A Short Treatise on Alfalfa 1701 



The cost of establishing alfalfa seems to turn many away from 

 trying to grow the plant. I will say a few words about this so- 

 called cost. 



To grow alfalfa, the land should be reasonably dry. We know 

 well that nothing will thrive with wet feet, so if the land should 

 have an excess of moisture, drain it. Drains placed forty feet 

 apart and from two and one-half to three feet deep will make the 

 average fann dry enough for growing any crop. 



If the land needs draining, do not charge the cost up to the 

 alfalfa crop, because this would have to be done before any other 

 crop could be successfully grown. Therefore, let us call the cost 

 for draining permanent improvement. 



Two tons of burned limestone to each acre will cost $10.50; 

 inoculation, $1.50; 500 pounds of 4-8-10 fertilizer, $7.50, and 

 20 pounds of seed at about twenty cents, $4. This amounts to 

 $23.50 — a small sum per acre to grow a crop that will yield 

 from $75 to $125 per acre for several consecutive years. 



The land should be thoroughly plowed and harrowed two or 

 three times before sowing, and the seed sown not later than the 

 first week in August; although it has been successfully grown on 

 my farm when sown as late as September 7. 



Last year on May 20, I cut four acres of alfalfa for hay. The 

 land was plowed at once and planted with corn, producing a fine 

 crop. This was cut the first of September, and the land plowed 

 and sowed to alfalfa September 7. This year we cut a splendid 

 crop June 11, and the second crop will be cut before August 1. 

 The past May, I cut the alfalfa from six acres, plowed and planted 

 to corn. To-day, July 28, the corn is over eight feet high. Soy 

 beans were planted with it and the vines are over two feet high. 



Alfalfa is a great crop for soiling, coming earlier in May than 

 any other crop we can sow. It is a good crop to precede either corn 

 or potatoes. Alfalfa will grow on some field on almost any farm 

 I have ever seen. Even on the white shore sands of New Jersey 

 it is flourishing. On the tenth of June just past I saw the owner 

 of this alfalfa field. He told me he had sold his entire crop of 

 alfalfa at $20 per ton in the field, and hoped to cut it three times 

 more this year. The field on which this alfalfa grows was the 



