ALFALFA ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE 73 



The Tornado. 



In our twenty years of farming I recall two terrific tornadoes 

 which uprooted and even snapped asunder many mighty monarchs 

 of the forest. It took months of hard labor to clear woodland and 

 hillside pastures after a five-minute gust of one of these devastating 

 storms. It is singular that among thousands of uprooted trees I 

 have seen in this and other storms, not one struck a house, though 

 often they fall when close to a dwelling. 



The Play Side of Farming. 



But it was by no means all work in Farmarcadia, as shown 

 in snap-shots taken by the boys, which include toboggan slide, pond, 

 snow-houses and snow men, play-houses, sports, and pets of all kinds. 

 In the meanwhile the arboretum grew apace, from a few struggling 

 shrubs to a two-mile flowered border. In this the old farm begins 

 to lose its identity, slowly merging into The Hillcrest Manor Park 

 of today, an evolution that required over half a score of years for its 

 accomplishment. 



Farmers' Grange. 



In closing the chapter in my life wherein I really farmed, I 

 would fain pay my respects to the Farmers' Grange. Deeply inter- 

 esting were these dueling grounds where green striplings, with the 

 courage born of inexperience and ignorance, but often with cabal- 

 headed persistency, threw down the gauntlet to bronzed warriors 

 of hay and potato fields. It must be admitted that in these bouts 

 those to the manor born were generally victors, though at times 

 some new fangled agricultural tool, a prolific seed corn or luscious 

 melon, and an improved method of cultivation brought to the atten- 

 tion of the Grange by some amateur spendthrift-enthusiast finally 

 won out. 



Alfalfa Road to Independence. 



I recollect one chap who advocated alfalfa growing, and had all 

 the farmers by the ears with his wonderful tales of the fine crops he 

 grew for cow, horse and poultry fodder. He explained that the suc- 

 cessful growing of alfalfa consists in keeping weeds out of the soil by 

 repeated cultivation prior to seed-sowing, which, in our climate, should 

 be about August 15, and in supplying plenty of lime. Experience 

 taught that an interesting and important item is the inoculation 

 of the soil at the rate of three bushels to the acre with soil which 

 has already grown alfalfa. It must be sandy or gravelly loam, w r ith 

 no rocks nor clayey sub-soil, a difficult condition to find in Hillcrest 

 Manor. Planted thus the roots delve sometimes to a depth of twenty 

 feet or more, and the field will last a lifetime, yielding, under favor- 

 ing conditions, three or four crops each year. 



