FOB THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



135 



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 to be given to 

 spring sowings over those of autumn, 

 provided only, 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 througiiout 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 1st of April following. This season 

 my first cutting was made on the 1st of 

 April ; and I have cut it since regularly 

 every four or six v^eeks, according to the 

 weather, to cure for hay. Meanwhile 

 a portion has been cut almost daily for 

 feeding green, or soiling. Used in the 

 latter way (for under no circurm^ta rices 

 must it ever be pastured), I am able to 

 give my stock fresh, green food, fully 

 four weeks before the native wild grasses 

 commence 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 

 by all kinds of stock, it is as a forage 

 plant for soiling, which is available for 

 at least nine months in the year, that I 

 esteem it so highly. The hay is easily 

 cured, if that which is cut in the fore- 

 noon is thrown into small cocks at 

 noon, then si)read out after the dew is 

 off next morning, sunned for an hour, 

 and at once hauled into the barn. By 

 this method the leaves do not fall off, 

 which is sure to be the case, if the Al- 

 falfa is exposed to a day or tv/o of hot 

 sunshine. 



It has been my habit to precede the 

 Alfalfa with a clean crop--usually Kuta- 

 bagas, after which I sow clay peas, to 

 be turned in about the last of July. 

 About the middle of September or later 

 I have the land plowed, the turn-plow 

 being followed by a deep sub-soil-plow 

 or scooter. After this the land is fer- 

 tilized and harrowed until it is thor- 

 oughly pulverized and all lumps broken 

 up. The fertilizers employed by me are 

 500 lbs. fine bone-dust (phosphate of 

 lime) and 1000 lbs. cotton seed hull 

 ashes per acre. These ashes are very 

 rich in potash and phosphates, con- 

 taining nearly 45 per cent of the phos- 

 phate of lime— the two articles best 

 adapted to the wants of this plant. I 

 sow all my Alfalfa with the Matthews' 

 Seed Drill, in rows 10 inches apart. 

 Broad-cast would be preferable, if the 

 land was perfectly free from grass and 

 weeds: but it takes several years of 

 clean culture to put the land in this 

 condition, sowing in drill is practically 

 the best. No seed sower known to me 

 can be compared v^ith the Matthews' 

 Seed Drill. Its work is evenly and 

 regularly done, and with a rapidity that 

 is astonishing; for it opens the drill to 

 any desired depth, drops the seed, covers 

 and rolls them, and marks the line for 

 the next drill at one operation. It is 

 simple and durable in its structure, and 

 is the greatest labor-saving machine of 

 its kind ever devised for hand-work. 



When my Alfalfa is about three in- 

 ches high, I work it with the Matthews' 

 Hand Cultivator. First, the front tooth 

 of the cultivator is taken out, by which 

 means the row is straddled and all the 

 grass cut out close to the plant : then the 

 front tooth being replaced, the cultiva- 

 tor is passed between the rows, com- 

 pletely cleaning the middles of all foul 

 growth. As often as required to keep 

 down grass, until the Alfalfa is large 

 enough to cut, the Matthews' Hand 

 Cultivator is passed between the rows. 



Alfalfa requires three years to reach 

 perfection, but even the first year the 

 yield is hirger than most forage plants, 

 and after the second it is enormous. 



