and one
half or four square feet for every
single stalk, and corr lives but one
season. Now the farmer that gives
his corn plant four square feet III
which to develop and then turns
around and sows his alfalfa-a peren-
NAL plant that lives and grows and
keeps o. developing throughout 10 to
20 years-sows such a plant at the
rate of 10 pounds of seed to the acre,
thereby stinting it to less than a two
hundredth of the space he has given
to his corn plant, is surely showing
poor judgment. Given adequate space
he alfalfa will develop into great mag
nificent plants many of which will
have developed at six years of age
crowns sending out 400 separate
shoots, and doing this three times a
season, and will have developed also
roots as thick as a mans wrist and
Of Understandable length. Is it not
reasonable that such development will
give a crop in seasons when all other
crops fail, and their having failed
makes this alfalfa crop doubly valu-
able?
Patience
A good guide in this connection is
to consider each plant of the field in
dividually,. treating each like a living
being or animal that must be gradu-
ally developed into q full producin"
stage. Not in one year in the semi
arid ~raUio0S nor i'm two. and scarcely