The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1923-09-27
FARM NOTES

pasture crop ana this seo
ton is carrying more than one co"
, To the acre on a lespedeza pasture
that has largely been cleared within
tho wear and sown to lespedeza seed
in the early spring without first
breaking the land, only disclng II,
fertilizing with acid phosphate, ana
covering the seed with smoothing
harrow Even here the cattle have
not kept down the crop and res
nectable cutting Of hay Will De
harvested. 1t may be grown alone
~ with oats as a companion crop,
in which case the oats should De
sown in the fall and the lespedeza
in the early spring on the oae
sod. These seed terminate and the
Young plants grow slowly until the
oats are harvested when the quickly
cover the land and smother out prac-
tically all grasses.
| Alfalfa hay is selling on the
poplarville market at $4O.O0 per Ton
and is being brought here in large
quantities to feed the numerous work
animals engaged in logging ana
terpentine operations as well as IN
the grading and crawling OF ROADS.
Alfalfa cannot be successfully grown
in Pearl River County, but we have
in lespedeza a good substitute and
this can be grown here to penec-
ton although it has never been so
generally planted as it should De-
| Those who have planted 1t TINS
wear are reaping rich harvest ior
the extremely wet seasons have con-
tributed to the growing OF excep-
tionally large yields.
At the Experiment Station we
are lust now harvesting about 0
acres of this lespedeza that has been
grown on land of low fertility, and
measured half-acre, selected so
as to represent about the average OF
the entire field, gave us one and one
half tons. or at the rate OF three
TONS of field cured per acre. ms
,esnedeza was cut in the forenoon OF
each day. raked in the afternoon OF
the same day, hauled to the barn
the succeeding day, being sufficiently
cured to pack away in the barn With
out heating in the least. In 1ac1'
! some of it was cut and hauled the
same day, having cured sufficiently
for housing. When so cured few'
if any of the leaves, fall and the
hav is cured practically as green as
when it stood in the field and VIII
rival any alfalfa in color or feeding
| quality. If allowed to stay In field
much longer than this, the hay loses
it's green color, sheds many OF lts
leaves and apparently loses much OF
it's feeding value.
! A number of visitors saw the mar
| vesting of this lespedeza and all re-
ported it as fine as any hay crop
| thew had ever seen, except the
few who were growing it themselves
this year, who reported that theirs
| were equally as good though having
been grown in much smaller guam
titles. Mr.. John J. Amacker reported
having grown one and one-half acres
of rich bottom land to lespedeza,
F; which grew third higher than ours
and must have made four or more
tons per acre. He reported having
filled all his barn space for the
first time in many years, having
already harvested other hay crops be-
fore this lespedeza.
!; The land planted to piespede@a
at the Experiment Station had beer
used for five years by the keepers
of the County Poor House and in this
time had never been well fertilizee
: nor well worked and we believe ter
bushels of corn per acre would bt
! maximum yield of corn secured iron
it in these five years. We rented
IL IOI CI6 year ICIo. ~ "sso ~ HOO1
fenced that hogs usually stold tn
corn. cows and goats would get tn
cotton, and for this reason w
feared any considerable amount Il
labor and fertilizer on a cultivate'
crop, so, with as little work as posi-
BILE, we planted the land to lespedeza
i It was disced, fortified with acl
phosphate at the rate of 300 pound
per acre, lespedeza seed grown i
March at the rate of twenty pound
per acre and all gone over wit
smoothing harrow to cover the fe1
smoothing harrow to cover the fe1
tilizer and seed. Nothing else wa
done to it except to drive out tn
hogs and cattle at intervals throug
the year until the 21st of Septembe
when we began to cut and haul tn
hay.