AN ALFALFA DOCTOR WANTED. 
Why Does the Crop Turn Yellow? 
In trying Alfalfa culture, I find new difficulties to 
overcome and master, but I have found one now that I 
must ask some of our It. N.-Y. family to assist if pos¬ 
sible. This year, as also 1908, were very dry seasons, 
making it difficult to get good stands of Alfalfa, but no 
worse than other clovers and grasses. Now I find even 
the best catches with leaves' turned a pale yellow in 
spots. What is the cause and remedy? Ground'is sandy, 
not very fertile, but was limed last year, and grew well 
the fore part of the season ; was mowed once this season. 
Besides the yellow leaves some are purple colored. A 
diagnosis with remedy would be highly appreciated. 
Weedville, Pa. a. g. 
A. G. simply shows that the Alfalfa is not doing 
well, and I have practically to guess at the trouble. 
No matter what the cause is, Alfalfa always turns 
yellow when conditions are unfavorable, whether the 
trouble be lack of lime, inoculation, drainage or 
lnimus. I do not believe the dry weather is very 
likely to injure it, unless 
it is on very light sandy 
or gravelly soil, and 
even there it would take 
a very severe drought 
absolutely to kill the 
plants if other conditions 
were favorable. As a 
general rule, after Al¬ 
falfa is two or three 
inches high, it is bene¬ 
fited by .dry weather, 
even when it is dry 
enough almost to kill 
other grasses. Dry 
weather coming just at 
seeding time, or before 
the plants are three 
inches tall, would seri¬ 
ously injure or kill Al¬ 
falfa, but A. G. states 
that he cut this field once 
this year, and I am 
quite sure that if it had 
grown large enough to 
be cut once, drought 
could never again injure 
it at any time. 
Sandy soil is decidedly 
deficient in both lime 
and humus, because both 
are leached out, and 
while A. G. states that 
the field was limed last 
year, 1 would strongly favor the opinion that it was not 
limed heavily enough. Possibly, also, the field is suffer¬ 
ing from lack of humus, although where Alfalfa is 
given plenty of lime, it does not usually suffer from 
lack of humus. As an illustration of this point, I wish 
every reader of this paper could see the Alfalfa grow¬ 
ing wild along the railroad track for miles in this 
vicinity. The seed lodges there from some leaking 
bag, much of it probably being spilled from car lots 
of seed shipped over these roads. The railroad em¬ 
bankments are of limestone gravel and cinders, con¬ 
taining little humus, certainly making as poor a seed¬ 
bed as could be found, yet there are many Alfalfa 
plants all along this track, and the section men com¬ 
plain that they find it almost impossible to kill them 
out. This illustrates, I think, how the plant will 
thrive when it has plenty of life. Incidentally, it has 
usually been inoculated by the Sweet clover grow¬ 
ing wild along the track, and also the soil is well 
drained. My advice to A. G. is to be very sure he 
has plenty of lime in his soil. If he is not quite 
sure of it, he should apply some more, using prefer¬ 
ably the ground rock, or if this is not obtainable, 
using air-slaked lime, applying either after removing 
a crop or during the Fall or Winter. I would also 
advise him to top-dress the Alfalfa with manure 
this Winter. He may need inoculation, and it 
would be quite inexpensive for him to obtain inocu¬ 
lated soil sufficient to apply one hundred pounds per 
acre from another Alfalfa field and apply it any time 
this Fall. If he wishes to use commercial fertilizer, 
he should apply not less than 200 pounds per acre of 
bone meal, also using this any time this Fall. 
Ohio. _ CHAS. B. WING. 
TRICKS OF THE TRADE. 
It is said there are tricks in all trades but farming, 
but let us look around a little and see if there are not 
some tricks in our trade, a few of which are offered 
as seasonable hints. In plowing in rough countries 
where you cannot begin in the centre and plow out 
many fields are rendered an eyesore by old corners. 
This can be avoided either by first backing in the cor¬ 
ners five or six rounds, or by plowing head-lands off 
two opposite sides, and always back a land on the 
lower side when possible; also fill any washes with 
rubbish, and back a few furrows into them before 
starting around the field. We all know what a bother 
we have in plowing, harrowing, etc., by the inside 
horse getting over the traces. This can be avoided by 
snapping a hitching strap into the trace chain half¬ 
way from hip strap and singletree hook, then draw¬ 
ing it up tight to hip-ring on top of horse’s back. 
When mowing among trees with a spread greater 
than the length of mower bar you can get up close to 
the trees by throwing the bar out the first two rounds. 
First round keep point of bar its length away from 
trees, then go around second time the same way and 
cut up to trees. 
As corn cutting will soon be due, and any short 
cuts will surely be welcome at that job, try the follow¬ 
ing: First make your horses; then if a right-handed 
man begin on row which forms the right legs of 
horses, cut it clear through, setting your corn in quar¬ 
ter of shock facing you; then cut back on the row 
which forms the other legs of horses, setting your corn 
on opposite side, and thus continue going full length of 
rows until shocks are completed. You will find you 
are always at a shock when you have an armful, and 
always have an armful when you come to a shock, and 
do not have to be wondering where you left off. 
Next I wish to lend a helping hand at butchering, 
and I think my neighbors and I have a scalding pan 
that is the “best ever." Get two boards 5% feet by 
16 or 18 inches by iy$ or 1% inch round the lower 
corners, then get a sheet of galvanized iron (think it 
is 28 inches wide, but 24 inches will do) the entire 
length of pan from top corner clear around to top 
corner, and nail it on ; zig-zag or alternate the nails, 
as they will be less likely to split, and allow the iron 
to extend one-eighth inch over sides, which when 
done flange down tight on sides. Nail strip 1 by 6 
across ends at top and flange iron over it. Then bolt 
a rod 1 by 2 oak on outside nearly full length of pan, 
spacing it one inch away 
from pan. Loop two 
chains to this bar so they 
will slip to adjust them¬ 
selves to different length 
hogs. Set the pan on a 
low furnace, build a table 
just even with top of 
pan, with an incline on 
upper end to pull the 
hogs up. Have chains 
on side next to hog, 
grab both chains and 
roll hog in the loop of 
chains, where you can 
handle it easily as it is 
floating. To turn hog 
over pull on each chain 
alternately, and to pull 
him out pull on both. 
This scheme requires 
the least work and the 
least grunting of any I 
have ever seen tried. 
Ohio. JAS. H. HILL. 
THE CORN HUSKERS 
Figure 470, this page, 
shows a group of farm¬ 
ers in Cortland County, 
N. Y., who have just 
finished husking 65 bush¬ 
els of corn which came 
off one acre. But little 
more than half the first planting grew. When it 
was sure that there would be a poor stand West¬ 
ern corn was planted in the missing hills, not ex¬ 
pecting to get grain from it, but for fodder corn. 
When the corn was cut it was sorted and the “State” 
corn put by itself in shocks while the Western corn 
was put on the ground and shocked later. This West¬ 
ern corn gave several loads of good fodder, while 
the State corn would evidently have given 100 bushels 
of ears to the acre if the stand had been good. The 
work in the field was all done by team and machinery 
except harvesting and planting 'the Western corn. It 
is not claimed that Cortland County is a particularly 
good corn section, yet here is a yield ranking ahead 
of most of the yields on Western soil. This is what 
thousands of acres of cheap New York land will do. 
The huskers are neighbors and friends who come to¬ 
gether to do the job. There have been many ideal 
pictures supposed to show husking scenes but here 
is the real thing on a real New York farm. No doubt 
the scene could be duplicated on many other farms. 
Husking will be a steady job on a good many farms this 
Fall, for our National grain has been planted largely. 
HUSKING PARTY ON A NEW YORK FARM. Fig. 470. 
