Vol. LXV. No. 2963. NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 10, 1906. 
WEEKLY. *1.00 PEK YEAR. 
ALFALFA ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. 
Promise of a Great Crop. 
The following clipping from the local newspaper will 
explain partially my success in raising Alfalfa in the 
most northerly part of this State: 
That Alfalfa can be .successfully raised in this town has 
been demonstrated by Alex. M. Dick, who lives just below 
Massena Center. Last Spring he prepared two and one- 
third acres of ground for tills crop, and sowed the seed 
-Tune 28-U!). August 22 lie cut Hie crop, and had four tons 
of cured Alfalfa, only .>4 days after sowing. Next year he 
will get two or three cuttings on the piece If it winters 
well, and he believes there will be no trouble on that score. 
There has been lots of talk among farmers about Alfalfa, 
and in some sections they have succeeded admirably with 
the crop. If it can be successfully raised here it will be 
a great boon to farmers. 
Wc came here from Montana 
October; never farmed it before, 
to try to grow Alfalfa, and 
as most of the land was in 
hay and the two acres in 
corn were very cptacky wc 
decided to try a piece of sod 
where the land had a knoll 
in it, which would give us 
good surface drainage. I 
was delighted when your ar¬ 
ticles on the above subject 
appeared, and read them 
very carefully, and used 
them to the best of my abil¬ 
ity, and to the conditions 
here. Land was sod, plowed 
in the Fall, and harrowed 
about every 10 days until 
June 28. I got the seed 
from a Syracuse seedsman, 
guaranteed free from weeds, 
l\ S. Government and State 
tested. T inoculated the 
seed with a commercial 
product, fertilizer was barn¬ 
yard manure, a heavy coat¬ 
ing, and the result is ex¬ 
plained in the clipping. 
I he Alfalfa at this date 
has a fine stand, and had it 
been sown a month sooner 
we could have got two big 
crops instead of one. There 
were a few barnyard weeds 
in the first crop, but they 
have disappeared now. I 
had a photograph taken as 
we were cutting the second 
swath (see Fig. 353), which 
will prove the veracity of 
the four-ton statement. 
The question now is, will the crop winter here? I 
discovered in the neighborhood one acre of Alfalfa 
which was sown and inoculated with soil; last year 
clipped three times, no crop; this year two or three 
cuts. In the first cut the hay 1 saw in the mow was 
Timothy with a few spears of Alfalfa, but the second 
cut was very much better, and improving right along. 
This farmer told me that this Spring he was almost 
discouraged with it, and threatened to plow it up, but 
decided to give it a chance, and is satisfied with his 
decision. Since this discovery I am more confident 
that Alfalfa will winter, and 1 hope next year to seed 
down two acres which have been cultivated for corn two 
seasons, and nearly all the quack killed. 
A neighbor asked: “What kind of new grass is 
this you are raising?” "Alfalfa.” “Good for cows 
and horses?” “Yes.” “Will it kill quack?” “1 guess 
not.” That was a surprise to me, to be asked such a 
qu^tiori. ] suppose somebody will he asking me some 
of these days if it won’t raise itself, and then raise 
itself into the barn and raise itself out of the mow 
into the feed mangers. The patch looks like the 
Emerald Isle out on the meadow now, and my trouble 
is to keep the cows from stealing it. alex. m. dick. 
A Railroad Introduced Alfalfa. 
The attempts now being made to establish the culti¬ 
vation of Alfalfa in the East are giving gratifying 
promises of ultimate success. There does not seem to 
be any reason why this wonderful perennial nitrogen¬ 
gathering forage plant should not, after we have 
learned how to grow it, be able to transform many of 
our now well-nigh worthless sections into fertile and 
profitable fields. The interest in Alfalfa is increasing 
and should be encouraged. There should be repeated 
trials even after failures. Several failures need not 
discourage anyone. Some fields that made a very poor 
showing when plowed and resown have made good 
stands, the result, it may be, of the previous inocula¬ 
tion. Fields that have grown Alfalfa five years, with¬ 
out manure or other fertilizers, when sown to wheat, 
yielded an increase in crop value of from $S to $12 
per acre, and of oats and potatoes, $10. This goes far 
t ward solving the manure problem, and makes Al¬ 
falfa well worth the serious consideration of every 
farmer who has unprofitable fields on which it can be 
made to grow. W. A. Moyer, industrial agent of the 
Delaware and Hudson Railway, has been giving a help¬ 
ing hand to the farmers along the line who agree to 
continue experiments in the growing of Alfalfa. Mr. 
Moyers field of labor will now be extended well into 
Canada, as the road will soon reach Quebec over its 
own rails, having purchased the Quebec Southern. En¬ 
couragement of new crops is good business for a railroad 
passing through gn agricultural section, r, y pffk 
What Alfalfa Will Do 
At the Training School for Feeble Minded Children 
at Vineland, N. J., experiments have been made in 
feeding Alfalfa in comparison with grain. Geo. A. 
Mitchell has charge of these experiments for a com¬ 
mittee of the Grange. A mixture of 400 pounds 
brewers’ grains, 800 malt sprouts, 400 wheat bran and 
400 pounds linseed meal was taken as a standard grain 
ration. The home-grown ration consisted of : 40 to 50 
pounds corn silage, 24 pounds green Alfalfa, 15 pounds 
green Crimson clover, V/ 2 to 2 x / 2 pounds cotton-seed 
meal. The partly purchased ration consisted of: 40 
to 50 pounds corn silage, eight pounds feed mixture, 
1 to 2 l /z pounds cotton-seed meal, 50 pounds mixed 
forage (rye, chiefly, some Crimson clover and Orchard 
grass. Good cows were selected for the experiment, 
part being fed one ration and part another. From the 
report we learn: 
The cost of the home¬ 
grown ration, figuring green 
Alfalfa $5 per ton, green 
Crimson clover $4, corn sil¬ 
age $4, mixed forage $3, 
makes the cost of 100 quarts 
of milk equal $1.72. The 
cost of the partly-purchased 
ration makes the cost of 100 
quarts of milk equal $2.34. 
The total yield of milk with 
the home-grown ration from 
the eight cows for 15 days 
was 3,020 pounds. The 
yield of milk with the part¬ 
ly-purchased rations from 
the eight cows for 15 days 
was 2,984 pounds. These 
figures will vary in differ¬ 
ent localities, hut the gen¬ 
eral result is the same. Thus 
the Alfalfa and Crimson 
clover with small amounts 
of cotton-seed meal and 
some cornmeal gave more 
milk and cheaper milk than 
when the purchased grain 
was fed. Here we have 
demonstrated just what wc 
have often claimed — that 
with Alfalfa and clover hav 
in abundance we may cut 
down or off the feed bill 
and keep up the fertility of 
the farm. I his is a small 
part of what Alfalfa does 
for a farm or a section. It 
pays to stay with the crop 
and learn how to grow it. 
We are getting a vast number of Alfalfa reports from 
varied sections that make most interesting reading. 
A WOMAN'S HEN NOTES. 
October 13, and wc have just finished transferring 
the chickens to Winter quarters. This is contrary to 
all precept and practice, and should have been done a 
month or more ago, as was fully intended and pro¬ 
posed, hut the railroad company disposed—of a lot of 
time and patience—by leaving the roofing paper for 
the new henhouse somewhere along the road, where it 
took weeks to find it. Meanwhile the chickens were 
spending frosty nights in the trees; holding their own 
by good feed, and lots of it. for they ate more to keep 
up normal heat, but development seemed to be arrested 
for a time, to come on the faster now that they are 
comfortably housed. As yet the windows of the new 
house are covered only with wire netting; the change 
would be too great if the glasg \yere in. FortlinaVfy 
two years ago in 
We decided last Fall 
AN ALFALFA FIELD IN ST. LAWRENCE CO., N. Y. Fig. 353. 
