Vol. LXH1, No. 2849, 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 3, 1904. 
Cl PER YEAR. 
ALFALFA AT SYRACUSE, NEW YORK. 
GREAT SUCCESS WITH THE CROP. 
How It Is Changing Farming in One Section. 
A farmer visiting the New York State Fair this year 
will do well to take time to look at some of the Alfalfa 
fields near Syracuse. Whether it be that the soil in this 
locality is well suited to Alfalfa, or that farmers have 
learned how to grow it, it is a fact that the crop makes 
a wonderful showing there. You find it everywhere—■ 
in great billowy fields of green, along the roadsides— 
even in vacant city lots. The crop crowds in whether 
the seed is sown by hand, dropped from a passing load 
or scattered by the wind. The majority of the farms 
show great fields of it, and the character of farming is 
slowly changing as more and more Alfalfa is cut. On 
fruit farms or small private places the crop is changing 
methods and habits. A few acres in Alfalfa provides all 
the roughage needed for stock on these small places, and 
gives extra room for fruit or similar crops. In fact, the 
most interesting thing about these Alfalfa fields is the 
way they are changing the entire section of country. 
It is similar to what hap¬ 
pens when a new industry 
is established in a town or 
city. 
I saw these fields in 
June. A meeting of Geddes 
Grange was held on the 
dairy farm of H. Worker, 
right in the bloom of the 
Alfalfa. Mr. Worker is 
one of those great whole- 
souled men whose lives are 
like a benediction in coun¬ 
try neighborhoods. Fortu¬ 
nate is the Grange that can 
count such a man among 
its members. Mr. Worker 
is a living example of what 
a young farmer can do. 
He came to this country 
years ago without home or 
money, and hired out on a 
farm. He says that he 
saw at once that nothing 
could be done without cap¬ 
ital, so he made up his 
mind to save part of every 
month’s wages. At last he was able to buy a piece of 
land, then more and more, until he owned a profitable 
dairy farm and had earned a competence. Mr. Worker 
tells the story of his success without boasting, in the 
I most natural way, as if it were the most ordinary thing 
in the world. He says that a young man to-day has a 
l better chance than he had, for good farms are cheaper, 
and markets are better. We know more about the use 
of fertilizers and about handling crops; better tools are 
I to be had, and, above all. Alfalfa can be grown. 
Perhaps the man who has never grown this crop or 
seen it growing does not realize what an advantage it 
gives. A ton of first-class Alfalfa hay properly cured 
with the leaves saved is nearly, if not quite, equal in 
feeding value to a ton of wheat bran. Suppose you 
had on your farm 10 acres of Alfalfa. If you handled 
it properly the crop would represent 50 tons of wheat 
bran. Feed this in connection with silage and use the 
manure to raise more and more corn, and you can easily 
see what an advantage you have over the dairyman who 
must buy great quantities of grain to feed with silage 
and Timothy. Or, suppose you are not a dairyman 
or feeder. Alfalfa hay has now won a place in the 
Syracuse market, because horsemen know its value. It 
sells at $12.50 a ton, which means an income of $60 or 
more per acre. It may be said that Red clover will do 
the same, but go and see the two growing side by side 
in these farms and you will not say it again. The 
Alfalfa gives twice the yield of the clover and makes a 
better hay ton for ton. The life of the clover is two 
years, after which the soil must be plowed and re¬ 
seeded if we are to have more clover. With good care 
the Alfalfa may go on giving good crops for eight or 
10 years. It then leaves the sod in better heart 
for other crops than a clover sod would. These are 
some of the reasons why farmers can keep more cows, 
sheep or hogs and fewer work horses on Alfalfa farms 
than they could with clover. 
The Grange meeting at Mr. Worker’s farm was held 
in the great barn. He had delayed the Alfalfa cutting 
so that the barn might be empty. Some other farmers 
nearby had already cut. I had a chance to see Alfalfa 
growing under what seemed to me about the toughest 
chance you can give a plant. The city of Syracuse is 
buying gravel from this field to use on the streets. The 
workmen are digging right into the hill, and it requires 
hard labor to pick up this tough, hard soil. As they 
dig they follow the roots of the Alfalfa down. Some 
of them are quite as large as my thumb, and I am sure 
that many of them had gone down 20 feet at least into 
this tough soil. These big roots make plowing an 
Alfalfa sod anything but fun. This is one of the few 
objections to the crop. I had supposed that the plant 
does its best where it can work down into an open or 
gravel subsoil. I have been told by one who is called an 
“expert” that Alfalfa cannot thrive on a hardpan sub¬ 
soil, yet here it was going down into the toughest soil 
I ever saw, and covering the surface with a perfect mat 
of green stalks. Air. Worker goes so far as to say that 
the tougher the subsoil the better the Alfalfa goes 
through it, provided water does not stand about the 
roots. That is one point upon which all agree—the 
Alfalfa cannot stand wet feet. It must Iiave water 
enough; that is why its roots go down so far, but it 
will not thrive in wet fields where water does not run 
easily away. On other farms I saw the Alfalfa growing 
at the top of steep clay hills, which were formerly almost 
useless for farm purposes unless stuffed with stable 
manure. Now that Alfalfa has been started these hill¬ 
tops have become about the most profitable fields on the 
farm. At another place I saw a fair crop of Alfalfa 
growing in a thin streak of soil over a rocky ledge. 
There were not IS inches of soil covering the solid rock, 
yet the Alfalfa was thriving. I have been told that this 
is the condition under which Alfalfa will not grow, yet 
here it was giving more forage than any Red clover we 
can grow in our country. 
Thus far Alfalfa has failed on my soil, though it 
seems much like the soil around Syracuse. The view 
of these fields and the evident value of the crop has 
induced me to keep on trying. If I had 10 acres of 
such Alfalfa as Air. Worker showed me the problem 
of feeding horses, cattle and hogs on a fruit farm 
would be settled, as well as the question of manure. It 
is well worth working for, but about all the direct help 
one gets at Syracuse is the advice to “keep on trying.” 
After long years of experience the culture of the crop 
comes so easily to these men that they hardly know how 
to advise a beginner. I had been told to sow the crop 
alone, and never to add grass seed. Air. Worker 
always adds Timothy. I saw quite a little of this grass 
growing in the Alfalfa of recent seedings, though the 
grass is finally smothered out. Air. Worker says that 
12 pounds of seed per acre is ample. He obtains a fine 
stand with this amount. Of course the seed bed must 
be fine and open, but that is true of any kind of seeding. 
Alfalfa has succeeded around Syracuse with both Fall 
and Spring sowing, but Spring is preferred. Beardless 
bareley is a good grain to sow with it, the barley to be 
cut for hay. Air. Worker advises me to try all sorts of 
combinations—to add Al¬ 
falfa seed whenever we 
sow Timothy. It will not 
do to sow Alfalfa in the 
mud or on the frozen 
ground in Spring as we 
would Red clover. In seed¬ 
ing grass with rye and 
buckwheat this Fall I am 
adding Alfalfa seed. I feel 
satisfied that with us some 
form of soil inoculation— 
either using soil from an 
Alfalfa field or the pre¬ 
pared culture — will be 
needed at first. Around 
Syracuse this does not 
seem needed. 
I have said that the 
spreading of these Alfalfa 
fields is changing the char¬ 
acter of farming in central 
New York. It is not easy 
to realize just what this 
means without visiting 
this favored section. This 
new forage plant brings 
fertility and feed to the farm. It is just like having 
a fertilizer factory and a feed store drop out of the skies 
upon the farm to get this Alfalfa well started. Of 
course as a farmer learns what the crop will do he uses 
it more and more to feed both stock and the farm. It 
would not be a very bright farmer who would continue 
to grow wheat or some other annual crop which brings 
him $25 per acre when a permanent crop like Alfalfa will 
guarantee $60. Some farmers are quicker to see this 
than others, but in the end the majority of them see it 
and then we see a change. Among other changes the 
Holstein cow seems to follow the spread of Alfalfa. The 
big vigorous Holstein seems naturally adapted to hand 
ling strong, bulky food. That is one point in favor of 
this breed—the great capacity for handling roughage. 
Silage, Alfalfa hay and a fair quantity of grain make 
an ideal ration for a Holstein. A smaller, nervous cow 
will require a larger proportion of her food in the con¬ 
centrated form, but the patient Holstein is a bulk fac¬ 
tory, and wherever Alfalfa spreads there we shall find 
her. Hog raising, too, seems 10 follow Alfalfa, for we 
are beginning to know that brood sows and growing 
stock can be wintered on Alfalfa hay and a small amount 
of grain. On every side we run up against the fact that 
Alfalfa cuts down the grain bill and adds to the supply 
of manure. I told last year of a fruit grower who 
sowed Alfalfa in his apple orchard. He waited until 
the trees were larg'd enough and then seeded the orchard. 
A PAIR OF GOOD HOLSTEINS. Ftc. 288. See Page 663. 
