The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1922-08-11

naturally follows alfalfa g owing;
AND the recent advance in the extent
If these industries here has been
br9ugh, about by altalta-iesding
Formerly, feeders were forced t.
buy h.-h-prced concentrates to bal
ance the rations; now, homegrown
alfalfa furnishes them a high per-
cent Of easily digested prJte n; a
factor for success in taese industries
that cannot be over-estimated.
The alfalfa-grower in the rich,
limestone lands of Monroe County,
Mississippi, possesses other great adj
vantages that we must not overlook.
Our growing season is long. My first
cutting this year commenced in
April. Labor is cheap, plentiful, and
efficient; and, above all, the location
is right at the door of the best mark
ct in the country, due to the fact
that people are becoming awakened
to its usefulness, and that the land
that has naturally sufficient lime to
successfully grow it, is limited in
area.
Our transportation facilities are
excellent. We can ship direct to the
great coal fields of Alabama; the
lumber camps of Mississippi and
louisiana the cotton planters of the
Delta use our hay. The tobacco sec
lions Of Tennessee and Kentucky
nave also bought and fed our alfalfa
hay. In shipping to these places,
the Mississippi Alfalfa growers have
a great advantage in LOWER
FREIGHT RATES over the shippers
from Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas
City, and the sections that are now
shipping alfalfa into the South.
In sowing alfalfa in this section,
the best method is to follow cotton,
because of the clean cultivation. l
came to Monroe County from Mis-
souri,, in 1916, and commenced sow
ing alfalfa in March, on cotton land;
merely discing the land, following
that with section harrow, broad
casting the seed, then covering light
ly with harrow or rake.
Notwithstanding we had a very
late spring, by the first of May had
sowed three hundred acres; on all of
which | secured splendid stand. |
cut, that summer, the entire field
four times-the crop yielding three
tons per acre. ahve a good stand
on practically all of this ground yet,
and | have increased my acreage to
five hundred acres, from which | cut
from three to five tons per year. |
have cut hay as early as the ninth of
April, and as late as the 10Th of Dec.
From one field which has been
pastured since May, 1917, with from
one hundred to three hundred hogs,
winter and summer, l have gotten by
cutting two or three times each
year, from one to two tons per acre.
| find it is much easier to cure hay
here than it is in the Central States.
Practically all of it is cured in the
field, and baled from the wndrow;
and then loaded directly into the
cars. A very large percent of the
hay grades pea green" or No. /.
During the six years l have been
here, ! have never lost any hay from
the weather,-always finding
market for it, no matter how badly
damaged. For the sound hay, l
have always gotten from 500 to $40,
F. 0. B. cars, direct from the field;
and a very small per cent is damag-
ed.
| am convinced that if we will
rotate our crops, keeping one-third
of our land in alfalfa, we will be
able to raise more cotton and corn
than we could if we farmed all the
land to cotton and corn, without the
use Of alfalfa.
No one, be he cotton grower or
Northern farmer, need have the
slightest hesitancy about engaging
in alfalfa growing in Mississippi;
for alfalfa is at home in Monroe
county, Mississippi; and nowhere
does it succeed better than on our
black prairie lime lands. On these
soils it grows vigorously from the
start. incubation and application
Of lime that have to be practiced
elsewhere, are unnecessary here;
for our soil contains plenty of lime.
The late Joseph E. Wing, a lead
ing agricultural authority, who visit
ed our county soon after the growing
of alfalfa started here, said that ow-
ing to the high per cent Of phosphor-
Gus and rotten and disintegrated
lime in this soil, our lands were the
equal of the noted alfalfa lands of
Europe, which are recognized as the
richest and most desirable lands in
the world
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