138 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



THE ALFALFA QUESTION. 



The Tendency toward Late Cutting ; One Advantage 



of Late=cut Hay ; Some Reasons for Fearing 



Early Cutting. 



BY J. .A. GREEN. 



When M. A. Gill condemned in such un- 

 measured terms those who had stated that 

 there was a tendency to cut alfalfa earlier, 

 and admitted that there was an advantag-e 

 in doing- so, I was mildly surprised, and at 

 first felt inclined to remonstrate. I was 

 one of the offenders. I had but lately re- 

 turned from a trip through a number of the 

 Western States, and in an ^irticle in Glean- 

 ings had given my impressions on the al- 

 fa question as obtained from what I had 

 seen and heard from various sources and in 

 several States. It had not not occurred to 

 me that there was any reason to doubt what 

 I had been told, as I heard no conflicting 

 testimony, and it all tallied with what I 

 knew about hay-making myself. I knew 

 nothing at that time of alfalfa from experi- 

 ence, but I knew that a great many, if not 

 the majority, of the farmers of Illinois, al- 

 low their red clover to become too ripe to 

 make the best hay, and it seemed very rea- 

 sonable that the same thing was true of al- 

 falfa. Perhaps I am putting it a little too 

 strongly to say that I know this. I ought, 

 no doubt, to say that I think I know it, for 

 doubtless there are those who are ready to 

 rise up and say it is not so, just as in the 

 case of alfalfa. 



After the article was mailed I had an un- 

 easy feeling that perhaps I had said too 

 much. It is not always best to tell all you 

 know, nor to concede too readily what may 

 be to your disadvantage. I half hoped that, 

 if the editor saw fit to publish it, he would 

 first run his blue pencil through a part of 

 it. It was with regret that I saw the arti- 

 cle copied from Gleanings into some of the 

 agricultural papers. 



After the castigation it received from Mr. 

 Gill, I decided, after the first impulse to 

 hit back had passed, that perhaps I had 

 been properly punished, and that the mat- 

 ter had better be allowed to rest. But I 

 began to collect what evidence I could get 

 hold of in order that I might at least set 

 myself right if I was in error. I found, as 

 I expected, that there was some disagree- 

 ment among growers; but I was not so 

 well prepared to find ihat those who had 

 conducted experiments at the agricultural 

 stations were not in complete accord, and 

 that bulletins required careful reading to 

 be sure the summing-up was justified. 



The bulletin of the Utah station seems to 

 show quite conclusively an advantage in" 

 early cutting. The Colorado station finds 

 early-cut hay richer in protein (Gleanings, 

 p. 13), yet the director of the station stated 

 in a letter to me that the conclusion of a 

 bulletin soon to be issued was that the 

 proper time to cut alfalfa is when it is in 

 full bloom. 



Alfalfa-raisers here, whatever may be 

 their theory, vary greatly in their practice, 

 and I am inclined to think that Mr. Watson 

 (p. 23) is not far wrong in saying that the 

 average ranchman is not likely to cut his 

 alfalfa too early. At least, this is true 

 where any large acreage is to be cut. In 

 this locality there are very few fields of al- 

 falfa so large that the grower can not get 

 them cut within a very short time after he 

 is ready to do so, and I have more confi- 

 dence in sweet clover as a future source of 

 honey than in alfalfa. 



Among haj'-raisers as a whole, the ten- 

 dency is undoubtedly toward earlier cut- 

 ting, and the experiment-station bulletins 

 will operate to increase that tendency. The 

 truth may be unpiilatable to some, but it is 

 none the less the truth, and we shall not 

 gain any thing by, ostrich-like, covering 

 our heads and declaring we do not see any 

 danger. We need all the light on the sub- 

 ject we can get. 



I will mention here an argument in favor 

 of late cutting that has not yet been brought 

 out. The riper the alfafa is when cut, the 

 stronger and stifFer the stem. Hay made 

 at such a time does not pack as compactly 

 in the stack as that cut earlier. When it 

 is sold in the stack by measurement instead 

 of by weight, as is very common, there is a 

 considerable advantage to the seller in this 

 quality of the haj'. Doubtless this way of 

 measuring the yield of hay is largel_v re- 

 sponsible for the delusion that a greater 

 yield of hay is secured by late cutting. The 

 Utah bulletin shows very conclusively that 

 early cutting gives a greater number of 

 pounds to the acre. I suspect that the 

 more general introduction and use of haj'- 

 scales would do much to decide many in fa- 

 vor of earlier cutting. 



As to the article by Mr. L. B. Bell, p. 18, 

 there are several points in it that will bear 

 a little further discussion. I fear that there 

 is little chance of influencing users of hay 

 against early-cut alfalfa. There is a great 

 variation of opinion, even among the so- 

 called "practical'" men who do the feed- 

 ing. Horses here are seldom fed any thing 

 but alfalfa. Only those used for driving 

 or those that have exceptionally hard work 

 to do ever get any grain. ' As a sole ration, 

 alfalfa is not fit for a horse intended for 

 fast driving, and neither is any other kind 

 of hay. It is too bulkj^ a food for that pur- 

 pose, however nutritious it may be. Yet 

 all the liverymen here feed alfalfa hay and 

 no other. Some of them say very emphati- 

 cally that it is the very best hay for the 

 purpose that there is. They stipulate, how- 

 ever, that it must be from the first crop. 



