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THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ALFALFA CULTURE IN AMERICA* 



By Joseph E. Wing 



Expert Agriculturist, Mechanicsburg, Ohio 



Good soils are frequently stored with weed seeds; 

 yet a thorough cultivation of the ground the "year pre- 

 ceding the sowing of alfalfa will accomplish much. 

 Ordinary weed seeds are pretty well destroyed by the 

 mower running over the ground two or three times the 

 first season. Canada thistles are said to be eradicated 

 by the growing of alfalfa; and many other serious pests, 

 including convolvulus arvensis variously styled bindwood, 

 wild morning glory, or wild pea vine. 



Sometimes a little sweet clover (melilotus) is unavoid- 

 ably present in alfalfa seed. This need give no con- 

 cern, since the natural mowings given the alfalfa will 

 eradicate it in two years. There are weeds, however, 

 that will get the better of alfalfa, and that right speedily. 

 One of the worst is dodder. Not many farmers know- 

 dodder when they see it. It is a parasitic vine, having 

 an almost leafless, yellow, stem as large as a small twine 

 string which runs through the alfalfa, twining around 

 the stems, sending little rootlets in to suck the juice of 

 the plant. Dodder begins its life from a seed dropped 

 to the earth when the alfalfa is sown; but after having 

 had a brief experience with its roots in the soil, it leaves 

 the earth and roots only in the growing alfalfa, which 

 it binds together in a death grip, making a dense tangle 

 of yellow vines and slowly dying alfalfa plants. 



Farmers cannot afford to treat dodder as they would 

 any other weed. It is so deadly that it must be stamped 

 out immediately, or it will become a very serious pest, 

 and the methods used to exterminate other weeds will 

 not answer for this one. If there are only occasional 

 small patches to be found, mow the alfalfa in these 

 patches before the dodder begins to bloom; then in a 

 few days, scatter straw over the infested areas, and burn 

 it. This may kill the alfalfa plants, but it will probably 

 kill the dodder also. If your field is badly infested, 

 there is nothing to do but to plow it up, and plant it 

 to corn or some cultivated crop for one or two years. 



Dodder infests clover just as frequently as it does 

 alfalfa, and it is just as dangerous in the clover as it is 

 in the alfalfa. Farmers should take great pains to pre- 

 vent this pest from becoming established in their land, 

 and should send samples of their seed to their experi- 

 ment stations for analysis before seeding. 



We cannot recommend seeding alfalfa in corn at the 

 last cultivation, as many wish to do, because the corn 

 nearly always shades the alfalfa so much that it will 

 not thrive until after the corn is cut; also the corn takes 

 practically all of the moisture from the soil, causing 

 the alfalfa to suffer from drouth; and it usually happens 

 that we have most of the dry weather between the time 

 of the last cultivation of corn and fall, so that all three 

 of these causes will operate against the alfalfa. We 

 have seen many splendid successes from this method, 

 and many failures. We think the chances of success 

 by this method to be . about equal to the chances of 

 failure. 



While it is true that alfalfa may be grown by de- 

 voted enthusiasts anywhere, yet it has affinity for cer- 

 tain types of soils, and is most easily grown thereon. 

 These soils are deep, pervious to air and -water, -well 

 stored with mineral elements, and somewhat alkaline in 

 their nature. Thus alfalfa revels in the arid west, when 

 water is supplied, because there has never been any 

 leaching of mineral fertility, and the land is very rich 

 in potash, phosphorus and lime. This alkalinity favors 

 :the growth and development of the bacteria that grow 

 upon the alfalfa rootlets and makes the plants thrive. In 

 .the more eastern sections, along the. Missouri river, there 

 are great areas of a peculiar whitish soil called the Loess 



Abstract of the I. H. C. Service Bulletin "For Better Crops." 

 Continued from December issue. 



deposits. These soils are the result of wind deposit, 

 made many centuries ago when the land was desert. On 

 these very deep and fairly fertile Loess soils alfalfa 

 revels, its roots penetrating to very great depths, some- 

 times as far as thirty feet. 



Yet farther to the eastward are the prairies of Iowa 

 and Illinois, black with stored humus and rich in plant 

 food. On these prairies alfalfa does not naturally suc- 

 ceed very well. This is owing in part to a lack of drain- 

 age; in some instances, through the decay of too much 

 vegetable matter, there is acidity in these black soils. 

 In many other cases there is some difficulty in establish- 

 ing bacterial energy, and the reason for this is unknown. 

 However, the remedy has been found to be applications 

 of barnyard manure, which works like magic on these 

 black prairie soils, and when coupled with the under- 

 draining, where it is needed, alfalfa is found to grow with 

 remarkable vigor and profit on the black corn soils of 

 Iowa and Illinois. The reader, if he dwells in this land, 

 should consult the bulletins of the Iowa and Illinois 

 experiment stations for help to make his alfalfa surely 

 grow. 



It is more difficult to grow alfalfa on some soils 

 than on others, and on some of them it is not wise to 

 make the attempt. First, any soil that is not more than 

 two and one-half feet above the water line is too shallow - 

 for continual alfalfa growth. It needs a depth of at least 

 three feet to .water, and if the distance is even greater 

 all the better! In laying tile underdrains for a founda- 

 tion to an alfalfa field, seek, then, to get the level of the 

 water line down at least three or four feet. 



On peaty soils with little clay or sound earth within 

 them, it is not often that alfalfa will thrive. There are 

 some exceptions to this rule, though they are not well 

 understood. 



On nearly barren sands it is doubtful if it is worth 

 while trying to establish alfalfa fields. They must be 

 continually fed in order to produce this forage, so rich 

 in mineral elements, and it must be remembered that 

 these mineral elements must come from the soil. 



While the most luxuriant growth of alfalfa is usually 

 from a porous soil, a loam or gravelly alluvium, yet 

 clays drained and stored with vegetable matter are pro- 

 ducing some of the best growths of alfalfa in the United 

 States. This is especially true of strong, tough lime- 

 stone clays that, when in their natural state, hold water 

 "like a jug," but when underdrained and well manured 

 become more open and pervious to both air and mois- 

 ture. On such clays alfalfa revels, and when plowed 

 up and other crops are planted on the land, it is aston- 

 ishing to see with what vigor they grow, revealing plainly 

 the very great benefit that the alfalfa has been to the 

 soil, both by adding nitrogen through the decay of its 

 leaves and roots, and by bringing up mineral matters 

 from the sub-soil, and by decaying and leaving air and 

 water passages through the clay, always before too dense 

 to permit these helpful agents to work their will. And 

 when alfalfa is sown again upon these clays after one 

 or two years of grain or hoed crops, manure being 

 scattered over the land in the interval, it is found that 

 the alfalfa responds wonderfully and yields better than 

 it did from its first seeding. 



What, briefly, are the advantages of the alfalfa plant 

 over other forage crops? First, that it roots so deep 

 in the soil. It is safe to say that alfalfa roots pene- 

 trate as deep as there is any soil. If the soil is three 

 feet deep, the roots will penentrate three, feet. If the 

 soil is ten feet deep, the roots will go down ten feet. 

 And if "the soil is thirty feet deep, the roots will go 

 down thirty feet. Thus the whole soil is utilized. 



Next, remember .that .the, plant .uses the whole of 

 the growing "season, and it is the one crop that the 

 farmer grows that does this. It is very hardy and does 

 not much mind cold. As soon in spring as the sun has 

 .slightly warmed the earth the alfalfa is up and is grow- 

 ing. It does not mind light frosts, but keeps right on 

 growing. Soon after the corn is planted the alfalfa is 

 ready to cut by the first of June in most of the region 

 of the corn belt, earlier in the South, and not much later 

 anywhere. Thus the soil has yielded one crop almost 

 before the corn has begun to take hold at all. 



