Alfalfa in Different States 231
Index 325
List of Illustrations
Page
1. F. D. Coburn _Frontispiece_
2. A Typical Alfalfa Plant 1
3. Typical Stems and Foliage of the Alfalfa Plant 1
4. An Eight-year-old Alfalfa Plant 6
5. Crown of Plant Shown in the Preceding Illustration 6
6. Alfalfa Blossoms Enlarged 7
7. Intergrading Types of Seed Between Alfalfa and Sweet Clover 12
8. Seeds of the Weed Known as Buck-horn 13
9. Alfalfa Seeds Magnified Five Diameters 13
10. Sweet Clover--Alfalfa--Yellow Trefoil 26
11. Three Distinctive Types of Alfalfa Seed Magnified Twelve Times 27
12. Yellow Trefoil Pods 32
13. Alfalfa Seed Pods 32
14. Sweet Clover Pods 33
15. Bur Clover Seed Pods 33
16. Yellow Trefoil: Black Medic: Hop Clover (_Medicago lupulina_) 37
17. Three General Types of Alfalfa Seed 44
18. Dodder Seed Magnified 45
19. Alfalfa Seed Magnified 45
20. Dodder Plant on an Alfalfa Stem 46
21. Dodder (_Cuscuta arvensis_) 47
22. Alfalfa and Dodder Seed (Actual Size) 47
23. Dodder (_Cuscuta epithymum_) 47
24. Bur Clover Pod 66
25. Yellow Trefoil Seed Pod 66
26. Alfalfa Seed Pod 67
27. Spotted Clover Pod 67
28. Gathering Alfalfa Hay into Windrows with a Side-delivery
Horserake 78
29. Cutting a Fine Field of Alfalfa 79
30. Gathering an Alfalfa Crop in Page County, Iowa 92
31. Alfalfa Harvesting Scene in Yellowstone County, Montana 92
32. Mast and Boom Stacker, with Six-tined Jackson Fork 93
33. A Derrick Stacker 93
34. Lattice Rack for Feeding Alfalfa to Cattle 106
35. Box Rack for Feeding Alfalfa to Sheep 106
36. Lattice Rack for Feeding Alfalfa to Sheep 107
37. Box Rack for Feeding Alfalfa to Cattle 107
38. Trocar and Cannula 119
39. Alfalfa Field in Central New York 124
40. Fourth Cutting of Alfalfa in Shawnee County, Kansas 124
41. A Second Cutting of Alfalfa (July 28) in Shawnee County,
Eastern Kansas 125
42. Kansas Farmer Viewing One of His Alfalfa Fields 138
43. Harvesting Alfalfa in Ohio 139
44. Showing Advantage of Early Fall Sowing 154
45. Five-year-old Alfalfa 155
46. Alfalfa One Year Old, Showing Effects of Inoculation 170
47. A Good Type of a Four-year-old Alfalfa Plant 171
48. Alfalfa Plant and Roots Showing Bacteria Nodules 196
49. Tubercles on Clover Roots 197
50. Peculiar Nodules in Groups on Small Rootlets 206
51. Alfalfa Roots Showing Normal Nodules 207
52. Gopher Poisoning Tool 214
53. And There’s Still More to Follow 220
54. Dead Prairie Dogs 221
55. Pot Culture Experiments at University of Illinois 230
56. Six Months’ Growth of Alfalfa Foliage 231
57. Cutting Alfalfa in Southern California 256
58. Baling Alfalfa in Southern Oklahoma 256
59. A 400-ton Rick of Alfalfa 257
60. A Cable Derrick, Provided with a Grapple Fork 257
61. Sweet Clover (_Melilotus alba_) 288
62. Yellow Trefoil (_Medicago lupulina_) 289
[Illustration: =A Typical Alfalfa Plant=
as it appears before the blossoms are developed. From Michigan
Experiment Station Bulletin No. 225]
[Illustration: =Typical Stems and Foliage of the Alfalfa Plant=
when beginning to blossom the most suitable for hay. Grown in Shawnee
County, Kansas, on unirrigated upland prairie with a “gumbo” or hardpan
subsoil. From the season’s third cutting, August 20; height 24 and 26
inches]
ALFALFA
(_Medicago sativa, Linn._)
_CHAPTER I._
History, Description, Varieties and Habits
HAS ALWAYS BEEN KNOWN
There appears no record of a time when alfalfa was not in some portions
of the world esteemed one of Nature’s most generous benefactions to
husbandry and an important feature of a profitable agriculture. Its
beginning seems to have been contemporary with that of man, and, as with
man, its first habitat was central Asia, where the progenitors of our
race knew its capabilities in sustaining all herbivorous animal life,
and where, possibly, it too afforded the herbage which sustained
Nebuchadnezzar in his humiliating exile, and eventually restored him to
sanity and manhood.
It was carried by the Persians into Greece with the invasion by Xerxes
in 490 B. C., utilized by the Romans in their conquest of Greece, and
carried to Rome in 146 B. C. Pliny and other writers praise it as a
forage plant and it has been in cultivation in parts of Italy
continuously from its introduction. Some writers are disposed to aver
that it was brought to Spain and France by the Roman soldiery under
Cæsar and early thereafter, but more probably it was not introduced
into those countries until several centuries later. It is known to have
been cultivated in Northern Africa about the time it was first brought
to Italy; and the name “alfalfa” being Arabic the inference might be
reasonable that it was introduced into Spain by the Moors from Northern
Africa at the time of their conquest of Spain about 711 A. D., but this
is of small consequence to the twentieth century. From Spain it crossed
to France, and later to Belgium and England. It was highly spoken of by
an English writer of the fifteenth century.
AMERICA INDEBTED TO SPAIN
But in those ages Europe was not so much interested in agriculture as in
war. Land tenures were not well fixed and ownerships were uncertain.
Spain, however, was to perform at least two important services for half
the world, if none for herself. She was to reveal to civilization a new
continent, and give to it the most valuable forage plant ever known. And
so, in 1519, Cortes, the Spaniard, and his remorseless brigands carried
murder, rapine and havoc to Mexico, but gave alfalfa. Less than a score
years later Spain also wrote in Peru and Chili some of the bloodiest
pages of human history, but left alfalfa there, where it has since
luxuriantly flourished. If it was brought to the Atlantic coast of the
United States in that century, it was not adopted by the Indian
inhabitants, who were not an agricultural people, nor by the early
European settlers.
It was not until about 1853 or 1854 that it was introduced into northern
California, the legends say from Chili, but it had been grown by the
Spaniards and Indians in southern California for probably a hundred
years, having had a gradual migration from Mexico. Strange to relate,
while it is even now on the Atlantic coast discussed as a new plant,
there is good evidence that it has been in cultivation on a small scale
in the Carolinas, New York and Pennsylvania for probably one hundred and
fifty years. Certainly there are small fields in those states that have
been producing for over sixty years, and there are to be found articles
and letters written far earlier showing that it was then known and had
been proven. One Spurrier, in a book dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, and
written in 1793, spoke highly of alfalfa, called “lucerne;” told how it
should be cultivated, and that three crops of valuable hay could be cut
annually. In the “Transactions of the Society for the Promotion of
Agriculture,” published at Albany in 1801, it was favorably mentioned,
and in the “Farmers’ Assistant,” printed in Albany in 1815, alfalfa was
praised and the statement made of its yielding 6 to 9 tons of hay per
acre “under the best cultivation and plentiful manuring.” Yet its
cultivation did not spread. The inertia of farmers, or perhaps their
indifference to new ideas, in the early days must have been marvelous.
According to Spurrier the difficulties were not considered greater than
now; he said one planting would survive many years and the yield was
three times as great as that of any other forage plant. The seed was no
doubt introduced there from England or France; it was probably scarce,
and difficult to secure from growings in this country.
THE NAME AND ITS ORIGIN
The name “Alfalfa” is from an Arabic word meaning “the best fodder,”
which honor it can certainly still claim. Many writers have assumed that
the name “Lucerne” which it bears in France and England, was from the
name of the Swiss canton, Lucerne. This is a mistake as it was not known
there until long after it was cultivated in France and England. The name
is probably from the Spanish word “Userdas” which the French changed to
“La-cuzerdo” and later to “Luzerne,” still later to “Lizerne” and then
to “Lucerne.”
Among other names by which alfalfa is known are the following: Lucerne;
French Lucerne; French Clover, in part; Mexican Clover, in part; Lucerne
Clover; Lucerne Medicago; Alfalfa Clover; Chilian Clover; Brazilian
Clover; Syrian Clover; Sainfoin, erroneously; Spanish Trefoil; Purple
Medick; Manured Medick; Cultivated Medicago; Medick. _Persian_, Isfist;
_Greek_, Medicai; _Latin_, Medica, Herba Medica; _Italian_, Herba
Spagna; _Spanish_, Melga or Meilga, also (from the Arabic), Alfalfa,
Alfasafat; _French_, La Lucerne; _German_, Lucerne, Common Fodder, Snail
Clover, Blue Snail Clover, Branching Clover, Stem Clover, Monthly
Clover, Horned Clover, in part, Perennial Clover, Blue Perennial Clover,
Burgundy Clover, Welsh Clover, Sicilian Clover.
Alfalfa belongs to the botanical family Leguminosae, or the legumes, of
which there are thousands of species, and is thus related to all
clovers, peas, vetches and beans. Its botanical name is _Medicago
sativa_. There are some fifty species of the genus Medicago that are
known, but alfalfa and one or two others are all that are of practical
value as fodders. It is a true perennial plant, smooth, upright,
branching, ordinarily growing from one to four feet high, yet in some
instances much higher, owing to conditions of soil, climate and
cultivation. Its leaves are three parted, each leaflet being broadest
about the middle, rounded in outline and slightly toothed toward the
apex. The purple pea-like flowers instead of being in a head, as in red
clover, are in long, loose clusters or racemes. These are scattered
along the plant’s stems and branches, instead of being especially borne,
as in red clover, on the extremities of the branches. The matured
seed-pods are spirally twisted through two or three complete curves, and
each pod contains several seeds. The seeds are kidney-shaped, and
average about one-twelfth of an inch long by half as thick. They are
about one-half larger than seeds of red clover, and in color are at
their best an olive green or a bright egg-yellow, instead of a reddish
or mustard yellow, or faded brown. The ends of the seeds are slightly
compressed where they are crowded together in the pod.
Alfalfa is very long-lived; fields in Mexico, it is claimed, have been
continuously productive without replanting for over two hundred years,
and others in France are known to have flourished for more than a
century. Its usual life in the United States is probably from ten to
twenty-five years, although there is a field in New York that has been
mown successively for over sixty years. It is not unlikely that under
its normal conditions and with normal care it would well-nigh be, as it
is called, everlasting.
ITS WONDERFUL ROOT SYSTEM
In its root growth it is probably the greatest wonder among plants.
While it usually grows no higher than four or five feet (although it has
been known to reach more than ten feet; an unirrigated stalk is on
exhibition at the office of the Kansas Board of Agriculture, measuring
nearly seven feet) and its normal height is about three feet, its roots
go down ten, twenty, or more feet, and one case in Nevada is reported by
Charles W. Irish, chief of Irrigation Inquiry United States Department
of Agriculture, where the roots were found penetrating through crevices
in the roof of a tunnel one hundred and twenty-nine feet below the
surface of an alfalfa field. Prof. W. P. Headden of Colorado found roots
nine feet long from alfalfa only nine months old, and another reports
roots seventeen inches long of but four weeks’ growth, the plants being
but six inches high. It usually has a slender taproot, with many
branches tending downward, yet with considerable lateral growth. As the
taproot is piercing the earth it is also sending out new fibrous roots,
while the upper ones, decaying, are leaving humus and providing
innumerable openings for air, the rains, and fertilizing elements from
the surface soil. The mechanical effect of this root-growth and decay in
the soil constitutes one of the greatest virtues of the plant, and by
its roots alfalfa becomes, self-acting, by far the most efficient, deep
reaching subsoiler and renovator known to agriculture.
VARIETIES AND PECULIARITIES
There are several other varieties of alfalfa besides _Medicago sativa_,
the most common being the _Intermediate Lucerne_ or _Medicago media_,
the Yellow Lucerne or _Medicago foliata_ and Turkestan alfalfa or
_Medicago sativa Turkestanica_. None of these have such unqualified
value as the ordinary alfalfa; in fact the first two are properly
regarded as weeds when found with _Medicago sativa_. In 1898 when there
had been reported many failures in the alfalfa districts of the extreme
North and the extreme Southwest, the United States Department of
Agriculture sent Prof. N. E. Hansen of South Dakota to Russia,
especially the cold, arid and semi-arid portions of northern Turkestan,
to discover if possible a more hardy strain of alfalfa than that grown
in America. He brought back from there several hundred bushels of seed
which was distributed to government stations and individual
experimenters in forty-seven states and territories. The reports of its
behavior varied greatly, some growers being enthusiastically in its
favor, while most reported results below or not above the average from
other sorts, and some practically a failure. It would appear from the
consensus of opinion at this time that the Turkestan alfalfa has not
demonstrated in America any such superiority as to justify its general
adoption, even in the dry and warm regions of the Southwest, in our
colder states, or in Canada.
[Illustration: =An Eight-year-old Alfalfa Plant=
with 312 stems growing from one root. Grown at Manhattan, Kan., on high
upland prairie having a stiff, hardpan subsoil. Depth to water 180 feet
Height of growth May 6, ten inches]
[Illustration: =Crown of Plant Shown in the Preceding Illustration=
Stalks removed to show branching crown]
[Illustration: Alfalfa Blossoms Enlarged]
Among other claims for Turkestan alfalfa by the government officials in
charge of its introduction and exploitation have been that “its seed
will germinate much quicker and the plants start into growth earlier
under the same conditions than common alfalfa. The plants are more
leafy, grow more rapidly, and have a stronger, more vigorous root
system. Another advantage which the Turkestan variety has is that the
stems are more slender and less woody, the plants making a more
nutritious hay of finer quality. That it will withstand drought under
the same conditions better than ordinary alfalfa seems certain from the
reports of the experimenters. In the West and Northwest, at least, it
seems to be more productive, both with and without irrigation.”
At the North Dakota station Turkestan alfalfa sown in 1901 yielded in
the three years following (1902-3-4) at the average rate of slightly
more than two tons per acre annually.
Acclimation of alfalfa is a slow process, and numerous close observers
think there are too many radical differences in climate and possibly of
soil between Turkestan and New Mexico, or North Dakota, to admit of this
variety’s becoming a preeminently valuable acquisition to America. It is
thought more reasonable to let the American-grown alfalfa gradually
accustom itself, as it will, to any particular region, sowing seed from
nearly the same latitude and grown under as nearly as possible the
conditions it will encounter in its new environment.
In 1903 the Department of Agriculture began experimenting on a small
scale at stations in Arizona, California and the warm regions with
alfalfa seed procured by Mr. D. G. Fairchild, from Arabia. The officials
in charge observe that the plants from this seed appear to make a much
quicker growth after cutting, and as a result of this one more crop in a
season than is obtained from other alfalfa may be possible. It differs
from other strains in having larger leaflets and in being much more
hairy. “It is thought very probable that by careful selection hardiness
can be bred into Arabian alfalfa so that it will grow much farther north
than it does at present.”
AN OPINION FROM HEADQUARTERS
As a latter day opinion or estimate of alfalfa from an official who is
presumed to speak as an authority, without bias and knowing his subject,
the words of W. J. Spillman, agrostologist of the United States
Department of Agriculture, should carry weight. In an address before the
eleventh annual convention of the National Hay Association, at St.
Louis, in 1904, Professor Spillman said:
“Alfalfa is the oldest plant known to man; it is the most valuable
forage plant ever discovered. It has not been appreciated in the eastern
part of the United States until the last five years. We are now growing
it successfully in every state in the Union, and I believe it is safe to
say in every agricultural county in the United States it is being grown
with success. Two weeks ago I secured a picture of a field of alfalfa in
South Carolina that was sowed over sixty-nine years ago. It was still in
pretty good condition. I know of another field in New York State sowed
forty-five years ago, and one in Minnesota that was sowed thirty-three
years ago. All over the West there are thousands of fields of alfalfa
that were sowed twenty-five years ago that are still yielding large
crops. In Wisconsin alfalfa yields three crops of hay a year, and in
Texas, four and five large crops. In southern California, below
sea-level, where they never have any frost, they cut alfalfa eleven
times a year, and in Texas, south of the Rio Grande, they cut it nine
times a year.
“Alfalfa does not exhaust the soil. Nitrogen is the soil’s most
important element, and the one most liable to give out; the one the
farmer is called upon to supply first. Alfalfa does not ask the farmer
for nitrogen at all, because it can get its nitrogen out of the
atmosphere. Four-fifths of the atmosphere consists of nitrogen.
Ordinarily, plants cannot make use of that nitrogen at all; the roots of
the alfalfa will leave in the soil eight or ten times as much nitrogen
as was there before. The farmer who plants alfalfa, clover or peas does
not have to get nitrogen from the fertilizer factories. I know one
farmer who for the past eight years has made an average of eight and
one-half tons per acre of alfalfa on irrigated land in the state of
Washington. I have heard of other men that produced twelve tons an acre
in southern Texas on irrigated land. It would hardly be possible to
produce that much on land that is not irrigated, because rain does not
come to order.
“I have lived ten years in a country where the horses, cattle, sheep,
hogs and chickens eat alfalfa hay, or green alfalfa, the year round. It
is the richest hay food known. Eleven pounds of it is worth as much for
feeding purposes as ten pounds of bran.”
A most pleasing word-picture of alfalfa is that by Geo. L. Clothier, M.
S., who has studied his subject closely in the field, the feed lot and
the laboratory, and he paints it thus:
“The cultivation and feeding of alfalfa mark the highest development of
our modern agriculture. Alfalfa is one of nature’s choicest gifts to
man. It is the preserver and the conserver of the homestead. It is
peculiarly adapted to a country with a republican government, for it
smiles alike on the rich and the poor. It does not fail from old age. It
loves the sunshine, converting the sunbeams into gold coin in the
pockets of the thrifty husbandman. It is the greatest mortgage lifter
yet discovered.
“The alfalfa plant furnishes the protein to construct and repair the
brains of statesmen. It builds up the muscles and bones of the
war-horse, and gives his rider sinews of iron. Alfalfa makes the hens
cackle and the turkeys gobble. It induces the pigs to squeal and grunt
with satisfaction. It causes the contented cow to give pailsful of
creamy milk, and the Shorthorn and white-faced steers to bawl for the
feed rack. Alfalfa softens the disposition of the colt and hardens his
bones and muscles. It fattens lambs as no other feed, and promotes a
wool clip that is a veritable golden fleece. It compels skim-milk calves
to make gains of two pounds per day. It helps the farmer to produce pork
at a cent and a half a pound and beef at two cents.
“Alfalfa transforms the upland farm from a sometime waste of gullied
clay banks into an undulating meadow fecund with plant-food. It drills
for water, working 365 days in the year without any recompense from man.
The labor it performs in penetrating the subsoil is enormous. No other
agricultural plant leaves the soil in such good physical condition as
alfalfa. It prospects beneath the surface of the earth and brings her
hidden treasures to the light of day. It takes the earth, air, moisture
and sunshine, and transmutes them into nourishing feed stuffs and into
tints of green and purple, and into nectar and sweet perfumes, alluring
the busy bees to visits of reciprocity, whereon they caress the alfalfa
blossoms, which, in their turn, pour out secretions of nectar fit for
Jupiter to sip. It forms a partnership with the micro-organisms of the
earth by which it is enabled to enrich the soil upon which it feeds. It
brings gold into the farmer’s purse by processes more mysterious than
the alchemy of old. The farmer with a fifty-acre meadow of alfalfa will
have steady, enjoyable employment from June to October; for as soon as
he has finished gathering the hay at one end of the field it will be
again ready for the mower at the other. The homes surrounded by fields
of alfalfa have an esthetic advantage unknown to those where the plant
is not grown. The alfalfa meadow is clothed with purple and green and
exhales fragrant, balmy odors throughout the growing season to be wafted
by the breezes into the adjacent farmhouses.”
[Illustration: =Intergrading Types of Seed Between Alfalfa and Sweet
Clover=
The six seeds to the left being alfalfa, the five to the right Sweet
clover. Magnified eight diameters]
[Illustration: =Seeds of the Weed Known as Buck-horn=
Ribbed plantain, English plantain, or Rib-grass, (_Plantago
lanceolata_). Very commonly present in alfalfa seed, especially that of
European origin A bad weed. Magnification five diameters]
[Illustration: =Alfalfa Seeds Magnified Five Diameters=
Note the characteristic angular point at one end, typical of alfalfa.
The kidney-shaped type, as in “a” is also characteristic. The rounded
type “b” is rare, and resembles Sweet clover. Seeds marked “c” and “d”
resemble Yellow trefoil in the projecting “beak”]
_CHAPTER II._
Universality of Alfalfa
ITS WIDE DISTRIBUTION
As the history of alfalfa is traced in the preceding chapter the
conclusion is reached that its distribution is not to be circumscribed
by any hard and fast lines of climate and soil. It is grown profitably
in every country of Europe, in central Asia, its original home, in
Australia, the islands of the sea, and in almost every state and
territory of the United States, and in Canada. Only two states, Maine
and New Hampshire, and only one territory, Alaska, are left wholly in
the experimental column. Everywhere else there have been such results as
to prove that it ought to become, in greater or less degree, a staple
crop on practically every farm, dependent only upon more energy, faith
and skill on the part of the farmer, and a natural acclimation. There
are several other states such as Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and North Dakota
where the experiment station experts are not fully ready to recommend it
as a regular crop for every farm, yet, in each of these there are
enterprising farmers who have for years found profit in its raising. The
station authorities in Vermont say that success with alfalfa there
“depends first on the man, and second on the soil.”
W. R. Dodson, botanist of the Louisiana station, says it is his firm
conviction that nothing will contribute so much as alfalfa toward making
the southern farm self-supplied with feed for work animals, for the
production of dairy products, and home raised meat. “I doubt,” he also
says, “if alfalfa does better anywhere outside the irrigated regions of
the West than it does in the alluvial lands of Louisiana. We have had as
high as eight cuttings in one year, with a total tonnage larger than is
had in Kansas or Nebraska, and our annual rainfall is sixty-five inches,
or more.”
From Ontario, Canada, comes a report of a yield of four tons to the acre
in three cuttings, on a clay hillside; at far-off Medicine Hat,
Northwest Territory, it makes a growth pronounced “phenomenal,” and at
the experimental farm at Brandon, Manitoba, three cuttings per year are
harvested. On a gravelly hill in the District of Columbia, a field was
sown in April, 1900. Two crops were cut from it that summer, three in
1901, and the first cutting in 1902 yielded three tons per acre. In
southern Minnesota, some thrifty Germans, not knowing that “alfalfa will
not grow in Minnesota,” have been raising it since 1872, while others
were declaring it impossible. A half-score of men in the sagebrush wilds
of Nevada decided to try it, and in 1872 they had 625 prosperous acres,
without plowing and without irrigation. J. H. Grisdale, agriculturist of
the Central experimental farm at Ottawa, (Bul. No. 46) says, “it is
grown in Canada more or less extensively from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. It is the staple forage plant for winter in the dryer part of
British Columbia, and it has been grown in Southern Alberta for many
years. It is not much known in Manitoba, but is possible of easy
propagation in almost all parts of Ontario. It is, and has been grown
long and successfully in Quebec, and is not unknown in Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick.” In Cape Colony, South Africa, “lucerne can be cut from
four to six times in summer and from once to twice in winter, and is the
greatest forage plant in the world.” In 1901 the British consul at
Buenos Ayres reported alfalfa as covering “an enormous area in
Argentina, and every year becoming more important.”
NOT PARTICULAR AS TO SOIL
While experts have been declaring that alfalfa would only grow in
certain soils and in certain climates it has proven adaptability to
nearly all climates and almost all soils. It produces with a rainfall as
scant as 14 inches, and in the Gulf states flourishes with 65 inches. It
gives crops at an elevation of 8000 feet above sea level, and in
southern California it grows below sea level to a height of six feet or
over, with nine cuttings a year, aggregating ten to twelve tons. An
authenticated photograph in possession of the writer, reproduced
opposite page 231, shows a wonderful alfalfa plant raised in the
(irrigated) desert of southern California, sixty feet below sea level,
that measured considerably more than ten feet in height. Satisfactory
crops are raised, but on limited areas as yet, in Vermont and Florida.
New York has grown it for over one hundred years in her clay and gravel;
Nebraska grows it in her western sand hills without plowing, as does
Nevada on her sagebrush desert. The depleted cotton soils of Alabama
and rich corn lands of Illinois and Missouri each respond generously
with profitable yields to the enterprising farmer, while its accumulated
nitrogen and the sub-soiling it effects are making the rich land more
valuable and giving back to the crop-worn the priceless elements of
which it has been in successive generations despoiled by a
conscienceless husbandry.
Its introduction into Maryland was largely through the perseverance of
Prof. W. T. L. Taliaferro of the agricultural college, who says: “The
future for alfalfa for southern Maryland is bright, indeed, and with its
general introduction will come a new era of prosperity for the ‘lower
counties.’ Live stock farming will take the place of tobacco farming.
The fertilizing elements of the soil will be concentrated at home
instead of being shipped abroad. Larger crops will be raised. Soil
improvement will take the place of soil exhaustion; worn-out farms will
be restored to their original fertility.”
THE ORACLES REFUTED
One by one the oracular statements of so-called experts have been shown
at fault. One said, “it will grow wherever corn will grow;” and as
promptly men from New York and Louisiana rise and say that they are
growing it where corn will not grow. Another declares, “it will not grow
over a hardpan or gumbo subsoil;” at once a New York man reports a good
field of alfalfa with roots fifteen feet long that pass through six
inches of hardpan which was so hard that it had to be broken with a pick
axe in following the root. A Kansas man writes that he has eighty acres
that has stood five years and promises to continue indefinitely,
yielding 4¹⁄₂ tons from three cuttings a year, and the whole of it on
gumbo soil where corn raising was a failure. Another declares, “it must
have a rich, sandy loam,” and forthwith from the deserts of Nevada, the
sand hills of Nebraska and the thin, worn, clay soils of the South come
reports of satisfactory yields. Such results are significant, indicating
better returns than any other crop brings from these varied soils, and
that few farmers are justified in postponing the addition of alfalfa to
their agriculture because of supposed hindrance of soil and climate.
A NEW YORK EXAMPLE
As citing an example, and suggestive of the fact that alfalfa not only
grows but flourishes in the eastern states where the claim has been made
that it would not grow, the following by the editor of the _Rural
New-Yorker_, in his journal of September 3, 1904, is forcibly to the
point:
“A farmer visiting the New York state fair this year will do well to
take time to look at some of the alfalfa fields near Syracuse. Whether
it means that the soil in this locality is well suited to alfalfa, or
that farmers have learned how to grow it, it is a fact that the crop
makes a wonderful showing there. You find it everywhere--in great
billowy fields of green, along the roadsides--even in vacant city lots.
The crop crowds in whether the seed is sown by hand, dropped from a
passing load or scattered by the wind. The majority of the farms show
great fields of it, and the character of farming is slowly changing as
more and more alfalfa is cut. On fruit farms or small private places the
crop is changing methods and habits. A few acres in alfalfa provides
all the roughness needed for stock on these small places, and gives
extra room for fruit or similar crops. In fact, the most interesting
thing about these alfalfa fields is the way they are changing the entire
conditions of the country. It is similar to what happens when a new
industry is established in a town or city.
“The Grange meeting at a Mr. Worker’s farm, was held in a great barn. He
had delayed the alfalfa cutting so that the barn might be empty. Some
other farmers nearby had already cut. I had a chance to see alfalfa
growing under what seemed to me about the toughest chance you can give a
plant. The city of Syracuse is buying gravel from his field, to use on
the street. The workmen are digging right into the hill, and it requires
hard labor to pick up this tough, hard soil. As they dig they follow the
roots of the alfalfa down. Some of the roots are quite as large as my
thumb, and I am sure that many of them had gone down twenty feet at
least into this tough soil. These big roots make plowing an alfalfa sod
anything but fun. This is one of the few objections to the crop. I had
supposed that the plant does its best where it can work down into an
open or gravel subsoil. I have been told by one who is called an
‘expert’ that alfalfa cannot thrive on a hardpan subsoil, yet here it
was going down into the toughest soil I ever saw, and covering the
surface with a perfect mat of green stalks. Mr. Worker goes so far as to
say that the tougher the subsoil the better the alfalfa goes through it,
provided water does not stand about the roots. That is one point upon
which all agree--the alfalfa cannot stand wet feet. It must have water
enough; that is why its roots go down so far, but it will not thrive in
wet fields where water does not run easily away.
“On other farms I saw the alfalfa growing at the top of steep clay
hills, which were formerly almost useless for farm purposes unless
stuffed with stable manure. Now that alfalfa has been started these
hill-tops have become about the most profitable fields on the farm. At
another place I saw a fair crop of alfalfa growing in a thin streak of
soil over a rocky ledge. There were not eighteen inches of soil covering
the solid rock, yet the alfalfa was thriving. I have been told that this
is the condition under which alfalfa will not grow, yet here it was
giving more forage than any red clover we can grow. I have said that the
spreading of these alfalfa fields is changing the character of farming
in central New York. It is not easy to realize just what this means
without visiting this favored section. This new forage plant brings
fertility and feed to the farm. It is just like having a fertilizer
factory and a feed store drop out of the skies upon the farm, to get
this alfalfa well started. Of course as the farmer learns what the crop
will do he uses it more and more to feed both stock and the farm. It
would not be a very bright farmer who would continue to grow wheat or
some other annual crop which brings him $25 per acre when a permanent
crop like alfalfa will guarantee $60. Some farmers are quicker to see
this than others, but in the end the majority of them see it and then we
see a change. These alfalfa farmers are giving a great object lesson,
and their farms are more interesting than any exhibit at the state
fair.”
_CHAPTER III._
Yields, and Comparisons With Other Crops
COMPARED WITH CLOVER
Many things are understood best through contrasts with others better
known. In every part of the country certain crops are considered
standard, and all others are judged by comparison with these. For
example, red clover in most parts of the United States is ranked as the
richest and best yielding forage, and the fertilizer and renovator _par
excellence_.
The Massachusetts experiment station after a series of tests reports
that 100 pounds of clover contain 47.49 pounds of digestible food and
6.95 pounds of proteids, while 100 pounds of alfalfa contain 54.43
pounds of digestible food and 11.22 pounds of proteids.
The New Jersey station reports that the average yield per annum of green
clover to the acre is 14,000 pounds, and of green alfalfa 36,500 pounds;
the protein in the clover is 616 pounds and in the alfalfa, 2214 pounds;
one ton of alfalfa has 265 pounds of protein, and clover only 246
pounds. But alfalfa will produce three, four, or more cuttings each
year, while clover will produce but one or at most two. Further, clover
will ordinarily survive but two years, while alfalfa will last from ten
to one hundred, thus saving many plowings and seedings. It is also
estimated that the stubble and root-growth of alfalfa are worth at least
four times as much for humus as are those of clover, while the
mechanical and other beneficent effects of the long alfalfa roots far
excel those of clover. The alfalfa field is green for pasturage a month
earlier in the spring than clover and may be mowed a month earlier. It
starts a vigorous growth at once after cutting, covering the ground with
its luxuriant foliage before the second growth of clover has made any
substantial progress.
The Wisconsin experiment station says that “one acre of alfalfa yields
as much protein as three acres of clover, as much as nine acres of
timothy and twelve times as much as an acre of brome grass.”
COMPARISONS WITH SEVERAL GRASSES
-----+--------------------------------------------+-----+---------
| | | Yield
Plat| | Hay,|per acre,
No.| Variety Grown | lbs.| lbs.
-----+--------------------------------------------+-----+---------
1 |June Clover | 473 | 2,365
2 |Mammoth Clover | 475 | 2,375
3 |Alsike Clover | 413 | 2,065
4[1]|Alfalfa (first cutting) 26 inches high, June| |
|29th | 816 | 4,080
5 | Blue-grass | 575 | 2,875
6 | Orchard grass | 478 | 2,390
7 | Timothy | 560 | 2,800
8 | Red-top | 470 | 2,350
9 | Meadow fescue | 375 | 1,875
10 | Tall meadow oat grass | 600 | 3,000
11 | Italian rye grass |.... | ....
12[2]| Timothy, blue-grass and orchard grass mixed| 203 | 1,015
-----+--------------------------------------------+-----+---------
[1] The alfalfa plat yielded a second cutting 26 inches high on August
2nd, and a third 24 inches high September 1st; there was also a
six-inch after-growth estimated at 180 pounds. The total alfalfa yield
was equivalent, “approximately to 6¹⁄₂ tons of good dry forage.” None
of the other clovers or grasses gave more than one cutting.
[2] Robbed somewhat of both plant food and moisture by an adjacent row
of grown cottonwood trees.
The Nebraska experiment station has made very careful tests of the
comparative yields of various grasses, clovers and mixtures. These were
on plats of one-fifth of an acre. The foregoing table shows the yields
the second year from planting, which owing to the very dry spring was a
quite unfavorable season.
COMPARED WITH CORN
The Colorado station reports a comparison with corn as follows:
------------------------------------
Yield per acre of Corn and Alfalfa
-------------------+-------+--------
| Corn, |Alfalfa,
| lbs. | lbs.
-------------------+-------+--------
Dry Matter | 3,605 | 5,611
Albuminoids | 296 | 1,198
Starch, Sugar, etc.| 2,186 | 3,114
Fiber | 1,060 | 1,198
Fat | 63 | 101
-------------------+-------+--------
INDIVIDUAL INSTANCES OF CASH RETURNS
A Lincoln county, Kansas, farmer writes that from five acres of alfalfa
he received in one season $100 for hay, $150 for seed and $20 for straw.
A farmer near Atwood, Rawlins county, Kansas, cut two crops for hay and
threshed the third crop for seed, realizing 13 bushels per acre, which
sold at $5 per bushel.
A Harlan county, Nebraska, farmer reports an income of $774 in one year
from seed and hay from six acres.
Scott Bros., of Pottawatomie county, Kansas, report to the author as
follows concerning their returns from a twelve-acre field in one year:
2 hay crops, 30 tons at $12 $360
105 bushels of seed at $6 630
Straw 50
Fourth cutting, 12 tons at $12 144
------
Total, one year’s return $1,184
A Buffalo county, Nebraska, farmer sold from a year’s growth on 22
acres, hay worth $328.12, seed $1000, and straw $150.
A Montgomery county, Kansas, farmer reports to the author a return of
$106 per acre in one year from hay, seed and straw.
Another report was sent in 1904 from southern Kansas, of five cuttings,
making 8¹⁄₂ tons per acre, which sold at $5 per ton in the field.
SOME REPORTS OF YIELDS
A farmer of Harvey county, Kansas, reported in 1903 two hay crops and
one seed crop, the hay, seed and straw returning more than $50 per acre
from a field that two years before had failed to yield enough corn to
justify its gathering.
Sixteen acres in Reno county, Kansas, are reported to have pastured in
1904 four hundred pigs and yielded one cutting of hay of over 16 tons.
An alfalfa field of eleven acres in Washington, on the bank of the
Columbia river, under irrigation, produced in 1901 over 100 tons of hay.
Former Governor W. D. Hoard, of Wisconsin, reports from three-fifths of
an acre on his farm in the southern part of the state, four cuttings in
one season, yielding 5.7 tons of hay.
Alva Langston, of Henry county, Indiana, sowed five acres of alfalfa May
20th, and harvested nearly 1¹⁄₂ tons of hay per acre August 25th
following, and about the same quantity September 20th to 25th. This was
on upland, thirty or more years in cultivation. The alfalfa was clipped
twice before the cutting for hay.
In 1902 F. S. Kirk of Garfield county, Oklahoma, sowed a field near a
creek, but about 25 feet above water, with thirty to thirty-five pounds
of alfalfa seed per acre, broadcast. The soil, which he calls “high
bottom,” was a dark brown and contained considerable sand. For two years
no attention was given the alfalfa except harvesting from it three crops
the second year and four the third year. In 1905 he harvested from ten
acres nine cuttings, estimated to weigh fully one and one-half tons
each, per acre. The longest time between any two cuttings was twenty-two
days, and the shortest fourteen days. During the season of 1904 seven
cuttings were made and the field was gone over with a disk harrow early
each time after removing the hay from the field. It was possible to cut
another growth of 8 to 12 inches, had he not preferred to use it as
pasturage for stock.
Mr. Kirk does not irrigate and maintains that in his part of the country
“the best irrigation for alfalfa is with a disk harrow.” He also insists
that “alfalfa can be entirely killed by disking in the dark of the
moon,” especially if the weather that follows is hot and dry. He
pastures his alfalfa with cattle and horses in fall and spring, and
disks in the spring as soon as the stock is removed.
SOME MONEY COMPARISONS
A good acre corn crop in Ohio is forty bushels, worth not to exceed $20,
after all the labor of cultivating and husking; the stover, if properly
cared for, ought to be worth $5, making a total of $25. An Ohio farmer
reports a yield of 4¹⁄₂ tons of alfalfa hay per acre, worth for feed as
compared with the price of bran about $12 per ton, or a total value of
$54, from only one plowing in six years (as long as he let it stand) and
with less labor in harvesting than for husking corn and caring for the
stover.
A good Kansas or Nebraska corn yield (far above the state average) is 50
bushels per acre, worth ordinarily about $17, with stover worth $3. The
farmer should obtain from his alfalfa at least four to five tons, worth
to him for feed for cattle, hogs or sheep from $10 to $12 per
ton--practically two or three times his income from an acre of corn,
while the cost of production is much less.
The average year’s corn or wheat crop is worth only about $10 per acre,
while the average alfalfa crop is worth on the market from $15 to $35,
or more, per acre, owing to the market appreciation of the crop, and
from $35 to $60 as feed for stock.
Many thousands of acres in western Kansas and Nebraska are now returning
from their alfalfa fields an income of from $15 to $25 per acre where
but a few years earlier the land was deemed worthless for agriculture.
Hundreds of acres in western New York that were returning only a small
income above cost of labor and fertilization are now supporting great
money making dairies from alfalfa. Cotton land in the South rents for $5
per acre, while alfalfa fields bring a yearly rental of three times that
amount.
[Illustration: =Sweet Clover Alfalfa Yellow Trefoil=
The Sweet clover and alfalfa are magnified five diameters and the
trefoil seven diameters]
[Illustration: =Three Distinctive Types of Alfalfa Seed Magnified Twelve
Times=
The one at the left rounded; the one at the right kidney-shaped; and the
one in the middle angular pointed. The latter is the most characteristic
form seen in alfalfa seed]
_CHAPTER IV._
Seed and Seed Selection
NO SUCCESS WITHOUT GOOD SEED
It is a time-worn but no less true saying that good seed is essential to
good agriculture. No matter how well the farmer prepares his land, no
matter how much time, labor and money he spends on it, if much or all of
his seed fails to grow, he will either have a poor crop or be obliged to
reseed, thus losing time and labor. Many causes may contribute to
prevent a good stand, but if he can eliminate any one of these, he is by
so much the gainer. Poor seed is a primary and great cause of a poor
stand.
The farmer obtains his seed from one of two sources; he raises it or
buys it. If the former, there should be less danger, as the chief source
of poor seed is careless handling in harvesting and storing. If the seed
becomes damp, mold will damage much of it, or it will sprout, then dry
out, and the germ be killed. If seed is bought of strangers or from a
distance, the chances of poor quality increase many fold. If all seed
were bought of reliable dealers, there would be less cause for
complaint, but farmers too often buy where they can buy cheapest. They
pay for trash that is either full of harmful weed seeds or has a liberal
admixture of old and dead seeds left over from previous seasons.
Before seed is purchased it should be tested for purity and germination.
The adage that a dollar saved is a dollar earned well applies here; it
is an easy matter to waste a dollar on seed, and when profit depends on
avoidance of useless expenditure the use of inferior seed points its own
moral.
IMPORTANCE OF SIMILAR CONDITIONS
The farmer who has brought himself to the point of introducing alfalfa
upon his farm should be extremely careful in the selection of seed. In
the first place it is important that he should sow such as is produced
in about the same latitude as his farm and from a region of about the
same rainfall, thus keeping in a line of acclimation, and with the
habits and habitat, as it were, of what he is seeking to raise. Next, he
should not sow seed raised under irrigation if he is in a non-irrigation
region. A Michigan farmer, for example, should sow seed grown as near to
his latitude as possible, say, from Wisconsin, Minnesota or the Dakotas,
or not south of Nebraska or Kansas. It is questionable, at present,
whether it is wise or profitable to attempt raising alfalfa seed in the
more humid districts of the eastern and southern parts of the United
States. It may be economy to leave the raising of seed to those regions
with the least summer rainfall, keeping always in mind the securing of
seed grown under conditions nearly like those to which the seed is to be
introduced.
Speaking of the alleged different varieties of alfalfa, the seed of
which is urged upon buyers by seedsmen, the editor of the _Oklahoma Farm
Journal_ pertinently says:
“We see occasional references to ‘dry land’ alfalfa and statements that
it’s a kind that just longs for the hilltops so that it may turn off big
crops of rich hay from land too dry and hard to yield good sorghum.
Don’t forget that the one thing to look for when purchasing alfalfa seed
is good seed, that will grow. It’s hard to find and the price is usually
high. When you buy it, buy subject to test and send a fair sample of
about an ounce to your experiment station, where it will be tested
without charge. At the present time there is but one variety of alfalfa
that Oklahoma farmers should buy, and that is good alfalfa seed. There
is no ‘dry land’ variety of alfalfa, and the much boomed Turkestan
variety isn’t as good for sowing in Oklahoma as Oklahoma or Kansas grown
seed. Rich soil, thorough preparation, good seed well sowed, cutting at
the right time, harrowing when weeds and grass bother, all these are
requisite to success with this most valuable crop, and it pays for all
the bother.”
Seed from Nebraska and northwestern Kansas has been generally successful
through Iowa and Illinois, and is probably adapted to Ohio and southern
Pennsylvania. Utah seed produces good crops in Minnesota, the extremes
of cold and heat in Utah having developed a strain that does well in
cold climates. The writer would use Utah grown seed for New York,
northern New Jersey and northern Pennsylvania, and seed from Wyoming or
Montana for New England. On the sandy land of southern New Jersey, in
Delaware and Maryland, the seed grown in southern Colorado and southern
Kansas ought to do well.
Prof. H. M. Cottrell, formerly agriculturist of the Kansas experiment
station, says: “One year I sowed 20 acres to alfalfa--19 acres with Utah
grown seed and one acre with imported seed; both showed a germination of
over 98 per cent, and the growth was good from both lots all through the
season, with no difference that could be detected. The next spring there
was a good stand all over the 19 acres seeded with Utah seed, and not a
single live plant on the acre seeded with the imported seed. I have seen
several trials with imported seed, and never yet saw a good crop
harvested from it. Usually after passing through the first winter there
is from one-fourth to one-half a stand from such seed; the plants make a
weak growth and, if allowed to remain, most of them die out in two or
three years. Descriptions of the puny growth in reports of failures of
this crop, given by eastern growers, make one think that probably
imported seed had been sown. No intelligent farmer would take corn grown
in the warm soil and climate and long season of southern Kansas and
expect to grow a good crop in New York on heavy soil with short seasons.
It is even more difficult to succeed with so great a change in growing
alfalfa, as it would have to withstand the long severe winter, as well
as the change in summer conditions. No one should sow alfalfa seed
without knowing where and under what conditions it was grown.”
New seed, other conditions being right, is always preferable, although
that kept for several years, properly cared for, may have retained most
of its germinability. Such tests as have been made appeared to show a
loss in well stored seed of only about one and one-half per cent of
germinability in five years. W. P. Headden (Colorado Bul. No. 35) after
various experiments declares, “the results are positive in showing that
the age of seed up to six years does not affect its germinating power.”
It is usually handled and stored by seedsmen in the ordinary seamless
cotton sacks holding from 150 to 160 pounds, and quoted and sold by the
pound or hundred-pounds instead of by the bushel. The legal weight of a
bushel of recleaned alfalfa seed is sixty pounds.
Although the seed is handled in sacks for convenience, seedsmen say
there is no good reason why it might not be safely stored in bulk in
bins without any deterioration from heating, or otherwise. There might,
however, be some degree of danger from weevils or other insect pests in
warm weather. Exposed to too much light, seed will lose its bright
yellow color and change to a brownish cast. When stored, dealers say, it
does not go through a “sweating” process as do the seeds of some other
forage plants and grasses.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF SEED
In years of large production in America and a shortage in other
countries, considerable American seed goes abroad to Italy, France,
Germany and Australia. The largest portion is consigned to Germany
because extensive seed houses at Hamburg act as distributers to all
portions of the world, from which they receive demands.
In recent years the United States has been a buyer rather than a seller,
and imports have been as follows:
Year Lbs.
1902-3 1,018,559
1903-4 2,200,267
1904-5 2,865,324
According to the government authorities the bulk of the imported seed
comes from Germany and France. That having the best reputation in Europe
comes from Provence, (southeastern) France. A small quantity comes from
Italy, but it is not generally considered to be of as good quality as
that grown farther north. Seedsmen complain that many consignments of
the foreign seed contain large quantities of Yellow trefoil and Bur
clover.
It is a fallacy popular among farmers and country seed dealers that
great quantities of alfalfa seed are exported to be used for dyeing
purposes. There is no foundation in fact for such a belief, and the
exportations made, like the importations, are for seeding purposes
exclusively.
IMPURITIES AND ADULTERATIONS
A foremost source of danger and loss, aside from infertile seed, is
impurities and adulterants in the alfalfa seed planted. Growers often
are careless and do not examine their alfalfa before or at the time of
harvesting, and do not reclean their seed after threshing, thus sending
out among innocent purchasers seed mixed with those of weeds, inferior
grasses and forage plants, and with various trash which adds bulk and
weight but has no value. The commonest seed adulterants or impurities
are those of Sweet clover (_Melilotus alba_) (Illus. opp. p. 26), Bur
clover (_Medicago denticulata_), Spotted clover (_Medicago Arabica_) (p.
67), Yellow trefoil or Hop clover (_Medicago lupulina_) (p. 26), and the
Dodders (_Cuscuta epithymum_ and _Cuscuta arvensis_), (pp. 45 and 47).
[Illustration: =Yellow Trefoil Pods=
The pods of Yellow trefoil are shaped as here shown and contain but a
single seed. Magnified four diameters]
[Illustration: =Alfalfa Seed Pods=
Alfalfa has a spiral pod of two or three turns, often containing five or
six seeds. Magnified four diameters]
[Illustration: =Sweet Clover Pods=
Magnified four diameters]
[Illustration: =Bur Clover Seed Pods=
The seeds are enclosed in a coiled pod which is covered with bristly
projections as shown above. Magnified four diameters]
That an extraordinary proportion of the alfalfa seed in the markets,
wheresoever from, is adulterated to an amazing extent with seeds of
undesirable plants or loaded with worthless, if not actually harmful
impurities, is being demonstrated by the United States Department of
Agriculture. In a circular pertaining to this work is given the
following, showing the adulterants found in samples bought in the open
markets of the cities named:
---------------------------------------------------------------
Seeds used as adulterants.
------------------+----------+----------+----------+-----------
| Sweet | Bur | Yellow | Total
City where bought | clover | clover | trefoil |adulterants
------------------+----------+----------+----------+-----------
|_Per Cent_|_Per Cent_|_Per Cent_|_Per Cent_
Providence, R. I. | .... | 3.47 | 32.86 | 36.33
Denver, Colo. | .... | 16.86 | .... | 16.86
Rochester, N. Y. | .... | 5.02 | 39.48 | 44.50
Milwaukee, Wis. | .... | 5.74 | .... | 5.74
Indianapolis, Ind.| .... | 4.27 | 38.43 | 42.70
„ „ | .... | 3.90 | 39.53 | 43.43
Marblehead, Mass. | .... | 3.00 | .... | 3.00
Petersburg, Va. | .... | .... | 1.25 | 1.25
Cedar Rapids, Iowa| .... | 5.49 | .... | 5.49
Indianapolis, Ind.| .... | 3.37 | 38.54 | 41.91
Pittsfield, Mass. | 9.52 | .... | .... | 9.52
Atlanta, Ga. | .... | 10.04 | .... | 10.04
Salem, Ill. | .... | .... | 6.98 | 6.98
St. Paul, Minn. | .... | .... | 31.77 | 31.77
Louisville, Ky. | .... | 16.53 | .... | 16.53
New Haven, Conn. | .... | 5.88 | 39.85 | 45.73
Independence, Iowa| .... | 12.69 | .... | 12.69
New Orleans, La. | .... | 2.57 | .63 | 3.20
Troy, N. Y. | .... | 6.23 | 31.26 | 37.49
------------------+----------+----------+----------+-----------
In Farmers’ Bulletin No. 194 of the United States Department of
Agriculture is given the table on page 34 to show the result of
analyses of alfalfa seed imported within a period of six months.
----------+-------+------+-----+--------+---------+-------+--------
| |Broken| | Number | Number |Alfalfa|
| | seed | | of weed|of dodder| seed |
Laboratory|Alfalfa| and | Weed|seeds in|seeds in |that’ll| Amount
test No. | seed | dirt |seeds|1 pound |1 pound | grow |imported
----------+-------+------+-----+--------+---------+-------+--------
| _Per_ | _Per_|_Per_| | | _Per_ |
| _Ct._ | _Ct._|_Ct._| | | _Ct._ |_Pounds_
21000 | 93.38 | 5.8 | 0.82| 2,160 | .... | 63.73 | 4,000
21001 | 92.1 | 7.34| .56| 900 | .... | 59.17 | 30,800
21002 | 82.28 | 15.92| 1.8 | 3,060 | .... | 66.64 | 5,500
21003 | 84.72 | 11.58| 3.7 | 3,420 | .... | 57.39 | 32,877
21004 | 89.16 | 8.78| 2.06| 2,700 | 90 | 62.18 | 14,700
21005 | 74.06 | 21.38| 4.56| 15,928 | 2,520 | 53.87 | 7,613
21006 | 58.74 | 34.46| 6.8 | 32,420 | 5,490 | 28.78 | 33,075
21007 | 86.12 | 11.34| 2.54| 8,964 | 270 | 61.36 | 8,779
21008 | 73.02 | 22.32| 4.66| 12,829 | 90 | 49.65 | 32,963
21009 | 96.82 | 2.72| .46| 990 | .... | 85.2 | 33,000
21010 | 86.2 | 12.1 | 1.7 | 3,060 | .... | 55.59 | 30,800
21011 | 96.96 | 2.16| .88| 1,710 | .... | 87.26 | 5,500
21012 | 88.84 | 3.98| 7.18| 17,299 | .... | 43.2 | 33,000
21013 | 96.24 | 2.66| 1.1 | 3,510 | .... | 77.47 | 21,340
21014 | 91.06 | 5.44| 3.5 | 7,650 | .... | 62.14 | 8,778
21015 | 93.44 | 2.7 | 3.86| 8,526 | .... | 77.08 | 33,000
21016 | 77.78 | 16.04| 6.18| 16,435 | 360 | 47.83 | 33,000
21017 | 81.52 | 12.18| 6.3 | 21,848 | 720 | 7.13 | 16,280
21018 | 69.48 | 23.78| 6.74| 23,082 | 810 | 5.21 | 38,172
21019 | 96.5 | 3.04| .46| 1,080 | .... | 88.53 | 44,000
21020 | 96.4 | 2.82| .78| 1,260 | .... | 91.82 | 44,000
21021 | 94.4 | 5.04| .56| 1,620 | .... | 90.15 | 72,600
21022 | 24.5 | 70.96| 4.54| 21,070 | 4,950 | 6.34 | 12,540
21023 | 94.14 | 1.8 | 4.06| 3,780 | .... | 73.43 | 234
21024 | 94.58 | 3.44| 1.98| 3,060 | .... | 51.78 | 5,500
21031 | 87.72 | 11.02| 1.26| 4,140 | 90 | 81.14 | 143,000
21032 | 90.56 | 8.08| 1.36| 3,420 | .... | 76.29 | 33,000
21033 | 89.04 | 10.5 | .46| 1,260 | 90 | 84.7 | 6,673
21035 | 72.36 | 27.1 | .54| 270 | .... | 64.58 | 13,516
----------+-------+------+-----+--------+---------+-------+--------
Bearing also upon the adulterations, impurities and defectives found in
alfalfa seed sold in the markets, extracts from reports of tests made at
the Wooster, Ohio station (Bul. No. 142) are exceedingly interesting. In
fifteen samples bought, each of one dollar’s worth, the quantity of pure
germinable seed was found to range from 5.1 to 9.3 pounds; the number of
noxious seeds found in a dollar’s worth of that bought as alfalfa seed
ranged from 360 to 185,940. Seven of the fifteen one-dollar samples each
carried more than 23,000 noxious seeds.
Seed bought at $7.80 per bushel showed as low as 61.2 per cent that was
germinable, of which the _actual_ cost was $12.74 per bushel. None of
the fifteen samples had less than 77 per cent of germinable seed. One
pound sample contained 21,728 noxious seeds, of which 18,144 were
lamb’s-quarter or pigweeds; the same pound also had 3126 seeds of
dodder. Another pound carried 6420 seeds of crab grass, and one had 3325
seeds of foxtail.
The station authorities recommend that no alfalfa seed be sown until
carefully screened through a screen fine enough to remove dodder seeds.
Wire sieves or screens with twenty meshes to the inch are found to serve
the purpose.
ADULTERANTS DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED
As a further and more thorough discussion of the frequent adulterants,
Prof. H. F. Roberts, botanist of the Kansas experiment station, has
kindly prepared, with illustrations, for this volume the quoted
statements which follow here:
“The immense and steadily increasing value of alfalfa as a forage crop
in the United States, and the high price of the seed, make the securing
of sound, pure seed a matter of supreme importance to farmers, and
render it equally important for them to be able to recognize, by sight,
the presence in alfalfa seed of the adulterants and seeds of certain
weeds most commonly known to occur. There is conclusive evidence that an
amount of adulteration and substitution is actually practiced with
alfalfa seed. It is usually charged that this is done abroad,
especially, as is alleged, in Germany.
“The writer has been informed that, to a limited extent, the practice
exists in America. The chief adulterant used is the seed of the Yellow
trefoil, or, as it is sometimes called, Hop clover or Black medick. (See
illustrations opposite pages 26 and 32.) About fifty species of plants
are known as ‘medicks’ or, scientifically, _Medicago_; but it so happens
that the only perennial species among them is alfalfa, which goes under
the botanical name of _Medicago sativa_, (p. 1). Other species such as
Yellow trefoil (_Medicago lupulina_) (p. 38) and Bur clover (_Medicago
denticulata_,) while they possess some forage value and are useful to a
limited extent, lack, for the most part, the lush, abundant growth of
alfalfa itself, and are notably inferior through the fact of their
annual habit. It is because of its perennial nature, therefore, as well
as on account of its rank, succulent growth, that no species of annual
leguminous plant can hope to compete with alfalfa for a moment in
importance. This means, then, that any substitute for alfalfa seed, or
adulteration of it with the seed of another related species, such as
Yellow trefoil or Bur clover, is distinctly a fraud of serious
character, despite the fact that the adulterants are plants that make
fair pasturage and have some forage value. They are merely annuals,
ending their life with the season, whereas a field of alfalfa should
live twenty years or more, under right conditions.
THE CHIEF ADULTERANT
“At present, as stated, Yellow trefoil is the chief adulterant used in
American alfalfa seed. A number of cases, indeed, of complete or almost
complete substitution of Yellow trefoil for alfalfa seed have come to
the writer’s attention within the past year. It is important, therefore,
for farmers to know the characteristic marks of distinction between the
seed of alfalfa and of its chief adulterants. What are the chief
characteristics of alfalfa seed? Facing page 13 are samples of pure
alfalfa seed, photographed under a magnification of five diameters. It
will be noted that seeds of three general types exist: (1) A
kidney-shaped type, marked ‘a’ in the illustration; (2) a type in which
one end terminates in an acute wedge, marked ‘e’; and (3) a type that is
round or nearly so, marked ‘b’. These types clearly illustrated,
arranged for comparison in parallel rows are shown opposite page 44. See
also page 27. It should be noticed that type 2 is the most
characteristic and frequent, and that the perfectly round type is
extremely rare. This angular slant toward one tip of the seed is found
nowhere among any of the adulterants. Neither does the kidney shape of
seed occur, except in Bur clover; and, in that case, the difference in
the size of the seeds of the two species is sufficient to distinguish
them, in most instances.
[Illustration: Yellow Trefoil: Black Medic: Hop Clover (_Medicago
lupulina_)]
“It is when we consider the round or roundish type of alfalfa seed that
there is difficulty in distinguishing from alfalfa the seeds of Yellow
trefoil and of Sweet clover (illus. opp. p. 26), which latter frequently
occurs as a weed seed, and possibly in some cases in sufficient quantity
to be suspected as an adulterant. By comparison of the seeds of alfalfa
with the two adulterants just mentioned, (p. 26) the resemblances and
differences of the three species will become evident. In general the
seeds of Yellow trefoil are shorter and rounder than those of alfalfa,
the largest seeds of trefoil measuring 0.0629 inch wide by 0.0897 inch
long; whereas the largest alfalfa seeds measure 0.0653 inch wide by
0.1153 inch long; so that the largest alfalfa seeds are a trifle wider
and more than a third again as long as the largest trefoil seeds. The
smallest seeds of Yellow trefoil are usually plumper and shorter than
those of alfalfa (0.0511 inch wide by 0.0291 inch long, as compared with
0.0496 inch wide by 0.0751 inch long in alfalfa); nevertheless, among
both the small and the large seeds, so far as the criterion of size
goes, individuals occur that equally well belong to either species, and
the average differences in size are not so great as the differences
found on comparing the largest and the smallest seeds of the two
species, the average for the trefoil being 0.0574 inch by 0.0799 inch,
and for alfalfa 0.0582 inch by 0.0944 inch. So it will be seen at once
that while trefoil seeds as a rule are smaller, shorter and rounder than
those of alfalfa, the rule is transgressed by many individuals. We must,
therefore, turn to the form and general outline of the seed. A farmer
can detect at once an attempt to substitute wholly Yellow trefoil for
alfalfa seed by the fact that _in no case will the kidney-shaped or the
regular-pointed types of seed be found in trefoil, whereas these always
occur in alfalfa_. (Illustrated opp p. 26.)
“In the more common cases, where adulteration rather than complete
substitution is practiced, detection is more difficult--is practically
impossible, in fact, without the aid of a lens or magnifying glass
having a power of about fifteen diameters. There are many seeds of
trefoil which can scarcely be distinguished from certain rounded seeds
of alfalfa. Generally, however, the trefoil seed has a little projection
or “beak” on the middle line of the seed, just back of the scar marking
where the seed was attached to the pod. This is rarely found in alfalfa.
“Bur clover as an adulterant is probably not so frequently used as
Yellow trefoil, since the larger size of its seed renders detection
easy. Were it not for this fact, Bur clover would be a most effective
adulterant, because its seeds resemble those of alfalfa more closely
than do those of Yellow trefoil. There are, of course, smaller seeds of
Bur clover and larger seeds of alfalfa that approximate each other in
size, but the average Bur clover seeds measure 0.0604 inch by 0.1188
inch, as compared with an average for alfalfa of only 0.0582 inch by
0.0944 inch.
“So far as the plants of Yellow trefoil and Bur clover are concerned,
they are easily distinguishable from alfalfa. Both are of lower growth,
as a rule, than alfalfa. Both have wider leaflets, which, in Bur clover,
are like broad, inverted wedges. The flowers of these plants are yellow,
and are borne in scanty clusters. The pods are wholly unlike those of
alfalfa. Alfalfa has a spiral pod of two or three turns (p. 32),
containing as many as five or six seeds. Yellow trefoil has a straight
pod (p. 32), containing but one seed. Bur clover has a coiled pod (p.
33), but covered with bristly projections that give the plant its name.
Where adulteration or substitution is practiced, some of the pods are
very apt to occur in the bulk seed, and they can then easily be
identified and distinguished from those of alfalfa.
“Seed of Sweet clover seems to occur frequently in western-grown alfalfa
seed (p. 26). Sweet clover (illustrated in this book) grows to a height
frequently of from four to six feet, bearing small, white flowers on
slender spikes three or four inches long. Unfortunately, and unlike
Yellow trefoil and Bur clover, Sweet clover is generally rejected by
stock. On this account, it is a plant of no generally established value
for hay or as pasture, although, in some instances, it is successfully
used. The seeds of Sweet clover are of a golden yellow when ripe; those
of alfalfa, trefoil and Bur clover being greenish yellow. The seed coat
of Sweet clover seed is covered with minute elevations, while alfalfa
seed is smooth. The seeds of Sweet clover (p. 26) are rounder and
plumper than those of alfalfa, and have a very pronounced groove between
the main body of the seed and the ridge which marks the location of the
rootlet of the young plant within. It is this ridge that in alfalfa
seeds runs off, as a rule, in a marked slant, but which in both trefoil
and Sweet clover, especially in the latter, forms a well-rounded curve
to the tip of the seed. No pointed or kidney-shaped seeds are ever seen
in Sweet clover. (See illus. opp. p. 26.)
A COMMON WEED IN IMPORTED ALFALFA SEED
“It remains to mention the most common weed found in imported alfalfa
seed--the English or Ribbed plantain, or, as it is more generally called
in the West, Buck-horn or Rib grass. It is a difficult weed to
eradicate, lots of seed containing any noticeable percentage of it
should be rejected. (See illus. opp. p. 13.)
“The farmer is often to blame for the poor seed of which he makes
complaint. Prime alfalfa seed is expensive, and a cheap grade will
inevitably be poor in quality, containing much dead seed, rubbish, and
the seeds of many kinds of weeds. Where ‘cheap’ alfalfa seed is demanded
it will always be sold, and buyers need not be surprised by its quality.
On the other hand, there is no excuse or palliation for the offense of
selling, under the name and at the price of standard alfalfa seed, seed
of substituted species. It is the duty of seed dealers to ascertain
beforehand the character and genuineness of seed that they sell under
any given name, and this applies to the retailers as well as to the
wholesale dealers. On the other hand, farmers cannot expect to obtain
the best seed unless they are willing to pay the price it brings.”
DODDER SEED
Dodder seeds are somewhat smaller than alfalfa seeds (pp. 45 and 47),
but are not separated from them except by careful recleaning;
consequently, they are often sown along with the alfalfa seed,
especially in that which has been imported. If a field is badly
infested, it should be plowed up and devoted to some other crop for a
few years. Prof. F. H. Hillman of Nevada (Bul. No. 47) says there are
several kinds that infest alfalfa, but two kinds are especially common
and destructive in this country. _Cuscuta epithymum_ is the commoner.
“The seeds of this (p. 47) are very small, and are almost sure to escape
detection on casual examination of the samples; yet, once recognized
under the lens, their presence may be easily discovered. They are so
much smaller than alfalfa seeds that the use of a sieve of twenty meshes
per inch separates them from the latter when only free dodder seeds are
present. Not only are various other small weed seeds disposed of in the
process, but little if any alfalfa seed worth buying is lost. The few
ripened flowers of dodder retaining matured seeds, which sometimes pass
the thresher uninjured, may be removed by proper fanning. It is safe to
say that no purchaser of alfalfa seed can afford to neglect sifting his
seed carefully with a twenty-mesh sieve, which is the mesh the writer
recommends for the separation of this kind of dodder from alfalfa seed.
“_Cuscuta arvensis_ is another dodder as destructive when once
established. Its seeds (p. 47) seem to be less common, however. They are
larger than the preceding, many of them being practically the same size
as the smaller, more rounded alfalfa seeds, which they often strikingly
resemble. Thus they are hard to detect, and cannot be removed without
the loss of much small alfalfa seed. This should be the more dreaded of
the two dodders, because alfalfa seed infested with seeds of _Cuscuta
epithymum_ can be made practically free from them with comparatively
little loss and expense. Not so, however, with seed containing _Cuscuta
arvensis_, which should not be purchased at any price. Dodder seeds can
scarcely be regarded as an adulterant, yet as an impurity they are very
common and most objectionable.” (See illustrations opp. pp. 45, 46 and
47.)
_CHAPTER V._
Soil and Seeding
VARIATE, YET UNIFORM
In this double title we have a case of the widest variations and the
most positive and rigid uniformity. Alfalfa may be grown in almost every
possible kind of soil and under almost all soil conditions (save two),
but omitting these the seeding, including the tilth of the ground, is
based, so far as any future success is concerned, on perfect
cultivation. The dictum, “Alfalfa must have a dry, warm, sandy loam,
very rich” has become obsolete, as already pointed out.
There are just two soil conditions that seem absolutely against the
growth of alfalfa. The first is a soil constantly wet. The common
remark, “Alfalfa will not stand ‘wet feet’,” seems to be the expression
of a law. It does not do well where the water is nearer to the surface
than six feet, or where in winter water will stand on the ground for
over forty-eight hours. This invariably smothers the plants; in fact it
usually kills any crop. If water flows over the field for some such
time, due to a freshet, the alfalfa is often found uninjured if too much
soil has not been deposited on and around the plants. Even in such
instances fields have been saved by a disking once or twice, but it is
wholly unwise to sow on a field subject to overflow, or one where water
rises to the surface in winter or spring; likewise on a field so flat
that water will not run off in time of a heavy rain or promptly drain
out through the sub-surface. The time is rapidly coming everywhere when
the intelligent farmer will not try to raise any crop on such a field,
undrained. The alfalfa roots will find their way to moisture if given
the right surface conditions. There are profitable alfalfa meadows in
parts of Kansas where it is eighty feet to water, but there has not yet
been found one that is prosperous where water comes close to the
surface, or where it stands on the ground in winter.
[Illustration: =Three General Types of Alfalfa Seed=
The right-hand column, kidney-shaped, a characteristic form, but not so
common as the type in the central column. The left-hand column
approaches more nearly the rounded type of Sweet clover. Magnification
five diameters]
[Illustration: Dodder Seed Magnified]
[Illustration: Alfalfa Seed Magnified]
The other kind of soil where alfalfa refuses to grow is that in which
there is too much acidity. This is often the case where corn and wheat
have been raised for many years, thus robbing the soil of much lime; a
condition that may be remedied by an application of lime to the land
just before sowing the alfalfa, harrowing it in beforehand or, if the
seed is to be broadcasted, the lime may be applied just before sowing,
when once harrowing will suffice for both, or it may be sown with a
drill--500 to 1000 pounds per acre.
A simple test for acidity is to make a deep cut in the ground with a
knife, pressing the earth slightly apart; then push a piece of litmus
paper into the opening and press the earth together. Leave the paper
there for a few hours. If upon examination the litmus paper has a pink
appearance it is proof of acidity, and this, as already said, may best
be remedied with lime.
SOIL PREPARATION
With the only two negative points considered, the more important
conditions upon which success will depend may be discussed. One chief
essential is the advance preparation. Many of the most successful
growers begin their preparations two or three years before they sow the
seed. There must be, by rights, the most perfect physical condition of
the soil. It should have been plowed deep for at least two years, and in
most fields in the central and northern states a two- or three-inch
subsoiling along with a seven- or eight-inch plowing will be very
helpful.
If corn is to precede a spring sowing, the ground should have a liberal
dressing of stable manure plowed under for humus, to encourage
earthworms and to introduce the particular bacteria so essential to
alfalfa’s welfare or at least furnish favorable conditions for bacteria,
and the harrow should follow the plow each day. The soil’s condition
should be like that for a garden. Care should be taken never to work
with the ground when too wet, as such working almost inevitably results
in clods and baked soil. The corn should be cultivated often, and a
liberal sowing of cowpeas just before the last cultivation, which should
be shallow, has been found quite helpful. This crop will repress and
take the place of weeds, furnish a rich food for fattening pigs or lambs
after the corn is cut, add fertility to the soil, and also introduce
bacteria similar to the bacteria for the alfalfa. The cowpea, being a
legume, prepares the way for alfalfa, its near relative.
[Illustration: Dodder Plant on an Alfalfa Stem]
[Illustration: =Dodder=, (_Cuscuta arvensis_)
(a) A group of seeds (enlarged), showing the prevailing forms; (a, b,
and c) individual seeds having somewhat the form of clover seeds; (d) a
group showing the natural size]
[Illustration: Alfalfa and Dodder Seed. Actual Size]
[Illustration: =Dodder=, (_Cuscuta epithymum_)
(a) A group of seeds showing comparative forms and relative size
(enlarged); (b) a group showing the natural size; (c) the embryo removed
from the seed, showing the form it usually assumes; (d) a section of a
seed, showing the manner in which the embryo lies imbedded in the
endosperm]
KEEP DOWN THE WEEDS
It is always timely to emphasize the very great importance of keeping
down weeds in the cornfield where alfalfa is to be sowed the next
spring. If corn is husked from the fields, the stalks should not be
pastured except when the ground is fully frozen. Later they should be
thoroughly broken, raked and burned, to leave the land in the best
condition for spring work. If the corn is cut and fodder hauled off, the
stubs should be broken in cold weather by a pole or other drag, and
raked and burned as recommended for the stalks. This adapts the ground
for disking and harrowing early in March. Then every ten days the field
should be disked or harrowed to conserve moisture, to start weeds and
then kill them, and to bring the ground into the desirable tilth.
Ordinarily, in the central states, sowing may be done early in April,
while in the South this may be done by the middle of March, and in
Wisconsin and Canada by the last of April or early May, although the
dates are variable. Many report seeding in Kansas the middle of May,
obtaining a clipping in July and a hay crop in September. Others report
sowing in March and cutting a hay crop in June. Some Wisconsin reports
say that the first of June is early enough, while others in that state
and in Minnesota prefer to sow two or three weeks earlier, and still
others in Wisconsin sow in April. The important things to keep in mind
are to have the soil right and the weeds disposed of, and to sow when
the weather and moisture and conditions are right. Alfalfa is a child of
the sun; permanent shade from any source is its enemy, and when young it
is not a good fighter against adversaries of any sort. More failures
are due to weeds than to any other one cause, and unfortunately all the
weeds do not grow on the land of the farmer who is shiftless or
neglectful. The latter is so benevolent as to permit his weeds to
scatter their seeds to the fields of his neighbors.
If a spring sowing is to be made on wheat ground, the land will be
helped by a liberal dressing of manure immediately after the harvest,
and by plowing and harrowing at once; then sowing about the last of
August to rye or wheat for fall and winter pasturage, and to prevent the
soil from leaching or washing. In the spring the land should be disked
and harrowed for alfalfa, keeping in mind the point emphasized in the
preceding paragraph. Instead of the rye or wheat, cowpeas may be sowed
after the wheat harvest; thus both fertility and bacteria will be added
to the soil, and the farmer have a valuable pasture crop for pigs or
lambs. If the season is extremely favorable, a hay crop may be cut in
early October.
If potatoes are to precede a spring sowing of alfalfa, more than usual
care should be taken to keep the field clean of weeds. Some farmers do
well by sowing millet with the last cultivation of potatoes, leaving the
potatoes in the ground until after the millet is harvested, and when the
crop is dug the land is free from weeds. Then it may be harrowed or
disked and seeded to rye for winter pasture. Some plow the potato ground
in the fall and sow to wheat or rye. Certainly if weeds are present the
ground should be plowed as soon as the potatoes are dug. The idea is to
secure a fine seed bed and have the ground free from weeds, the great
curse of the American farm. All things considered there is probably no
crop which leaves the soil in finer physical condition for
alfalfa-sowing than millet, and none that is more unsatisfactory for a
like purpose than sorghum or Kafir corn that was planted in hills or
rows.
A clover sod for a spring sowing should be plowed in September or
October, disked or harrowed, and not infrequently a light sowing of rye
for winter pasture is feasible. In early spring use disk and tooth
harrows on the land. It is excellent if a liberal application of rotted
stable manure is plowed under with the clover sod. Usually it is better
to follow clover with a corn or potato crop before seeding to alfalfa.
FALL SOWING
Fall sowing presents fewer difficulties than spring sowing. Corn is not
the preceding crop and hence the weed problem is not so formidable.
Usually a fall sowing follows millet or oats, cowpeas or potatoes.
Almost any crop except the sorghums may be grown to precede alfalfa for
a fall sowing; these should not be as they consume too much moisture. If
possible, put on a dressing of stable manure the preceding winter; plow
deep in the spring and work to a fine tilth for the summer crop.
South of the latitude of 40 degrees cowpeas is one of the best
preparatory crops. They are legumes, and the bacteria that live on their
roots are similar to those upon the alfalfa roots; they are also
nitrogen-gatherers, taking nitrogen from the air as does the alfalfa,
and thus they prepare the soil for alfalfa. Besides, cowpeas are a
valuable forage, the hay being worth almost as much, pound for pound, as
that of alfalfa. When cut off they leave the ground ready for disking
and other preparation. Millet is also excellent for this purpose,
leaving the soil unusually friable. Potatoes make a satisfactory
preparatory crop, but the danger from them too often is neglect to keep
the weeds down. As soon as the land is free, it should be disked and
harrowed, and this repeated about every ten days until the time for
sowing.
RECENT PLOWING NOT DESIRABLE
It is seen that plowing for alfalfa just preceding the seeding is not
recommended. Plowing leaves the sub-surface too loose, thus depriving
the roots of a sufficiently firm footing and making a full sowing more
liable to harm from freezing and thawing, and the spring sowing to harm
from a dry summer. The necessity of the most perfect surface conditions
cannot be to often emphasized, and this too includes considerable
compactness rather than a too light or ashy condition. There must be no
clods, no stiff and stubborn humps.
If alfalfa is to follow clover, and to be seeded in the fall, the sod
should be broken early after the clover is harvested and each day’s
plowing harrowed that day; then the field disked and cross-disked and
harrowed again. After that it should be disked, lapping half, every ten
or fifteen days until time for seeding. Alfalfa may follow timothy if
the sod is not too old and stubborn, and it may be treated the same as
clover sod.
INTRODUCE BACTERIA BY PREPARATORY SOWING
Another form of preparation followed by many successful growers, men who
do not complain about alfalfa not doing well “here,” is the sowing of a
few pounds of alfalfa seed on the field two or three years before it is
intended to sow for a permanent crop. Mr. Joseph E. Wing, of central
western Ohio, a widely known farmer, stockman, and writer on matters
agricultural, uses alfalfa in a regular rotation, and two years before
he is ready to sow it on a given field as a main crop, sows clover and
timothy along with two or three pounds of alfalfa seed, for a pasture
crop. Thus the bacteria are introduced, and when the pasture is plowed
for the full sowing of alfalfa, the disking and harrowing that follow
distribute the bacteria throughout the soil, and the probabilities of a
good stand are greatly enhanced. He sometimes sows two or three pounds
of alfalfa seed to the acre with a wheat crop two years before he is to
sow the field entirely to alfalfa. Another, in a state where the
experiment station director still declares alfalfa-raising to be
doubtful, writes that he has not had a failure in a decade, and his plan
is to precede alfalfa with winter wheat, sowing a little alfalfa seed
with the wheat, probably three pounds to the acre, and the next fall
after giving the land a thorough preparation he sows fifteen pounds of
alfalfa seed to the acre. Another reports pleasing results in two
different fields by sowing in the spring five pounds of alfalfa seed
with clover; in two years the alfalfa stood thick on the ground, having
crowded out the clover. If these plans introduce the bacteria into the
soil, it may be wondered why it would not be equally helpful to sow two
or three pounds of alfalfa seed per acre with the oats or millet in the
spring, preparatory to the thorough seeding to alfalfa in the fall.
Another man, whose profit in raising alfalfa has been marked, reports
that his soil is very waxy and hard to deal with. He has met this
trouble by listing his ground in the fall and leaving it thus open for
hard freezing throughout the winter. He then disks and cross-disks in
the spring, putting the soil in fine tilth, and sowing millet as a
preparatory crop. He has occasionally sowed alfalfa in the spring,
following the fall listing and later freezing of his ground.
ALL CROPS DEMAND CONDITIONS
Alfalfa, like corn and cotton, demands certain conditions of the soil
and certain constituents in that soil. Every crop demands its certain
foods. All crops except alfalfa and the other legumes obtain practically
all their food, including nitrogen, from the soil. The latter crops use
nitrogen but get it from the air. Alfalfa takes nitrogen from the soil
only during the first few months of its growth, and thereafter not only
takes its own necessary supply from the air, but a large surplus which
it stores in the soil, available for whatever crop may follow. Other
crops take much nitrogen from the soil, but contribute nothing to its
enrichment.
SPRING OR FALL SOWING--WHICH?
This has been a much argued question with experimenters. Possibly it
will be found to be of minor importance in itself, depending more upon
other conditions than the season. From the northern tier of states many
reports favor spring sowing, yet from each come letters in favor of fall
sowing. Several experiment stations in the South are in favor of spring
sowing, yet report satisfactory results from fall seeding. It seems
pretty well established, however, that fall sowing is safer in the
central latitude states, say including Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas,
Colorado and Utah, and states within the same parallels.
In other states prevailing opinions favor spring sowing. Nevertheless,
when all conditions are understood, fall sowing seems likely to become
the established practice throughout the United States. This is in line
with the system for the more staple crops and common rotation; it gives
opportunity to bring the ground into better condition; the preparation
and sowing come at the most convenient season, and one of relatively
greater leisure; there is less interruption by unfavorable weather; the
soil, responding more readily to surface cultivation, permits the work
to be done with less danger of surface water retarding normal root
development, and the annual weeds being dead they cannot interfere with
the first growth of the alfalfa. Sown in the fall, with time to secure
some growth for winter protection, alfalfa will be ready to respond to
the first call of spring, and for the mower early in June. Moreover, if
it fails from freezing or other cause, little crop-time is lost. The
farmer has but to disk and harrow in April or early May, and sow half as
much seed as he sowed in the fall, and he will have prospect of a
cutting in eighty or ninety days, at an expenditure of but few pounds of
seed and a little labor.
DISADVANTAGES OF SPRING SOWING
Ordinarily, if a farmer sows in the spring, he has his old enemy, the
weeds, to contend with. If the season be damp and cloudy, the alfalfa
may not grow fast, but weeds will. Therefore, June may see him mowing to
retard a rampant growth of weeds instead of gathering a profitable
cutting of prime hay. It is not improbable that he may be doing the same
in July or in September, thus losing a whole season. Again, the spring
preparation comes when the farmer needs to be working his corn and
potato land; hence he is likely to slight or neglect the careful
preparation of the alfalfa ground and so do a poor job, with, in such
cases, the usual result of a “poor stand.” Then too, the frequent rains
interfere with regular disking and harrowing and the weeds may obtain a
start the farmer cannot check. In most cases fall sowing means three
cuttings the following year. In many instances spring sowing means no
crop the first season, although better farming will gain a September
crop, while the best farming, with no weeds, may give two if not three
crops; not heavy ones, perhaps, but of no inconsiderable value.
Commenting on spring sowing in the more northern states, Henry Wallace,
editor of _Wallaces’ Farmer_, says:
“Our own experience in growing alfalfa both in Nebraska and Iowa has
taught us that it is a waste of time and labor to sow in the spring. If
sown in the spring without a nurse crop, it will have to be mowed twice,
probably three times, to keep down the weeds, and even then it will not
be in as good condition as if a crop of early corn or even oats was
taken off, and the ground put in fine condition and seeded in August.
“In 1904 we sowed in the spring 250 acres of alfalfa on our Nebraska
farm, and some twenty or thirty acres of it was washed in ridges by a
very heavy rain immediately after. We reseeded the vacant spaces in the
fall and later could see no difference between the fall sowing and the
spring sowing. We did the same thing on one of our Iowa farms, sowing in
the spring and mowing three times. Another piece was sowed in August.
The August sowing was much better than the spring sowing. It should be
said, however, that the land was richer and the difference was therefore
not all due to the time of sowing. So long as Kansas farmers continued
to sow their alfalfa in the spring they had but partial success, owing
to the fact that Crab grass and other grasses will come up in the early
fall and smother out the spring sowing. By using some other crop the
first part of the season, then putting the land in fine condition in the
month of August or even by September 1st, an alfalfa crop can be started
which will have a strong enough growth to smother out the weeds the next
spring.
“We don’t know that we would insist on this so strongly for northern
Iowa and Minnesota, but certainly from the latitude of the Northwestern
railroad in Iowa, south, and corresponding latitude in other states, we
would abandon spring sowing and sow alfalfa on well prepared ground in
August. We would not, however, plow the ground for this fall sowing, but
put the soil in first-class condition for a spring crop, then use a disk
and harrow for the fall preparation.”
SEEDING BY DRILL OR BROADCAST?
Here too, there is a variety of opinions, all based on experience. Those
who object most to drills may have used poor implements, with feeding
gears not well regulated, or possibly they have not known how to use the
drills. Many who object to the broadcast method have had little training
or skill in it. It is reasonable to suppose, however, that given soil in
fine tilth, and a good drill rightly adjusted, there will be a more
even, and hence a more economical distribution and a better and more
uniform covering of the seed. It is also claimed that drilling secures a
more uniform distribution of soil moisture. The general opinion is that
by sowing with a drill, properly regulated, one can safely use five
pounds less of seed per acre. Some alfalfa raisers use a wheelbarrow
seeder; others use a kind of swing seeder strapped to the sower’s body;
still others, who have had training in the old-fashioned method of
broadcasting, declare it the best, but the experiment stations of
practically all the states, and most up-to-date farmers, favor the use
of the press drill. There are now on the market different types of
alfalfa seeders which can be attached or are already attached to the
ordinary grain drill, and that will distribute the seed in any desired
quantities per acre with broadcast effect or leave it in drill rows as
may be preferred. At the Kansas Experiment Station success has followed
broadcasting, and cross-drilling gave no particular advantage.
HOW MUCH SEED TO THE ACRE?
Reports of seed sown, varying from six to sixty pounds to the acre,
indicate much ignorance of the nature of the alfalfa plant; or a great
recklessness and extravagance. Twenty pounds to the acre, if all seeds
germinated, would mean 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 plants, whereas a stand of
500,000 is ample. Most of the experiment stations favor twenty to thirty
pounds to the acre, although several experts at these stations insist
that fifteen pounds of clean, germinable seed to the acre is as much as
should be sowed. Even if these all grew it would give nearly 44 plants
to the foot square of land, or four to five times as many as would
thrive after two years old. Of course the quantity may depend upon a
variety of circumstances, such as the vitality of the seed, condition of
the surface soil, condition of the subsoil as to moisture, the method of
sowing, weather conditions at the time of sowing or immediately after,
also the natural fertility of the soil and the bacterial life present,
or at least the conditions for propagating or sustaining bacterial life.
With land prepared by sowing a few pounds of seed six months or a year
preceding, with a heavy application of stable manure plowed under six
months before, perfect soil preparation, normal moisture, and clean
seed, testing ninety per cent germinable, there should be no need for
more than ten pounds to the acre. Disking that the field should have
later will split the crowns and many new stalks will be sent up; so that
in a few years a square foot of surface will not accommodate more than
six to ten robust, vigorous plants, and having these the ideal stand has
pretty nearly been attained. One plant has been known to send out as
many as 360 branches from its single main root, resembling in form a
spreading bush. A successful farmer in Geary county, Kansas, who has
been raising alfalfa for twenty years, seldom sows more than six pounds
of seed to the acre and never more than ten. A prominent Ohio farmer
usually sows but ten, and never over twelve or fifteen pounds to the
acre, although he has always introduced alfalfa bacteria into the soil
one or two years before ready to give it a full seeding. Of strictly
good seed, well cleaned, twelve pounds would likely be too much rather
than too little, other conditions being right.
WITH OR WITHOUT A NURSE CROP?
The practice of sowing a nurse crop with alfalfa was inaugurated when
the nature of the plant was not as well understood as now. It was also
somewhat on the theory too that “a half-loaf is better than no bread.”
It began when there was a good deal of doubt about “getting a stand,”
and the farmer thought no doubt that a crop of oats or barley would pay
for the plowing even if the alfalfa failed. While the practice is
continued by many, the prevalent later method is to provide no nurse
crop. Few who have abandoned the nurse crop have returned to it. The
alfalfa plant does not need protection from the sun, nor is it bettered
by dividing any of the soil moisture or fertility with those of another
crop. On the other hand, if alfalfa is sowed in the spring, it is
important that it obtain an early start in order that its roots can
quickly work their way down into the moisture of the subsoil, against
the dry days of July and August. When a nurse crop of any vigor is
removed the alfalfa plants are likely to be found weak, spindling and
with little root growth; the nurse crop also has taken up some of the
soil nitrogen needed by the young alfalfa; or if the nurse crop is
heavy and has lodged, there will be left bare spots, where the alfalfa
has been smothered out.
Cutting the nurse crop is likely to be attended with no little damage to
the tender alfalfa plants by trampling their crowns into the ground, or
by breaking them off. Practically all the experiment stations favor
sowing alone. With few exceptions the second and third years have
brought heavier yields where no nurse crop was used. The theory that the
nurse crop will prevent the weeds choking the alfalfa is apparently, as
a rule, not well founded. In the first place alfalfa should not be sown
on foul land, and in the second place proper disking and harrowing, at
near intervals for four or six weeks before sowing, will disturb or kill
far more weeds than can any nurse crop. Besides, the oats or barley sown
as a nurse will when cut leave weeds in good growth, or dormant and
ready to spring up as fast or faster than the alfalfa. No nurse crop is
ever used with fall sowing. When ground has been thoroughly prepared for
the preceding crop, and then properly cared for, and made ready for the
alfalfa by the preliminary weed destruction, it will be found advisable
to sow alfalfa alone, even in the spring.
INOCULATING THE SOIL
It has been found where alfalfa shows thrifty vigor, is making a good
stand, and is at least two years old, that on the roots are little
nodules or wart-like protuberances. On fields where the alfalfa is
unthrifty or failing to make a good stand, examination will probably
fail to discover any of these nodules. Scientists tell us that these
nodules are the homes of bacteria, microscopic vegetable organisms
obtaining their sustenance from the nitrogen of the air and the starch
of the plant; that they collect much more nitrogen than they need, the
over-supply being taken up by the alfalfa, which, after these nodules
are formed and occupied, takes no more nitrogen from the soil, but
annually stores about its roots more from the air, thus adding to the
nitrogen supply in the soil instead of taking from it as do all other
farm crops except the legumes. Each legume--clover, alfalfa, cowpeas,
etc.--has a distinct species of bacteria, or at least bacteria with a
distinct development, excepting, as has been found, that Sweet clover
(_Melilotus alba_) and Bur clover (_Medicago denticulata_) develop the
same species as does alfalfa.
BUYING INFECTED SOIL
Several methods of preparing land for alfalfa by introducing its
peculiar bacteria have been suggested, and practiced to some extent.
Many farmers and experimenters have used with success infected soil upon
their lands; soil from established alfalfa fields, or that from along
the roads or creeks where the Sweet clover or Bur clover has been
growing. This soil is spread upon the field or sown with alfalfa just
before the seeding. If the drill is to be used the inoculated soil is
spread on and harrowed in. If the seed is to be broadcasted, the
infected soil may be harrowed in with the seed. It is better, however,
to harrow this infected soil in thoroughly before seeding. Experiment
stations recommend an application of two hundred pounds of such soil to
every acre, but good results have been secured from half that quantity.
This will depend very much upon the nature of the soil, and the subsoil
especially. Many fields seem to have these bacteria waiting for the
coming of alfalfa. Land that has been well manured and contains abundant
humus, and land that is light and friable will usually respond to the
bacterial life attached to the alfalfa seed. Most farmers who have
established fields will sell soil to their neighbors, which should be
from the top six or eight inches, and include roots, stubble and earth.
Both Sweet clover and Bur clover are found in almost every neighborhood
in the northern states, while the latter is very general in the South.
Some alfalfa raisers make a business of selling and shipping inoculated
soil. Probably any experiment station will ship small quantities to
farmers within its state, at about the cost of digging, sacking and
delivering at the railroad station. Therefore, if a farmer desires to
use it, little labor or expense is attached to doing so. There is
reason, however, to doubt the need of this method in any of the western
or central western states where the suggestions mentioned in the first
part of the chapter are closely followed. No doubt there are advantages
in using it in most states east of the Mississippi river, in order to
hasten the development of the bacteria and to make a good stand more
certain. Preparation one or two years in advance as already described,
by a light sowing of alfalfa seed for introducing its peculiar bacteria,
is less expensive, and requires less labor and carries no risk of
introducing the seeds of other clovers or weeds. Most farms have enough
weed seeds already.
DANGERS OF INOCULATION BY SOIL TRANSFER
Touching upon the dangers possibly resulting from inoculation by soil
transfer a bulletin from the United States Department of Agriculture has
this to suggest:
“Satisfactory inoculations have been obtained by transferring soil from
old fields on which the legume has been grown, but experience has shown
that there are dangers incident to such methods of soil transfer which
it is wise to avoid.
“The source of supply of such soil should be definitely known, and in no
case should soil be used from fields which have previously borne any
crop affected with a fungous disease, a bacterial disease, or with
nematodes. Where a rotation of crops is practiced, it is often difficult
to make sure of this factor, so that the method of soil transfer is,
under average circumstances, open to suspicion, if not to positive
objection. Numerous animal and plant parasites live in the soil for
years, and are already established in so many localities that it is
manifestly unwise to ship soil indiscriminately from one portion of the
country to another.
“The bacterial diseases of the tomato, potato, and egg plant, and the
club-root, brown rot, and wilt disease of the cabbage, all more or less
widely distributed, are readily transmitted in the soil; while in the
South and West there are the wilt diseases of cotton, melons, sweet
potatoes, cowpeas, and flax, and various nematoid and root-rot diseases
which might easily become a serious menace over areas much larger than
they now occupy if deliberately spread by the careless use of soil for
inoculation purposes. There are several insects and fungous diseases of
clover to be avoided, and various diseases of beans and peas. There is
also a disease of alfalfa, the ‘leaf spot,’ which is causing damage in
some regions. These are only a few of many diseases liable to be
transmitted in soils. The farmer should therefore be on his guard. The
danger from such sources is by no means imaginary. The Department of
Agriculture has had specific cases of such accidental distribution
reported, and if the business of selling soil for inoculation is made to
flourish by farmers purchasing without question ‘alfalfa soil,’ ‘cowpea
soil,’ etc., there is every reason to believe that experience will
demonstrate the folly of such haphazard methods.
“Of scarcely less importance is the danger of disseminating noxious
weeds and insect pests through this plan of inoculation by means of
soils. Even though weeds may not have been serious in the field, the
great number of dormant seeds, requiring but a slight change in
surroundings to produce germination, is always a menace. The enormous
damage to crops caused by introduced insects and weeds should convey a
warning and lead to caution. It is not the part of good judgment to view
the risk as a slight one.”
OTHER METHODS OF INOCULATION
There are two or three better ways of inoculating land than by using a
neighbor’s soil. Some alfalfa raisers recommend the sowing of alfalfa
meal with the seed. Another plan which appears reasonable and
practicable is for the farmer who wishes to introduce alfalfa to buy
alfalfa hay the year before and feed it to his live stock; then haul
the manure to the fields and plow it under for the crop to precede
alfalfa. It is claimed by those who have done this that a satisfactory
stand is well-nigh certain, other conditions being met. It can be said,
however, that some high authorities on this crop, men who have
experimented on many different kinds of soil and who have succeeded
under varying conditions, declare that neither soil nor seed inoculation
is necessary. It is altogether probable that if a field has been well
farmed for a few years previous to the alfalfa-sowing, with unusually
good cultivation the preceding year, a heavy application of stable
manure plowed under at least five months before, then given the proper
preparation and seeding, using seed raised in about the same latitude
and under similar conditions in which the new crop must grow, and with
seed testing ninety per cent germinable, there should be little anxiety
about the need of inoculation. Of course old, worn-out land may require
more fertilizers, restoring to the soil not only necessary nitrogen that
has been exhausted by other crops, but also the potash and phosphorus.
In eastern states it has been found advantageous also to apply a very
light top-dressing of stable manure just before sowing the seed. If lime
is deficient, that must be applied. An examination of any particular
soil will usually be made without charge by the state chemists, and the
farmer may thus approximately ascertain just what the soil will need for
alfalfa, corn, or any other crop he may desire to raise.
KEEP ON TRYING
It is important to say to the eastern farmers, especially, that there is
little difference between successful alfalfa-growing and the successful
growing of other crops. Poor farming never brings big crops, nor will
poor land produce as big yields as the more fertile. Failure to restore
to the soil the necessary elements of which it has been robbed means the
same in New York, Kansas, Virginia, or anywhere else. Every farm plant,
to prosper, must find in the soil, readily available, the elements
needed for its development. If a farmer finds the soil lacking in
elements needed for certain crops, he should either apply the deficiency
or not attempt their raising. This is true of corn or wheat, cotton, or
tobacco, no less than alfalfa.
Alfalfa needs especially nitrogen, potash and phosphorus. The average
virgin soil in the United States contains enough of these to last
several hundred years. If there had been at all times an intelligent
rotation of crops, these chemical elements would be found in just as
large proportions in the soil that has been farmed a hundred years as in
the soil never cultivated. Hence, if after trying alfalfa a man meets
with failure, he should not stop, and say, “Alfalfa won’t grow ‘here’,”
but try it again _immediately_. If he discovers a seeming failure in
March or April, he should disk and harrow and as early as possible sow
about ten pounds of seed to the acre; in many instances he will have to
clip his alfalfa in about six or eight weeks and can mow a crop of hay
in September, or possibly two hay crops in the season. There have been
various cases reported where three hay crops were secured the first
season after such cultivation, when the fields had been pronounced a
failure in March. Alfalfa may be sown on such ground as late as the
first of June if the weeds have been thoroughly subdued. Or, if it has
been sown in the spring and the weeds seem to be overtopping it in July,
mow close to the ground, rake into windrows and burn. Then disk and
harrow thoroughly and sow again. In all probability there will be
something of a crop to mow early in September, with a considerable
autumn growth to follow. If it is not desired to sow alfalfa in
midsummer, disk this ground and sow to rye or oats for pasture; then
late in August disk and put in readiness for September sowing. The
failure may have been because the soil had not enough bacteria, or
favorable environment for the bacteria. Some of the seed sowed at first
undoubtedly germinated and some bacteria were developed; enough
certainly to prepare the soil for the second sowing. It is unwise after
such a failure to go to another field or to wait for another year. It is
wiser to meet the conditions at once, and vigorously persevere.
In reference to the application of lime, mentioned on a preceding page,
it should be noted that the later experiments seem to indicate that it
is better to apply smaller quantities at shorter intervals than larger
quantities at longer intervals; also that air-slacked lime is less
caustic than the quicklime, and not so liable, when recently applied, to
harm the young plants which may come in contact with it, hence more of
the former may be used and with greater safety. Ordinarily quicklime is
considered the most beneficial.
[Illustration: =Bur Clover Pod=
Magnified six diameters]
[Illustration: =Yellow Trefoil Seed Pod=
Magnified twelve diameters]
[Illustration: =Alfalfa Seed Pod=
Magnified six diameters]
[Illustration: =Spotted Clover Pod=
Magnified six diameters]
_CHAPTER VI._
Cultivation
CLIPPING IS AN INVIGORANT
Strange as this title may seem it suggests a very important means of
securing a satisfactory stand. In fact in some parts of the South, where
the land has become very foul, it is occasionally recommended to sow the
alfalfa in rows, eighteen inches apart, for regular cultivation the
first season. After the second year the crowns will have sent up so many
stems that the surface of the ground will be well occupied. Spurrier, in
his work referred to in Chapter I, recommended drilling in rows and
cultivating the first year. But it is better to get rid of the weeds
before trying alfalfa. The cultivation here recommended is clipping,
manuring, disking and harrowing. Frequently when alfalfa is sowed in the
spring it comes up weak and spindling. In such case clip it just before
ready to bloom, having the mower sickle set rather high. If the growth
is not very heavy, leave this cutting on the ground; if quite heavy,
remove it. The field may need to be clipped again during the summer, but
the farmer can feel reasonably assured that he will have a good stand
the following spring. If the leaves turn yellow, mowing is the remedy.
If there is any sign of the “spotted leaf” disease, the mower should be
used forthwith. Of course if alfalfa comes up strong, vigorous, and
free from weeds, it should stand until blossoming is well begun and then
be mown for hay.
It should not be supposed that the purpose in clipping and allowing the
clippings to remain on the ground is primarily to make a mulch. It is to
retard the weeds, and as no other way equally convenient and economical
has presented itself, the young growths are mown and left on the ground.
In many parts of the country Crab grass (_Panicum sanguinale_) is the
plant or weed that most persistently interferes with the prosperity of
alfalfa during its first year, and frequent mowing is the remedy most
recommended and resorted to, but there are growers who maintain that
such treatment is not best. An extensive and very successful grower in
southern Kansas tells the author repeated experience has demonstrated to
his satisfaction that the advice to mow alfalfa frequently during the
first summer may under some circumstances be quite wrong. If the season
happens to be wet, and there is a rank growth of Crab grass, frequent
mowing causes the Crab grass to set in a close sod and smother out the
alfalfa. He says: “My practice has been, under these conditions, to let
the Crab grass grow with the alfalfa until matured, before mowing. The
young alfalfa will usually keep its head out sufficiently to breathe,
and will survive until the Crab grass is matured and all is cut. If
allowed to mature, the Crab grass will not start a second time, and the
alfalfa immediately springs up and occupies the ground. Where the Crab
grass is very rank it may sometimes be blown down in spots and smother
out some alfalfa, but even under these conditions one will have a much
better stand than is possible by repeated mowings. This is not mere
theory, but has been proven correct by frequent experience and close
observation of the other method during the same seasons.” Something
similar may be said of Witch-grass (_Panicum capillare_), which,
however, is less obnoxious than the Crab grass, because of not having
the habit of rooting at the joints.
In many parts of the country Crab grass (_Panicum sanguinale_) is the
plant or weed that most persistently as to make burning in the spring
seem the most feasible means of getting rid of them, and fire is
resorted to. Prof. A. M. Ten Eyck says he has seen this done a number of
times without injury to the alfalfa crowns. He, however, recommends
disking after burning, to loosen the exposed soil and leave the surface
generally in a better condition. Sowing additional seed on the ground
before such disking may do much to improve and thicken the stand.
The editor of the _Nebraska Farmer_ has been collecting information on
alfalfa culture from every section of the United States for the past ten
years, and as a result of this work unhesitatingly advances the opinion
that “nine-tenths of the failures with alfalfa have been due to failure
or neglect to cut it as should have been done when young. This is the
law of alfalfa culture; it must be cut down. And the man who has not the
courage, morally and physically, to use a mowing machine persistently
had best pass by alfalfa culture. It takes moral courage to cut baby
alfalfa; but it must be cut down to save it.”
MANURING
A light top-dressing of manure after sowing, or, in case of fall sowing,
any time during the winter, helps to conserve moisture as well as to
give the growing plants some nitrogenous food. Applying a top-dressing
of stable manure at least every second or third winter is certain to
prove profitable. If it contains coarse straw or other litter, this
should be raked and hauled off later, but before the alfalfa grows too
high, especially if the hay is intended for the city market. Many
successful growers in Kansas, who claim to cut from five to seven tons
of alfalfa hay per acre in a season apply a top-dressing of manure every
winter. The highest yields reported from eastern states are where this
practice is followed. Some experiment station men believe that where
this is not done the crop will after eight or ten years tend to
impoverish the land instead of further improving it.
DISKING
The foremost method of cultivation is with the disk harrow, one of the
most excellent farm implements ever invented. Alfalfa sown in the fall
is almost invariably helped by disking the following spring, with the
disks set quite straight, so as not to cut the crowns but to split them.
It is usually well to follow this disking with a tooth harrow, with its
teeth set straight. Occasionally in a dry summer the disk may be used to
great advantage after the second, and possibly the third, cutting also.
Many disk their alfalfa field every spring, and some after each cutting,
others do so only once in every two or three years, owing to weather
conditions and the conditions of the alfalfa. In some instances the
common harrow is used instead of a disk.
The disking has several beneficial effects. It splits and spreads the
crowns, causing more and consequently finer stems to spring up,
affording hay of the most delightful quality, easily cured; it loosens
the soil about the crowns, conserves moisture and destroys the weeds.
There need be no fear of killing the plants if the disks and the
harrow-teeth are set straight and weighted or otherwise adjusted to give
direct and steady forward movement. As an implement for the cultivation
and invigoration of an alfalfa field the disk harrow has no equal, and
its frequent use is by those who know it best deemed quite
indispensable.
RESEEDING
If it is a question of reseeding the whole field, the problem is simple.
In that case disk and harrow the ground and sow half as much seed as was
sowed at first. But to restore bare spots is more difficult; the young
plants from the reseeding in these spots will be shaded by the larger
growth about them, and such reseeding seldom gives the desired results.
There is no doubt that very many fields are given up as failures and
inferior crops planted in them, when a thorough disking would have
renewed the growth, saved a crop, and, what is more important, a stand
of alfalfa. Many reports have come to the writer of fields that had
little sign of life the first of March, yet when thoroughly disked,
cross-disked and harrowed, surprised the neighborhood by showing in two
weeks a strong growth.
Some wishing to be on the safe side, have sown a little seed after this
heavy disking and harrowing, but many of them have reported an entire
loss of the seed, as the plants from the previous sowing came up so
thick as to choke out those from the later seeding. In some states a
common plan of thickening a stand is to let the third crop ripen seed,
and then about the last of September disk and harrow the seed into the
ground where it grew. This frequently saves the stand and adds many
years to its life. But where a field begins to fail after a third year
it is usually better to plow it up and raise one or two crops of corn, a
crop of oats or of millet, and then reseed.
ALFALFA UNDER IRRIGATION
The greatest yields of alfalfa are produced by irrigation. Reported
yields of six or more cuttings, aggregating eight to twelve tons per
acre each year, are almost invariably, yet not always, from districts
where irrigation is practiced. It is claimed by experiment station
experts from the irrigation states that the tendency is to use too much
water; too much at a time and too often. The general recommendation is
to irrigate thoroughly before the ground is plowed or disked, and not
again till the alfalfa is about four inches high. Then again a week
before each cutting. It has been found that old alfalfa fields do not
need as much water as new fields, the alfalfa roots seeming to find
moisture and bring it to the surface.
It is insisted that the surface must be perfectly smooth to keep water
from settling into low places and smothering the plants. Some farmers do
not irrigate for the second crop if as much as two inches of rain falls
after the first mowing. Others claim that old fields do not need
flooding for the second crop even if there has been no rainfall after
the first cutting.
Wilcox in his “Irrigation Farming”[3] says: “The critical time with
alfalfa is the first six weeks of its growth. Flooding during this
period is quite certain to give the plants a backset from which they
seldom fully recover before the second, and sometimes not before the
third year, and it is not often in the arid states that rain falls with
sufficient frequency to dispense with the necessity for irrigating the
plants while small. By soaking the earth from thirty-six to forty-eight
hours before seeding, however, the plants will make vigorous growth
until they are ten to twelve inches high, after which they may be
irrigated with safety.
[3] “Irrigation Farming,” by Lute Wilcox: 314 pp. Orange Judd Company,
New York.
“When alfalfa has become established, a single copious irrigation after
each cutting will ordinarily be found sufficient. Irrigation before
cutting is undesirable, because it leaves the earth so soft as to
interfere with the movement of machinery and loads. It also makes the
stalks more sappy, and, while they will retain the leaves better, there
is more difficulty to be experienced in the curing at harvest time; and
taken all in all, we much prefer to irrigate after each cutting. In
Colorado we cut alfalfa three times and often four times in a season,
hence the stand gets as many irrigations. Some people irrigate very
early in springtime, before the crowns have awakened from their hibernal
rest, but this practice is not right. The chill of the water in very
early spring is not conducive to quick growth and may often retard the
plants in getting an early start. We do not irrigate prior to the first
cutting unless the season is particularly dry and the plants seem to
actually demand water. We irrigate late in the fall and apply a
top-dressing of light barnyard manure, which is found to be of great
service in several ways.”
INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION UPON COMPOSITION
I find no report of experiments published by any station in which the
influence of irrigation upon alfalfa hay is made a special study, but
Bulletin No. 80 of the Utah station contains a great deal of information
along this line relative to grain crops, potatoes, and mixed grasses. In
summing up the results of the experiments, the following conclusions are
“Heavy irrigations increase the percentage of weight of the heads of
plants; light irrigations increase the relative weight of leaves.
“Irrigation modifies definitely the composition of plants and plant
parts; the seeds are affected more than any other plant part.
“The percentage of protein in corn kernels was increased from 12.05 to
15.08, as the amount of irrigation decreased; in oat kernels from 14.07
to 20.79; in wheat kernels from 15.26 to 26.72. In all these seeds the
fat and nitrogen-free extracts were increased by liberal waterings.
“Increased irrigations increased the starch content and decreased the
protein content of potatoes.
“The water in plants is somewhat dependent on the water in the soil.
“The proportion of ear corn to stover increased regularly with the
increased application of water.
“The percentage of grain in the wheat crop increased with increased
irrigations.
“The yield of wheat increased up to thirty inches of water.
“Crops in an arid district require a greater number of pounds of water
for one pound of dry matter than in humid climates.”