1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
3i9 
/EFALFA IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
Growing and Curing for Hay. 
Since graduation from the New Hampshire College 
of Agriculture in 1894, I have been studying the feed 
question in the hope of finding something in the great 
family of legumes that would stay on our old hillside 
farms and yield year after year heavy crops of rich 
fodder without reseeding or cultivating. I studied the 
report of the Department of Agriculture in the Year 
Book of 1897, and envied our western brother farmer 
who could grow immense crops of rich feed year after 
year without reseeding or cultivation. I talked Al¬ 
falfa, only to be laughed at until a friend from Win- 
throp, Wash., while looking over my hill lot of 15 
acres said: “This land would grow Alfalfa just as 
well as my own; try it.” But so little faith had 1 
that I did not sow any until about the middle of May, 
1902. We plowed under a very light crop of Winter 
rye on land not fertilized for eight years, fitting it 
the same as for oats, using no fertilizer of any kind. 
I did not expect it to grow more than three inches in 
height the first year. 1 used 10 pounds seed to acre, in 
fact had so little faith we planted the piece to Yellow- 
eye beans, using no fertilizer, expecting to top-dress 
them with ashes. By the middle of July the field was 
red with the blossoms of the smartweed, seeded by 
the wash from a field above badly infested the year 
before. I divided the field off for treatment, mowing 
the first close to the sod, beans, weeds and Alfalfa. 
Part No. 2 we mowed high between the rows of beans 
by hand The third was left to grow until September 
15, then cut weeds, beans and all, hayed and put in 
the barn with the rest after pulling the beans on sec¬ 
ond plot, leav¬ 
ing the entire 
field as clean as 
possible. After 
picking the ap¬ 
ples we turned 
in a lot of cat¬ 
tle, feeding un¬ 
til snow came. 
I tried ashes, 
grass fertilizer, 
barn yard ma¬ 
nure and lime 
on all plots. We 
think 50 bush¬ 
els u n 1 e ached 
hard-wood 
ashes as good as 
anything to put 
on when seed¬ 
ing. This Spring 
we tested all 
plots and think 
the part left un¬ 
cut until Sep¬ 
tember much 
the best. I shall 
do the same by 
six acres more 
this year, ex¬ 
cept the beans, 
which I shall 
put by them¬ 
selves. We should say lime in some form is needed 
in our eastern soils, also potash and phosphoric acid. 
Now for a few don’ts, such as don’t cut it until bloom. 
Mine was in fact two feet high and very heavy, parts 
of it over a ton to the acre. Don’t drive over it in 
Fall; it will freeze and heave up the roots. Don’t 
feed it the Fall of first year. Don’t let the cut grass 
stay in cock long; hay it and put it in the barn. I 
think too much is said about losing the leaves; they 
are not lost if they fall on the ground, but help the 
next crop. Don’t be afraid of water so much. I think 
most eastern hill land well drained enough to grow 
it. 1 have a root in a glass of water put there some 
days ago. It has grown well with the roots entirely 
flooded. I will send you a root and ask whether it is 
as good as the western average root of 11 months’ 
growth and no extra feeding. f. w. g. 
R. N.-Y.—The root of this sample measures 22% 
inches long and is larger than a lead pencil at the 
upper part. It has dried out considerably. The top 
has just begun to start. 
OATS AND PEAS FOR SOILING OR HAY. 
We have had considerable to say about sowing oats 
and peas together. Now we are asked what the crop 
looks like. The picture (Fig. 114) shows a crop grown 
iast year at the New Jersey Experiment Station (New 
Brunswick). We reproduce it from the excellent sta¬ 
tion report. This shows the crop as it stands ready 
for cutting. The crop here shown gave nine tons of 
green fodder per acre. In our experience this crop 
mixture, whether green or well cured, has proved 
quite equal to clover. It is a difficult crop to cure 
properly, and, as is the case with many mixed crops, 
a farmer is likely to let one part of the mixture grow 
too long before cutting. At the New Jersey station 
this crop is very useful as part of a quick rotation. 
For example, wheat or rye or rye and Crimson clover 
may cover the ground in the Spring. This is cut for 
green fodder—then the ground is plowed for oats and 
peas. This crop will be cut and fed in time to plant 
corn for fodder or silage, and at the last cultivation 
of this corn crop rye or rye and Crimson clover will 
be seeded so as to give another early Spring crop. As 
before stated our own plan of seeding is to sow six 
pecks of Canada peas on the surface of the ground and 
plow them in with a small plow. Then broadcast 2% 
bushels of cats on the furrows and work them in with 
a smoothing harrow. 
FERTILIZERS UNDER GLASS. 
I have not had occasion to use lime in the soil in¬ 
tended for greenhouse use, nor do 1 think it would be 
advisable to use this substance to any great extent in 
greenhouse practice. Speaking in a general way we 
seldom find enough humus in our potting soil to 
necessitate the use of lime to hasten the transforma¬ 
tion of the humus into available plant food, and this 
is, as I understand it, the chief use of lime mixed 
with the soil. There would also be an objection to 
the use of lime in the compost heap from the fact 
that some classes of plants, notably most conifers, and 
also members of the Ericaceae, rebel against lime in 
the soil, and in consequence there would likely be 
trouble in growing such familiar examples of the two 
classes in question as the Araucarias and Azaleas. I 
have tried wood ashes in potting soil, using from 50 
to 75 pounds of the ashes to a ton of soil, but did not 
get results that were satisfactory, and could do much 
better with soot from soft coal, though used in smaller 
proportions than the wood ashes. The latter is a 
valuable manure for various soft-wooded plants, and 
is quick in its action, but should be used in quite 
moderate proportions until one finds out something 
about the needs of the soil by prolonged experiment. 
I have also used Peruvian guano, sheep dung, “Bra¬ 
zilian Plant Pood,” poudrette, nitrate of soda, horn 
shavings, bone meal and other fertilizers, and after 
many years of experiment it seems that for foliage 
plants in general and for palms in particular the best 
fertilizer to use is one that contains a liberal per¬ 
centage of phosphoric acid, say from 10 to 12 per 
cent, and with this about two to four per cent of am¬ 
monia and potash respectively. In other words, use 
a good bone phosphate and reenforce the phosphoric 
acid part of it with some good bone meal or bone dust, 
the latter being of much more value when made from 
unboiled bones than it is after the fertilizer man has 
kindly boiled out all the fat because he thinks it 
might be detrimental to vegetation. Of this good 
bone- phosphate I prefer to use from 16 to 20 pounds 
to a ton of soil, and with it the same weight of bone 
meal, these fertilizers being mixed in the soil at the 
time of using, and not in the compost heap outdoors. 
The compost heap in question is stacked up some 
months previously, and is composed preferably of sod 
and top soil from an old pasture mixed with good 
stable manure in the proportion of one load of manure 
to six loads of soil. The stable manure for this pur¬ 
pose should be a mixture of short and well-rotted 
horse and cow manure in equal proportions. It would 
perhaps be unwise to say that these proportions of 
the various fertilizers mentioned would be correct to 
use in all cases, for I think one has to find out the 
needs of his particular soil, and it is well to “make 
haste slowly,” especially when the welfare of a house¬ 
ful of valuable plants is at stake, but with the rather 
heavy, clayey soil that predominates in this vicinity 
I have had good results from such practice. 
W. H. TAPLIN. 
WHERE FRUIT TREES EAT. 
In broadcasting fertilizer in a bearing orchard I use 
a distributor, sowing a wide strip between the rows 
and leaving a narrow strip either side of the .Jw of 
trees. When applying manure or fertilizer to young 
trees I place either in a circle proportionate to the 
size of the tree, extending about as far as the height 
of the tree, but never close to the trunk. The fertili¬ 
zer at some distance from the tree falls upon soil 
which is more thoroughly stirred than that close to 
the trunk, and more open to the sweetening and un¬ 
locking influence of sun and rain. I like to keep the 
soil poor about the trunk so as to lessen the growth 
of tough sod and luxuriant weeds, which may harbor 
borers and mice unless frequently removed. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. w. h. hart. 
Thei'e seems to be quite a difference of opinion as 
to where fertilizer should be put, so as to be the most 
beneficial to fruit trees of large size. As the trees 
grow the roots extend out a greater distance from the 
trunk, and new 
fibrous or feed¬ 
ing roots are 
formed, but in 
taking out old 
fruit trees 1 
noticed that 
there were many 
feeding roots 
close up to the 
main stem, and 
that this class of 
roots extends 
out farther than 
the spread of the 
limbs. While 
there are not as 
many of these 
roots close to 
the trunk those 
that are there 
need feeding as 
badly as those 
farther away. 
My opinion is 
that the peach 
and plum, after 
the third or 
fourth year, 
should have the 
fertilizer spread 
b r o a d c ast all 
over the ground. 
As to the apple tree, if it is fertilized out a little far¬ 
ther than the spread of the branches it may be suffi¬ 
cient until the tree gets quite large, say 15 
years old; then it should have the fertilizer spread 
broadcast. 1 think fruit trees of large or fair size 
should have manure and other fertilizers spread 
broadcast all over the gi'ound—even quite close to the 
trunk—in a liberal manner; it is exceedingly poor 
economy to skimp the fertilizer and thus starve a 
fruit tree. w. n. s. 
Rocky Hill, N. J. 
In broadcasting manure or chemical fertilizer in 
an orchard after it is two years old I aim to cover the 
entire ground. I am not quite so particular to get it 
up close to the bodies of the trees; still, I like to have 
it pretty evenly distributed over the entire surface of 
the land, for I am sure that the feeding roots are 
pretty well distributed anyway, and the more you 
distribute the manure the more you will cause the 
roots to spread themselves evenly over the soil. When 
they have absorbed the food that is especially applied 
for them they pick up other plant food in the soil as 
fast as it becomes available. They are also less like¬ 
ly to suifer from drought than where the roots are 
more concentrated in special places, if all the food 
is applied only on a part of the land. j. h. hale. 
Connecticut. 
OHIO NOTES.—The cold wave of April 4-5 did much 
damage to fruits. The temperature was 20 on April 5, 
and peaches, plums, pears, cherries and early blooming 
apples were in bloom. I expect no peaches, very few 
pears, cherries and plums, except Damson and Wild 
Goose. Few early apples and many buds on later va¬ 
rieties are killed, but probably these may be enough for 
a fair crop if given the best of care. I have hope and 
expect to keep on spraying to try to save what seem to 
be left. There may not be enough for worms and grower, 
too. u. T. cox. 
Lawrence Co., O. 
