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Vol. I.XVII No. 3059. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 12, 1908. 
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WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
ALFALFA AND LIMESTONE. 
A Vital Need of This Crop. 
Nothing delights me more than to see the stand that 
The R. N.-Y takes in encouraging Alfalfa culture. 
I read eagerly all about Hope Farm and look every 
week to see how the Alfalfa is coming on. Ap¬ 
parently Alfalfa culture has had a serious setback the 
past year or two and there is rather less effort being 
made to grow it than there was, yet really the cause 
of Alfalfa culture has made more real progress the 
past year than before in the 10 years. The progress 
has been made by men who have learned the secret 
of its easy growth in soils once thought to he unsuited 
to it. Alfalfa is a curious plant. In some soils such 
as one finds in Utah, Colorado, Montana and other 
semi-arid States Alfalfa is like a weed; it thrives with 
the least encouragement, spreads, persists, is im¬ 
mensely profitable. Then in the East there are a few 
regions where Alfalfa seems almost native to the 
soil, such as parts of the 
glaciated soils of Ohio, In¬ 
diana and northern Illinois 
and Wisconsin. There are 
soils in New York, such as 
in Onondaga county, that 
grow it almost spontan¬ 
eously. Seeing these facts) 
men urge that Alfalfa will 
grow anywhere if it is 
sown and inoculated, etc. 
Then come experiments 
in other sections in the 
East and disastrous failure 
very often and men wonder 
why. Often they have gone 
to much trouble to manure, 
fertilize, drain, inoculate, 
and even then Alfalfa has 
not thriven. Now what’s 
wrong? ] lerc seems to be 
the secret. In the semi-arid 
West the soil is very fully 
charged with lime salts and 
other alkalies. It is often 
too full of lime to make 
other cultivated crops thrive 
at all. Yet Alfalfa there 
grows almost into a tree. 
In the glaciated regions of 
Ohio and westward there 
are millions of limestone 
pebbles in the soil, soft 
limestone pebbles, brought there by ice centuries be¬ 
fore you and I were born. Those soils are alkaline. 
In Onondaga county, New York, the soil is full of 
pieces of soft limestone, and in parts of Kentucky 
where Alfalfa grows well the soil is filled with shaly 
limestone fragments. So in Alabama and Mississippi 
where Alfalfa seems almost native, the soil is made 
up of soft limestone rock, decayed by the weather 
into soil. It is very fully charged with lime. 
Well, have we not all along taught that Alfalfa 
needed lime? Maybe we have, but we have said 
“lime” in so mild a manner and so low a voice that 
we have not been heard. And when men asked tim¬ 
idly, “How much lime?” we have replied, “Oh, what¬ 
ever your soil needs,” and let it go at that. The re¬ 
sult has been that men have failed to become im¬ 
pressed with the very great, the really vital import¬ 
ance of having, not “enough,” hut “too much” lime 
in the soil, for making Alfalfa do its level best. The 
plain fact is that Alfalfa loves lime, feeds on lime, 
cats and drinks lime, wants lime first, and whatever 
else it can get. Give me well-drained soil, either by 
natural drainage, or artificial, and access to a lime 
heap, and I will make Colorado or Arizona Alfalfa in 
Rhode Island or Connecticut or New Jersey or Mary¬ 
land. In truth, f have done it already in several of 
these States. Instance, one farm near Philadelphia. 
This farm had been well manured, was rich, was 
drained, yet would not grow Alfalfa profitably. After 
investigation I prescribed lime. Man asked: “What 
kind of lime?” I replied, “Ground limestone, un¬ 
burned, if you can get it.” He found he could get 
it cheaply enough, and came again. “How much 
lime?” “One hundred pounds to the square rod, that 
is little enough,” I replied. The man hesitated at that 
and balked just a little; 100 pounds to the square rod 
is eight tons to the acre. He put on six tons. He 
inoculated the soil with other soil from a good Al¬ 
falfa field. He sowed Alfalfa. He got six tons to 
the acre the next year! And all his neighbors came 
to sec the miracle that had been worked. That lime 
cost the man about $12 per acre. His six tons of Al¬ 
falfa hay were worth to him at least $100 to feed his 
cows, so it paid him immensely, did it not? 
Again, many men who have grown Alfalfa with 
fair success have been troubled with annual grasses 
and weeds. They have fought these in many ways, 
usually with partial success. Now we have learned 
this. Where there is enough lime in the soil the 
Alfalfa will subdue crab grass, and almost any weed; 
will subdue all grasses except Kentucky Blue grass, 
and that is easily taken out in the Spring with a 
spring-tooth harrow. My letters from the South this 
Summer«are filled with cheering illustrations of how 
easily crab grass, their great bugaboo, is worsted in 
Alfalfa fields simply by the use of large amounts of 
lime! That makes the Alfalfa too lusty for the crab 
grass. So, my dear R. N.-Y., keep up the campaign’ 
for Alfalfa and tell men to lime, lime again, and then 
shut their eyes and keep on liming; eight tons of 
ground or finely crushed limestone to the acre. Two 
tons of burned lime, three tons of air-slaked lime to 
ti e acre. Then phosphorous, manure, good seed. 
Ohio. CHARLES It. WING. 
ALFALFA IN DRILLS. 
Experience from a Wyoming Farm. 
I have read W. H. Jenkins' article on Alfalfa in 
dribs. I had previously read an article by him, in 
Gleanings in Bee Culture, on the same subject, and 
have tried it on the so-called arid land of Wyoming. 
This land was plowed and harrowed for the first time 
this Spring. 1 raked over a plot about 30 by 50 feet 
and made drills some three inches deep in which I 
sowed the Alfalfa seed, covering with a common 
garden rake, and walking over the part sown to firm 
the ground. The seed sprouted and came up finely, 
and is now in bloom. The rows arc 28 inches apart, 
and free from weeds. I had previously sown some 
broadcast alone, and some with oats, and harrowed 
it in. I have sown it broadcast and raked it in and 
it has grown well in every way; but I think the plan 
of drilling it in a great improvement. I have sown 
it in drills running north and south, and in drills 
running east and west, and 
it seems to me that the lat¬ 
ter is the better way. d. m. 
Arapahoe, Wyoming. 
R. N.-Y.—Has anyone no¬ 
ticed any difference? Wc 
drilled Alfalfa on August 
17 on well-prepared soil at 
the top of a hill. The drills 
were made about 18 inches 
apart. The Alfalfa came 
up in three days, and looks 
well at this time. 
MANURE SPREADERS 
AND COMPOSTING 
MANURE. 
After a man has had 25 
years’ experience in hand¬ 
ling manure he should be 
able to speak with some 
confidence and correctness. 
For about 20 years the 
writer handled about all 
kinds of manure from farm 
animals, and those stabled 
and lotted in town. For 
about five years a spreader 
has been in use on the 
farm. Then it was easier to 
get it hauled from town 
than it is now to get the 
product of the farm hauled and scattered. With the 
experience gone through, there comes this feeling, 
that if a manure spreader had been purchased at the 
beginning the profits from the manure would have 
been much greater. When hauling from town the 
manure was mostly put on clover sod, to he plowed 
the next Spring, and always unloaded where it was 
to be used, if possible. Good gravel roads ran along¬ 
side of farm where most of this town manure was 
used. Sometimes when the land was soft the wagon 
would be driven as far into the field as the team 
could haul it, without winding, and one-half unloaded 
before trying to move the wagon. When the team 
could not go on to the field in this hard way some¬ 
times the manure would be unloaded where it could 
be conveniently got at to load again. 
At times we would have no field on which we 
wanted to scatter the manure when hauling. At such 
a time we would try to pile in the corner of the field 
where it was to be used and where it was convenient 
for being watered to prevent fire-fanging In one 
pile, 90 large two-horse loads were put, some rotted 
