124 
RICHARD FROTSCHER’S ALMANAC AND GARDEN MANDAL 
Having received many enquiries on the culture cf 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 expeliments 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 naturally poor, 
piney woods soil (which would be class- 
ed as a sandy soil), 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 susceptible 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 attempting for | 
several years to cultivate it, he had de- 
sisted. 
Citronelle, in this county, died out every 
summer, not being able to withstand the 
hot suns of our climate. Discouraged 
He stated that the plant, at | 
but not dismayed, I determined to test | 
the matter on a small scale at first. 
Having procured some seed 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 2d of | 
August to the 15th of November not a | 
drop of rain fell on my place. 
during all this time, my Alfalfa re- 
Yet, | 
mained fresh, bloomed, and was cuttwo | 
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 of the top roots. 
At | 
once it was apparent that the plant was, | 
by its very habit of growth, adapted to | 
VILLA FRIEDHEIM, 
Mobile County, Ala., September 7, 1878. 
hot and dry climates. It is indeed a 
“child of the sun.” 
Encouraged by this experiment, in 
which I purposely refrained from giving 
the Alfalfa any care beyond cutting it 
oecasionally, last year. I proceeded on 
a Jarger scale, 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 to he 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 throughout the 
wlnter 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 ist of 
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 cut 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 
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 instanee, 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 
