RICHARD FROTSCHEK'’S ALMANAC AND GARDEN 
MANUAL 
Having received many enquiries on the culture of Alfalfa, I reprint the fol- 
lowing letter, written by E. M. Hudson, Esq., a close observer on the subject, to 
give information thereon: 
Mr. R. FrorscHer, New Orleans, La. 
Dear Sir:—Your letter of the 3d inst. 
has just reached me, and I cheerfully 
comply with your request to give you 
the results of my experiments with 
Lucerne or Alfalfa, and my opinion of it 
as a forage plant for the South. 
I preface my statement with the ob- 
servation that my experiments have 
been conducted on a naturaliy poor, 
piney woods soil (which would be class- 
ed as a sandy svuil, varying in depth 
from six inches to one foot. But I have 
good red clay sub-soil, which enables 
the soil to retain the fertilizers applied 
to it, thus rendering it suseeptible of 
permanent enriching. 
Three years since, When my attention 
was first directed to Alfalfa, I sought 
the advice of the editor of the Journal 
of Progress, Professor Stelle, who in- 
formed me that, after attem):ting for 
several years to cultivate it, he had de- 
sisted. He stated that the plant, at 
Citronelle, in this county, died out every 
summer, not being able to withstand the 
hot suns of our climate. Discouraged 
but not dismayed, I determined to test 
the matter on a small scale at first. 
Having procured some seeds in March, 
1876, I planted them on a border in my 
garden, and gave neither manure nor 
work that season. The early summer 
here that year was very dry ; there was 
no rain whatever from the first of June 
to the 23d of July, and from the 
August to the 15th of November nota 
drop of rain fell on my place. Yet, 
during all this time, my Alfalfa re- 
mained fresh, bloomed, and was cut two 
or three times. On the ist of Novem- 
ber I dug some of it to examine the 
habit of root-growth, and to my aston- 
ishment found it necessary to go 22 
inches below the surface to reach any- 
thing like the end ofthe top roots. At 
once it was apparent that the plant was, 
by its very habit of growth, adapted to 
2d of 
VILLA F'RIEDHEIM, 
Mobile County, Ala., Senteniber 7th, 187 
hot and dry climates. It is indeed a 
“child of the sun.”’ 
Enesuraged by this experiment, in 
which I purposely refrained from giving 
the Alfalfa any care beyonl cutting it 
oceasionally, last year [ proceeded on 
a larger scaie, planting both spring and 
fall, as I have done again this year, to 
ascertain the best season for putting in 
the seed. My experience teaches that 
there is no preference te be given to 
spfing sowings over those of autumn, 
provided oniy, there be enough moist- 
ure in the soil to make the seed germ- 
inate, which they do more quickly and 
more surely than the best turnips. Two 
winters have proved to me that the 
Alfalfa remains green throughout the 
winter in this latitude, 25 miles North 
of Mobile, and at an altitude of 400 feet 
above tide-water. ‘Therefore I should 
prefer fall sowing which will give the 
first cutting from the first of March to 
the ist of April following. This season 
my first cutting was made on the Iistof 
April;and I have cut it since regularly 
every four or six weeks, according to the 
weather, to cure for hay. Meanwhile 
a portion has been ent almost daily for 
feeding green, or soiling. Used in the 
latter way (for under no circumstances 
must it ever be pastured), I am able to 
give my stock fresh, green food, fully 
four weeks before the native wild grasses 
eommence to put out. I'deem it best 
to cut the day before, what is fed green, 
in order to let it become thoroughly 
wilted before using. After a large 
number. of experiments with horses, 
mules, cattle and swine, I can aver that 
in no instance, from March to Novem- 
ber, have I found a case when any of 
these. animals would not give the 
preference to Alfalfa over: every kind 
of grass (also soiled) known in this 
region.. And, while Alfalfa makes a 
sweet and nutritious hay eagerly eaten 
