Vot,. LXVIII No. 4008. 
HANDLING ALFALFA IN NEBRASKA. 
Great Value of the Crop. 
I send you a picture of stacking Alfalfa in Custer 
County, Nebraska. Land that a few years ago was 
selling for $10 and $20 per acre is now worth $100, 
well 'set to Alfalfa. The average is increasing every 
year, but the demand keeps up with the supply. 
Neither dry or wet weather seems to hurt it. The 
yield is from three to four tons per acre, and the 
price varies from $5 to $10 per ton, which makes it 
a very profitable crop to raise. Farmers are con¬ 
tented here, and many are getting rich. The Alfalfa 
is sown in June, the next year makes a light crop; 
after that a full crop may be expected. w. d. 
Broken Bow, Neb. 
R. N.-Y.—The picture shows how the Alfa'fa is 
thrown into stacks by horse power—very little hand 
labor being needed. As will be seen, the hay is 
bunched or scraped in two-horse rakes up to the 
“stacker,” which picks it up and tosses it to the top 
of the stack, where the men fork it in place. Some 
of our readers may wonder why we talk so much 
about Alfalfa. They would cease to wonder if 
thej- could travel through sections where the crop 
is generally grown, and observe how prosperity fol¬ 
lows it. Where the Alfalfa is fed on the farms the 
soil grows more productive, and all crops are in¬ 
creased. When the; hay is sold and the crop is fed 
with chemicals more money is brought into the 
country. As we see from the note printed above, 
land increases four or five times in value in Ne¬ 
braska when Alfalfa growing becomes a general 
business. The increase would not be so great in the 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 21, 1909. 
older sections of country, but all farm land well set 
in Alfalfa is worth more than when it grew other 
forage crops. Tiif. R. N.-Y. capnot do its readers 
any greater service than to keep preaching Alfalfa, 
and to urge people to study the crop .and learn how 
to grow it. It is valuable not only for stockmen or 
hay dealers, but for gardeners or fruit-growers as 
well. These men must buy hay and grain for their 
work stock, and usually their soil is too valuable to 
put into ordinary hay. A few acres seeded to Alfalfa 
would provide a great supply of the finest hay on 
such farms. Many of us will not need the machinery 
shown in this picture, but we all need Alfalfa if we 
keep even a flock of hens. 
Alfalfa in Connecticut. 
It was near'y 10 years ago that I sowed my first 
patch of Alfalfa—it was a strip about 20 feet wide 
by 1,000 feet long.' The plants came up in scatter¬ 
ing patches, and after nursing it' along for some 
months I abandoned the experiment as a complete 
failure. About two years afterwards I noticed one 
spot on the top of a gravelly knoll where there were 
10 or 15 Alfalfa plants in a flourishing condition. 
This was the 30th of May. I measured some of the 
stems, and they were 36 inches long. It was evi¬ 
dent there was some reason why Alfalfa grew in 
that particular spot, and under the same condi¬ 
tions of soil as existed in that particular spot Al¬ 
falfa ought to grow all over my farm. First I 
plowed up the growing Alfalfa and scattered the 
earth around a spot about.30 feet in diameter, then 
reseeded it. There was a slight increase in the num¬ 
ber of plants, but around the outer circle the Al¬ 
WEEKI.Y, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
falfa grew spindling and soon died out, not enlarg¬ 
ing the original area to any appreciable extent. I 
concluded from this that something was needed in 
the soil besides bacteria. For the second experiment 
I plowed up the old Alfalfa and limed the soil, and 
scattered the old Alfalfa soil over a space about 
30 feet in diameter, and reseeded. This experiment 
proved a success, for the Alfalfa grew luxuriantly 
throughout the entire area' of about 30 feet in diam¬ 
eter. I therefore concluded that lime was necessary 
as well as bacteria, and I thought I had solved the 
problem. 
I immediately plowed two acres of land adjoining 
this spot, gave it a thorough coating of about 1,000 
pounds of lime to the acre, distributed the soil 
from the Alfalfa spot over the total area, and 
sowed the seed. The lime that I used was caught 
in a railroad wreck and delayed, and I was obliged 
to put on the bacteria and sow the seed within 24 
hours after I had limed the soil. The experiment 
was a complete failure, except over the original 
spot, where the Alfalfa grew luxuriantly as before. 
The next year I repeated the experiment exactly 
in the same form as before, but sowed the lime 
about three weeks in advance of the seed. This was 
in the Fall, and it was very dry, and but little snow 
fell throughout the Winter; a good deal of the 
Alfalfa did not come up, and a large number of 
plants were killed out during the Winter. The next 
Fall I repeated the experiment in exactly the same 
way as the year before; the season was favorable 
and the Alfalfa went into the Winter looking well. 
The Spring of 1907 found two acres, more or less, 
in good shape, and during that Summer I cut three 
STACKING ALFALFA HAY BY HORSE POWER IN NEBRASKA. Fig. 429. 
