V cl. LXVIII, No. 3096. NEW YORK, MAY 29, 1909. weekly, $i.oo per year. 
CORN AFTER ALFALFA. 
Better Than With Heavy Manuring. 
Those who have built up a soil that is producing 
good crops of Alfalfa have done better work than 
they knew. Last year I plowed a field that had pro¬ 
duced large crops of Alfalfa for several years, and 
the growth of corn, with but very little fertilizer, 
was very large; in fact, the growth surpassed any¬ 
thing I ever saw, in spite of the long drought here. 
The dark green, heavy growth of stalk and the many 
large, fine ears were noticed, and often remarked 
about In- those who passed. The field was prepared 
for Alfalfa about 10 years ago. The soil was a deep 
and rather heavy clay loam, and heavy applications 
of stable manure were supplied, and lime in the form 
of wood ashes, which were used because they could 
be purchased near by at a low price. The field was 
top-dressed with manure every year or two, and the 
yield of Alfalfa was three to four crops that some¬ 
times aggregated six to eight tons of hay per acre in 
the course of one season. 
When I plowed the 
field for corn the soil 
was filled with Alfalfa 
roots, some two or three 
inches or more in diame¬ 
ter and several feet long. 
This deep, rich, open 
porous soil, filled with 
decaying Alfalfa roots, 
seemed just right for 
growing the.largest pos¬ 
sible crop of silage corn, 
like that shown in 
Fig. 236, that stands 16 
feet high, and is well 
eared. The ground . was 
plowed early in April 
and the corn was not 
planted until about June 
1. Those who are hesi¬ 
tating about the prepar¬ 
ation of soil for Alfalfa 
because of the work and 
expense should consider 
the value of a field when 
the soil has been brought 
up to condition to pro¬ 
duce good crops of Al¬ 
falfa, for when it has 
been once drained, if it 
needs draining, lime . A CORN CROP GROWN, AFTER ALFALFA, IN DELAWARE COUNTY, N. Y. Fig. 236. 
added, if not in the lime¬ 
stone region, and filled with humus, and all the Al¬ 
falfa plant needs, and put in mellow or friable con¬ 
dition, the possession of such soil filled with Alfalfa 
roots is like a bank deposit, for one can draw on it 
large drafts in after years. It contains the Alfalfa 
bacteria, and with an occasional renewing by rotating 
a corn crop, can be made to grow Alfalfa indefinitely, 
if the plant food it needs is supplied. The hard work 
and expense is in preparing the soil to grow the first 
good crop of Alfalfa. I see no other solution of the 
problems of reducing the dairy farmer’s grain bills, 
but. by learning to grow Alfalfa and clover. The 
naturally drained alluvial soils along the streams in 
southeastern New York I have demonstrated can be 
made to grow both Alfalfa and Red clover, and crops 
of silage corn that yield 15 to 20 tons of silage, or 
more, per acre can be grown in clover or Alfalfa 
sod, top-dressed with stable manure, where all the 
liquids are saved by the use of absorbents and drawn 
directly and applied before leaching. Flere is the 
solution of the eastern dairyman’s problem. More 
Alfalfa will help to reduce “that awful grain bill.” 
Delaware Co., N. Y. w. h. jenkins. 
ALFALFA IN NEW JERSEY. 
Inoculation and Chemical Fertilizers. 
I notice The R. N.-Y. is urging readers to start 
Alfalfa. We have had about seven years’ experience 
in experimenting with the crop. I am so certain any 
one can grow Alfalfa that I purpose to refer to our 
experience during the seven years; it may tend to 
help some one in producing the crop. I have so much 
confidence in its helpfulness in the dairy that I would 
advise anyone, even with four cows, to grow Alfalfa 
for soiling and as a part of his ration for Winter 
feeding. Seven years ago we sowed a plot in the 
garden to see if it was possible to grow Alfalfa. 
It grew finely the first year. We mowed it three times. 
The second year it had partly disappeared; the third 
year it had so far failed as not to be worth cutting. 
This year, the third of our experiment, we sowed 1% 
acre; had a good catch and it grew finely. We 
sowed this V/_\ acre about the first, of May. Weeds 
came in. and what we know as quack-grass, which 
we clipped off with the mower, and every mowing 
less Alfalfa appeared. The next Spring we plowed it 
up, sowed oats and peas, and had a good crop. These 
were fed to the cows. After this we kept the ground 
in good condition, and sowed Alfalfa. August 10 we 
sowed or spread about two tons of caustic lime .per 
acre; had a good catch of Alfalfa and allowed it to 
grow that season and cover the ground for the Win¬ 
ter. The first year we cut to soil our cows and 
mowed three times. 
The second year we inoculated the plot, securing 
inoculated soil from the College Farm at New Bruns¬ 
wick. Right here I would say, let no one undertake 
to grow Alfalfa without inoculation of the soil. We 
mowed this first sowing for four years, with profita¬ 
ble yields until the fourth year, when the frost lifted 
and destroyed about one-third of the plants. We now 
mow for the fifth year, and shall plow it up this Fall, 
grow a crop of oats and peas next Spring, then next 
August seed it again to Alfalfa. The second year 
after sowing the first plot, we sowed another acre, 
securing inoculated soil again from the College Farm 
at New Brunswick. We have been fairly successful 
also with this second acre. Last August we sowed 
the third acre after growing a crop of potatoes, inocu¬ 
lating with soil from our own plot. It is fine, and we 
expect to begin to cut about May 20 for our cows. 
I wish to add that any land that will grow good corn 
will grow Alfalfa. Always be sure to avoid any 
places that will hold surface water. Feed well, lime 
heavily, put in with care, surely inoculate, take no 
chances without, and be sure to have seed sown 
evenly and have as few vacancies as possible. We 
have never used any yard manures, always chemicals, 
principally phosphoric acid and potash. 
Middlesex Co., N. J. d. c. lewis. 
CORN BREEDING AND RESISTANT PLANTS. 
My 10 weeks’ trial has not expired as yet, but I am 
convinced of The R. N.-Y.’s great value to the farmer 
and gardener, to which latter class I belong. Of 
course, I cannot agree with all that I read in The 
R. N.-\., and don’t expect to, but I have done a lot 
of thinking over some of the articles that I have read. 
For instance, I take ex¬ 
ception to the statement 
appearing on page 47 L in 
the article entitled “Real 
Basis for Improvement 
in Corn.” which reads as 
follows: “The kind of 
selectionist against whom 
we are speaking would 
begin by going into a 
field and taking seeds 
from those plants that 
were the least affected 
by the disease; yet he 
would never obtain re¬ 
sults because he would 
be selecting non-affectcd 
plants instead of resist¬ 
ant plants.” Now, here’s 
why I take exception. 
Potatoes, although not 
propagated by seed, have 
been bred to be blight-re¬ 
sistant, by the process of 
selecting blight-resistant 
(non-affected) hills for 
“seed.” Supposing that 
the potato was propaga¬ 
ted by real seed, would 
the result have been very 
much different, o r 
would the reproduc¬ 
tive cells in the seed 
from blight-resistant plants be practically identical 
with those in seed from blighted plants? Mr. 
East admits that nature makes changes in the repro¬ 
ductive cells in seeds, and if it does, is not the plant 
the only thing that man can judge by, or know of such 
change? Is it not reasonable to suppose that a dis¬ 
ease-resistant plant is the result of a cellular change 
in the germ of the seed from which the plant grew? 
If such a deduction is reasonable, is it not top early in 
the game to assert positively that improvement cannot 
come by such seed selection from plants that show 
deviation from type? Does it not seem possible that 
a blight-resistant cucumber or melon could be pro¬ 
duced by seed selection from resistant vines, allowing 
for pollination by their fellows, and making further 
selections according to Mendel’s law of hybrids? I 
am going to try it on cucumbers, anyhow, for I have 
noticed blight-resistant vines among them, at least 
they were non-affected, and see how I come out. I 
have tried it on potatoes after reading Bulletin 174 
of the Ohio Experiment Station, entitled “Potato In¬ 
vestigations,” in which they state that the potato can 
be made more resistant to the early blight by selection, 
