1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
379 
other varieties an impossibility, except in a few very, 
very rare cases in which seeds have been found. It is 
this malformation of the pistils or embryonic ovaries 
that causes that peculiar umbilical mark, either 
large or small, which gives the name, “Navel,” by 
which this orange is commonly known [a picture of a 
typical orange is shown at Fig. 156.—Eds ] Bat certain 
it is that it is a blessing to the whole country, both 
growers and consumers, and Mr. Tibbits deserves a 
better fate than to spend his last days in a poo house. 
Let the orange growers and all of us make a move¬ 
ment that shall better his condition. I am ready to 
help. [So is The R. N-Y.—Eds.] h. b, van deman. 
THE WONDERS OF ALFALFA 
AS GROWN AT THE NEW JERSEY EXPERIMENT STATION. 
On Naturally Unsuitable Soil. 
[EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.1 
Alfalfa Under Difficulties. —“ I see you are buy¬ 
ing hay to feed at Hope Farm,” wrote Prof. E B. 
Voorhees, of the New Jersey Experiment Station. 
“You ought to sow an acre of Alfalfa, and thus raise 
hay enough for all your stock without interfering 
with your farm operations.” 
There has been a good deal said about Alfalfa of 
late, and when Prof. Voorhees went on to say that he 
was almost ready to get enthusiastic 
about this plant, I concluded it was 
about time to go and see what basis he 
had for the statement. Prof. Voorhees 
is a careful man, and not easily carried 
away by a single success with any crop. 
So, on May 9, I went down to New 
Brunswick to look at the Alfalfa. 
There it stood, a solid mat averaging 
about 17 inches high, and so thick on th e 
ground that one could hardly find even 
a small weed in an acre of it. Those 
who have grown Crimson clover know 
how fast that plant grows at this time 
of the year. The Alfalfa would aver¬ 
age, at least four inches higher than 
the best of the Crimson clover, and its 
immense leaf surface as compared with 
clover evidently made it a better plant 
for feeding. 
“But this is not Alfalfa soil?” was 
my first comment, for the ground was 
bard, heavy, well-baked, not at all like 
the friable, loose, open soil in which 
Alfalfa is said to delight. 
“ That is true,” said Prof. Voorhees; 
“ but there is such a thing as fitting the 
soil for the crop, and changing its char¬ 
acter so that crops will feel more at 
home in it.” 
“Well, tell us how you fixed that 
hard, stiff soil, so as to obtain that 
perfect stand.” 
“ In the first place, we made it clean. 
The great reason why so many people 
fail with Alfalfa is that they let the 
weeds kill it out. The weeds will cer¬ 
tainly do this, if you give them a 
chance. We cleaned that soil for two 
years by constant and thorough tillage 
and growing clean crops upon it. Then, 
in the Fall, it was broken up, and pot¬ 
ash and phosphoric acid applied, with 
a good coating of lime. Then it was sown to rye ; 
in the Spring, this was plowed under, and the 
ground was thoroughly subsoiled. You know Al¬ 
falfa is a long, deep rooted plant. The ideal soil 
for it is one with an open, porous subsoil into 
which these long roots can easily work. By subsoil¬ 
ing, that is, breaking up the earth to considerable 
depth, we gave these roots a chance to get down into 
the ground, and they most certainly went there. We 
sowed about the first of May, using varying quanti¬ 
ties of seed at the rate of 30, 40 and 50 pounds per acre, ” 
Heavy Seeding Needed.— “ But that seems like 
a very heavy seeding. Many people talk of using 12 
pounds per acre, and sowing with oats or some other 
nurse crop.” 
‘ Twelve pounds are not nearly enough seed. You 
can see for yourself that, where we have used the 
most seed, we have the best stand and the best crop. 
Alfalfa cannot stand up in a fight against weeds. If 
you give the weeds a chance to step in, the Alfalfa 
will certainly go out. The weeds came up, of course, 
last year after the young Alfalfa, and we clipped 
them off so as to give the latter a chance. When it 
once got ahead of the weeds, it stayed ahead, and we 
made one good cutting of Alfalfa last year, within 
four months after sowing. In order to make sure of 
carrying it through the Winter, we gave it a coat of 
manure last Fall, and now here it is.” 
“ It certainly seems to have made a heavy growth 
this Spring.” 
“ You see it started in so early and grew so rapidly 
and dense that it got far ahead of the weeds, an 1 now 
it will stay ahead. Here, at the edges and through 
this point where an old road ran, you see that the 
weeds have killed out the Alfalfa. But in that thick, 
heavy seeding, with the growth it has made, not a 
weed cm be found. It is certainly ahead of every¬ 
thing we have here in the way of growth.” 
Near by was a heavy growth of rye, which was be¬ 
ing cut and hauled to the barn for cow feed. The rye 
stood about three feet high, but the Alfalfa was so 
thick and heavy that there can be no doubt that it 
would give, on that day, a greater weight of fodder 
than the rye could possibly furnish. 
The Alfalfa was suffering from the dry weather. 
Of course, this immense crop, with its millions of 
plants to the acre, making rapid growth and with an 
enormous leaf surface, requires a vast amount of 
moisture. This Spring has been very dry. On spots 
through the field, the Alfalfa was slightly wilted ow¬ 
ing to this lack of water, but the whole thing was a 
beautiful sight, and Prof. Voorhees is justified in be¬ 
coming enthusiastic over this crop. If one wore situ¬ 
ated so as to irrigate an acre of Alfalfa, there would 
be vast possibilities in it for feeding all kinds of stock. 
At least three or four cuttings can be obtained during 
the year, and both the green fodder and hay are 
equal, if not superior, to any variety of clover. It 
was surprising how well the crop did on land not 
naturally suited to it. It well illustrates what Prof. 
Voorhees says about the possibility of fitting land so 
as to make it suitable for crops not naturally adapted 
to it. I think we all know of cases where, for ex¬ 
ample, fine crops of potatoes have been grown on soil 
which, in the hands of poor farmers, could not pro¬ 
duce anything like a fair crop. The results of this 
year’s feeding of Alfalfa from this experiment acre 
will be very interesting indeed, and the whole exper¬ 
iment is of great interest and importance to dairy 
farmers. 
Green Feed for Cows. —As most of our readers 
know, the Experiment Station of New Jersey carries 
a herd of 40 excellent dairy cows. These cows never 
know what it means to go out to pasture. They have 
a small field for exercising, but their green fodder is 
all brought to them and fed in the barn. A large silo 
provides the roughage from November to May, and 
between these dates, the cows are supplied by a suc¬ 
cession of green fodder crops At the time of my 
visit, green rye was being fed A day’s supply is cut 
with the mower, and hauled directly to the barn. 
There were three different sizes of the rye, sown at 
different times so as to give a succession. 
Last year I told how Prof. Voorhees was making a 
late sowing of a mixture of barley, peas and rye ; the 
object was to obtain a growth of barley and peas for 
late feeding in the Fall, and then have the rye pass 
through the Winter and make an early growth for 
Spring feeding. The barley and pea3 did fairly well 
last Fall. The rye lived through the Winter, and last 
week was making fine growth. After the rye is gone, 
they begin to cut the green wheat. After that, fol¬ 
low oats and peas through several sowings ; then cow 
peas, early corn, barley and peas, with Red clover and 
Crimson c’over put in at the proper periods. When¬ 
ever there is too much of any crop, so that the cows 
cannot handle it at the proper stage of growth, the 
surplus is cut and turned into hay for Winter feeding. 
The farm is constantly covered with a fodder crop of 
some sort. As soon as the rye is cut, the ground is 
plowed, and sown to cow peas. As soon as the oats 
and peas are off, another crop will follow, and in this 
way, the Station is able to carry three cows to the acre 
or produce the roughage for three cows in Summer. 
How Much Food ?—Sone very interesting ques¬ 
tions are being worked out in connection with this 
feeding. Prof. Voorhees says that they are raising 
more oats and peas this year than ever before. They 
are going to see next Winter whether oat-pea hay will 
really take the place of grain for Winter feeding. 
There seems to be a division of opinion regarding this 
matter, and they are going to try to find out definitely 
about it. He tells me that they have fed green oats 
and peas to cows, without any grain at all, and ob¬ 
tained satisfactory results. A cow will 
consume about 100 pounds per day of 
this fodder. That is about all you can 
make a large cow eat Without grain, 
this ration kept up the flow of milk. 
I asked Prof. Voorhees about how 
much grass the average cow at pasture 
would eat in one day. He says about 75 
pounds of good pasture grass, and 
when we think how this must be taken, 
bite by bite, we certainly get an idea 
of the great industry of the cow. Al¬ 
falfa by itself is almost too strong a 
feed for cattle. Probably the best grain 
to go with it is corn meal. It would 
seem as though Alfalfa hay, well cured 
and handled, would make nearly a bal¬ 
anced ration with good corn ensilage 
containing a fair proportion of ears. 
Some very important experiments 
with tuberculous cows have been con. 
ducted at New Brunswick. These cows 
have now been quarantined and kept 
away from the herd for a number of 
years. Next week, I hope to tell some¬ 
thing about the appearance of these 
cows and the conclusions which seem to 
be reached in the experiment, h. w. c. 
SHORT STORIES. 
Butter made from peanuts commands 
a fair sale, chiefly among invalids who 
do not like to use animal fats. E. O 
Fowler, of the New York Farmer, says 
that this butter is a health food, and 
that it retails at 30 cents per pound. It 
is not a fraud at all, and in no sense to 
be compared with oleo. It originated 
at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, does 
not look like butter, or smell or taste 
like it, and is a perfectly legitimate 
article of commerce. 
A California paper states that Chinamen go about 
the backyards of hotels, restaurants and private 
houses, picking up old berry boxes that have been 
thrown away in garbage cans, or swill barrels. They 
sell these baskets to a certain class of fruit growers, 
and they are filled again with fruit, and sold wherever 
it is possible to sell them. The Chinamen are said to 
make money at selling these second-hand baskets for 
75 cents a thousand, and a more dirty and dangerous 
business would be difficult to imagine. It’s shocking, 
but little worse than some of our manufacturers are 
doing. 
Western Eating Apples. —In Hope Farm Notes, 
page 244,’you say, “ I’ll guarantee those western grow¬ 
ers would, if they could, grow better varieties [than 
the Ben Davis] for their own eatiDg. ” It may inter¬ 
est you to know that many of them do. At the Win¬ 
ter meetings of the Nebraska Horticultural Society it 
is always planned to treat those in attendance, in¬ 
cluding many University students, with apples ; sev¬ 
eral of the leading growers donate a barrel or two 
for the purpose. These are largely Ben Davis, but 
there is, usually, back under the table somewhere, a 
barrel of Grimes Golden, Yellow Bellflower, or some 
other good variety, or perhaps several varieties to¬ 
gether, for those who know the difference between a 
good apple and a poor one. They cannot afford to 
give these choice apples promiscuously to the crowd, 
but they appreciate them themselves well enough. 
[PROF J FRED W. CARD. 
AN INEXPENSIVE SUMMERHOUSE. Fie. 157. See Rubalisms, Page 384. 
