NEW YORK, OCTOBER 22, 1904 
Vol LXIII. No. 2856 
$1 PER YEAR 
THE BENEFITS FROM ALFALFA. 
THE CROP THAT MAKES THE FARM 
And the Farmer Prosperous. 
On page 649 I wrote of the Alfalfa on the farm of 
H. Worker, near Syracuse, N. Y. At that time the first 
crop was just ready to be cut, and the great barns were 
nearly empty. At the time of the New York State 
Fair I went to see the farm again. The 
barns were stuffed with hay, with stacks 
outside, and there was still another cut¬ 
ting of the Alfalfa. It was said before 
that if a farmer could only see the 
Alfalfa growing at its best he would go 
home determined never to give up until 
he started the crop on his own farm. It 
would be an even more powerful argu¬ 
ment for him to go into Mr. Worker’s 
barn and see and smell the Alfalfa hay. 
It is impossible to show in a picture just 
how the Alfalfa looks, yet the two pho¬ 
tographs showing Mr. Worker in the 
field with the first cutting, and two loads 
of hay, reproduced in Figs. 337 and 338, 
will give something of an idea. 
Imagine what it means to have 23 acres 
of Alfalfa on a dairy farm. An average 
of five tons of hay to the acre makes 115 
tons of hay. Prof. J. L. Stone, of Cor¬ 
nell, makes the following comparison be¬ 
tween Alfalfa, Red clover and Timothy: 
Average Digestible Digestible 
yield nutrients protein 
tons. per acre, per acre. 
Alfalfa . 2.3 2461 506 
Red clover.... 1.1 1027 150 
Timothy . 1.1 1001 62 
Mr. Worker’s yield is double the aver-« 
age, and of course many dairymen cut 
far more clover or Timothy than this 
average. Yet see what an advantage a 
farmer like Mr. Worker has with his 23 
acres of Alfalfa over any farmer with 
the same number of acres in clover or 
grass! It takes but an instant to see 
that his farm gains in fertility each year, 
and that his grain bill for an equal num¬ 
ber'of cows must be less. Not only this, 
but with the Alfalfa once seeded the crop 
is fixed for years, while with clover and 
grass the ground must be plowed and re¬ 
seeded again and again. The Alfalfa, on 
this soil, requires less manure or fer¬ 
tilizer than either clover or grass. Mr. 
Worker says he uses a heavy coat of 
manure when seeding to Alfalfa, but 
does not manure it afterwards. 
Suppose a farmer grow corn and Tim¬ 
othy, feed it all, save the manure care¬ 
fully and put it all back on the farm. 
We can all see that unless he buy grain 
or fertilizer in some form the farm is 
slowly drained of plant food. These 
crops add nothing to the soil, and it is 
impossible to save all the plant food iit 
them. Not so with the Alfalfa; there is 
a constant gain to the farm where it is 
grown and fed. The crop is capable of 
taking large quantities of nitrogen from 
the air, and also, by reason of its deep roots, seeks 
plant food in the subsoil, which most other crops could 
not find. For example, corn, potatoes and oats obtain 
most of their food in the upper 12 or 18 inches of soil. 
I he Alfalfa feeds far below this, and can thus enrich 
the upper soil. Mr. Worker’s Alfalfa has in seven years 
added more fertility to the farm than he could have 
bought in 60 tons of bran. If a farmer had 1,200 bags 
of wheat bran piled up in his barn he could understand 
what it means. If he could see Mr. Worker’s potatoes, 
corn, oats, grass and cows he would at least begin to 
see how the Alfalfa saves buying the bran. All crops 
have improved year by year since the Alfalfa began 
to make its mark. The corn crop as a rule is poor this 
year, but Mr. Worker’s corn was thrifty and green. 
It will make excellent silage. I saw great, high-headed 
oats in the barn that seemed good for 75 bushels per 
acre. It is said by many New York farmers that oats 
HAULING IN THE ALFALFA. Fie. 337. 
MR. WORKER IN HIS ALFALFA FIELD. Fig. 338. 
will not pay, yet the price is higher than for years, and 
the straw is valuable on a dairy farm. The rich manure 
from Alfalfa hay increases the oat crop with each 
round of the rotation. Mr. Worker is a careful man, 
who judges the value of grain by the amount of food 
it contains. He says that when oats will bring 40 cents 
a bushel, or $24 a ton, it pays to sell them and buy 
gluten at $20. He makes a gain by the exchange, and 
has the oat straw clear to add to the manure. Alfalfa 
farming teaches a man to study out such things. ITow 
can it be otherwise, when the evidence comes in such 
a way that you cannot help seeing it? You have been 
buying grain to feed with silage or hay. After feeding 
Alfalfa hay for a time you notice that you get more milk. 
You drop off a little feed, then more and more, and 
feed more Alfalfa, yet still the yield keeps up. You 
go through a round of your lotation with manure from 
Alfalfa, and it becomes clear that every crop has re¬ 
sponded. No doubt about it, the land 
is becoming more productive. This has 
been the experience of hundreds of 
farmers. It has taught them ideas about 
saving plant food and animal food that 
they little dreamed of before. One suc¬ 
cessful Alfalfa farm in a neighborhood 
where farmers complain of the high cost 
of feed and fertilizer is worth an agri¬ 
cultural college and a dozen farmers’ in¬ 
stitutes in teaching good farming to that 
section. 
Mr. Worker’s Alfalfa is on tough, 
hard soil, some of it apparently not well 
fitted for ordinary farm crops. He 
seems to like to put it on fields where 
other crops would not do so well. Speak¬ 
ing of one steep hill, he said it was a 
hard place to grow corn on and harvest 
it, but a mower could be used there to 
cut Alfalfa. This hill field is now used 
for a pasture. Mr. Worker says that if 
labor were cheaper he would seed this 
entire 20 acres to Alfalfa and soil the 
cows, cutting the green fodder and carry¬ 
ing it to them. Handled properly a field 
of this size would furnish green forage 
through the entire season and give a 
large quantity of hay besides. 
There is no end to the possibilities of 
Alfalfa on any farm where stock is kept. 
Mr. Worker does not attempt to raise 
young stock to keep up his herd. He 
buys young cows of good quality. His 
land is too valuable to be used for grow¬ 
ing young stock. That is a business for 
cheaper land. Back among the hills on 
cheap land good heifers would pay better 
than milk, and if suitable fields on such 
farms could be put in Alfalfa heifers of 
high quality could be produced at light 
cost. It is impossible for a farmer to 
go through an Alfalfa section without 
seeing how the crop is improving, farms 
and farmers. Some farmers have tried 
the crop and failed. Let them keep try¬ 
ing. As Prof. Stone says in his bulletin, 
many wheat fields were ruined last Win¬ 
ter, and corn has been poor two years in 
succession. Farmers will not stop grow¬ 
ing grain because of these failures. Let 
them have equal faith in their ability to 
grow Alfalfa and they will win in time. 
In my former article I stated that Al¬ 
falfa grew all over that section—along 
roads, in vacant places and back yards. 
In some cases I mistook Sweet clover 
for Alfalfa. The two appear to go to¬ 
gether. The soil in which Sweet clover 
grows has been successfully used to inoculate newly 
seeded Alfalfa fields. While this inoculation does not 
seem necessary at Syracuse it will pay those who at¬ 
tempt to start Alfalfa in new sections to try it. From 
reports it seems evident that the plan of soaking tfle 
seed in a solution containing the bacteria is not equal to 
the use of soil. We can use the soil from a field where 
Alfalfa has grown, or moisten common soil with the 
solution recommended for the seeds, as formerly de¬ 
scribed; or again use Sweet clover soil. h. \v. c. 
