The Wilmington morning star., 1945-11-26
Carolina Farm Comment
BY F. H. JETER
By F. H. JETER

. BY F. H. JETER
Farmers in Catawba County be-
lieve that their county leads the
state in the acreage to alfalfa. Last
winter, preliminary report by the
Federal Census showed the county
to have $50 acres. But local farm
ers say that this could not have in
cluded the 300 acres seeded in the
fall of 1914. Seed dealers in the
county say they sold 1928 pounds
of seed that fall and that this did
not include other seed secured
from outside of the county. They
know, therefore, that at least 300
acres of alfalfa were planted IN
the fall of 1914.
Farm Agent Earle Brintnall says
that this past fall about 10000
pounds of seed were bought and
the growers would have bought
more if they could have located the
seed. This is enough, however, to
plant from 1,100 to 1900 acres OF
alfalfa at the rate of Is pounds Of
seed to the acre, the usual rate Of
sowing.
To add up the acreage, therefore,
it would show something like this;
$50 acres of old seedlings in the
county; 300 acres seeded in the
fall of 1914, and 100 acres seeded
this past fall, which makes a to-
tai of 1850 acres for the county.
This is enough to produce 1900
tons of alfalfa hay annually.
When Earle found out that all
this seed had been sold in the
county, he set out to find from
whence it had come. He found that
only 145 pounds of the seed had
come from the Argentine. This
source, as most growers know, is
not satisfactory because the seed
from down there are not adapted
to North Carolina conditions. This
means, then, that Catawba dealers
are alert to the needs of their peo-
pie, and are trying to follow the
recommendations of the county
agents and extension agronomists.
About 5000 pounds of the seed
came from the Pecos valley OF
Texas. This is a valley drained
by the Pecos River which trav-
erses the southwestern part of the
Lone Star State and empties into
the Rio Grande on the Texas
Mexico border. This seed is proba-
bly, all right, if it is not from plants
that were grown under irrig cation.
Mr.. Brintnall was not able to get
exact information on this but said
the alfalfa has come up to a good
stand and it looks as If it might
be suitable to that section of the
state.
The great bulk of the seed, used
in CataWba this past fall, was from
Alfalfa grown in Kansas and Okla
homa and is well adapted to condi-
tions in North Carolina.
Ten years ago when Earle Brint-
nall became farm agent in Cataw-
ba, there was practically no alfalfa
being grown there. The folks were
not pushing their livestock and
dairy business as they should, and
it took lots of hard work. much
talking and boosting to get the
crop started again. A few men
here and there began to try out the
crop and those who once tried II
began to expand their acreages.
Small plots were seeded in various
parts of the county to test out the
best means of preparing the land'
how to cultivate it to keep it on the
land over a period of years; ano
how to fertilize, harvest and cure
the hay.
It has been definitely proven
now that there is a place for the
legume in Catawba and one of the
fieldmen for large milk process
ing plant in Statesville said there
is more alfalfa to be seen along
the road from Newton to the bor-
der of the county near Banoak
than in any other county in this
state.
Recently, some of the extension
agronomists were up there to
check the hybrid seed corn plots
and to get results of the different
hybrids being tested this year.
They said they had never seen SO
much alfalfa and they were par
ticularly impressed with the way
in which the growers had pre-
pared their seed beds. One of the
agronomists remarked, 'fWe will
have to tell some of our expert
ment station folks to come up here
where they really grow alfalfa and
find out how it is done.".
On a trip over the county last
week, I saw stands that had been
on the land for seven to eight
years. This means that the crop
was put in correctly to start with
that it had been fertilized and har.
J uasted as it should be. This year