1912.. 
THE RURAI> NEW-YORKER 
IT'S 
SEEDING TO ALFALFA. Human Wastes; Hen Manure. 
J. R., Central Xew York .—I have a field 
of good soil which has been in sod for some 
years. It was plowed last Fall, and I wish 
to seed part of it to Alfalfa. Can I safely 
seed with oats right on this sod after har¬ 
rowing in the Spring, or should I keep on 
working the ground and seed later in the 
Summer? How much seed per acre? 
Farmers in this locality favor Spring 
seeding of Alfalfa, and it is often sown 
with oats, 20 to 25 pounds of Alfalfa 
seed and two bushels or less of oats to 
the acre, depending upon the quality of 
the land. If too thick they may smother 
the young Alfalfa plants. Harvest the 
oats as early as possible. If the sod 
was turned over well, a thorough har¬ 
rowing with a disk or adjustable spike- 
tooth will not bring much of it to the 
surface, and a good catch of Alfalfa 
may be expected. Good results may be 
had from sowing Alfalfa, with a mix¬ 
ture of one bushel barley and one bushel 
oats, cutting them for hay before ripe, 
which gets them out of the way early. 
Clip the young Alfalfa early in Septem¬ 
ber to induce stooling and give a light 
top-dressing of manure after the tops 
have been killed by frost. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. e. c. benedict. 
If the land is not infested with quack 
grass and is reasonably free from weeds, 
my plan would be to give the ground 
thorough cultivation up to June 1 to 
10, and then sow oats at the rate of one 
to 1^2 bushels per acre, and 15 pounds 
of the best Alfalfa seed, covering the 
seed with weeder or smoothing harrow. 
In this latitude we want to get a good 
root growth to carry the plant through 
the first Winter. The question as asked 
is not very definite, not knowing the 
condition of the inquirer's soil, whether 
A. G.j Flemincjton, N. J. —1. One of tbe 
problems of farm life is what to do with 
the human excrement. I am informed that 
to bury it is likely to cause and spread 
disease through seepage, etc., and yet I 
understand that flofland utilizes all its 
sewage for fertilizing. Ia there any simple 
method possible on the ordinary farm to 
transform the excrement to make it avail¬ 
able as fertilizer? 2. Which is better, to 
spread the droppings of the hens upon the 
garden, as I clean the coops, or preserve 
it until I plow up in tbe Spring? If the 
latter, how shall I preserve the droppings 
without loss? 
Ans. —In case dry closets are used the 
best plan is to compost the matter with 
the dry swamp muck or rich soil. A 
concrete vault may be used, or concrete 
or metal pails, using an abundance of 
dry earth. Ground limestone can be 
used for such purposes, but do not use 
burned lime. The Chinese make good 
use of this material. Even in large 
towns no water system is employed. 
Daily collections are made in order to 
save the plant food. Their system is 
either to liquefy the material in cement 
vaults or make a dry compost. The lat¬ 
ter is the better plan. 
2. The manner of handling hen ma¬ 
nure depends upon convenience and labor. 
On level land it may be spread as taken 
from the house—best on grass or grain. 
The way to get most out of it is to keep 
the manure under the roost well dusted 
with land plaster, sifted coal ashes or 
dry earth. Collect it weekly and store 
in barrels in a dry place, adding more 
of the drying material. In the Spring 
it will be found in large and hard 
chunks. These are crushed fine and 
sifted and mixed with chemicals as de¬ 
scribed in “The Business Hen,” and in 
sweet or needs liming, whether inocu- this way a good fertilizer can be made, 
lated or not, fertility, etc. I would ask This means considerable work, but it is 
the inquirer to experiment a little by the best way to utilize the manure to 
omitting the oats on a part of the field, its full value. 
and sowing the Alfalfa alone, and watch 
the results for future reference. 
F. D. KERSHAW. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
In central New York various modes 
of seeding Alfalfa have been followed 
with varying results. The old practice 
of seeding with a nurse crop I think is 
largely going out and seeding of Alfalfa 
alone is taking its place, whether the 
seed is put in in the Spring or late Sum¬ 
mer. I do not consider it bad practice 
to seed upon sod, as one of the most 
successful plots which I have was seed¬ 
ed in that way. I plowed the land about 
the first of June, plowing under a heavy 
growth _ of vegetation, and then har¬ 
rowed it every week or 10 days until 
the first of August when I seeded it to 
Alfalfa alone, and it has certainly been 
successful. Generally, however, I try 
to seed Alfalfa, whether in the Spring 
or Fall, after some cultural crop has 
been grown upon the land like corn or 
potatoes, beets, etc., in short anything 
that will leave the land free from weeds. 
This result might be obtained if the oat 
crop was sown very thick and grew very 
heavy so as to crowd out the weeds, or 
a crop of peas or buckwheat preceding 
the Alfalfa would probably leave the 
land in good condition. Anyway, the 
weeds must be exterminated, otherwise 
they will exterminate the young Alfalfa 
plants. 
Last Spring I sowed eight acres of 
Alfalfa with a nurse crop of oats on 
land which had been in corn the preced¬ 
ing year. The Alfalfa started beautiful¬ 
ly, but the land being very rich produced 
a very heavy growth of oat straw with 
the result that I was obliged to cut the 
oats for hay about the first of July in 
order to save the Alfalfa. When the 
oats were taken off the Alfalfa then 
began to shoot and in October it was 
two feet high all over the field. The 
main thing, as I said before, is to get 
the weeds out, and then with good, rich 
land properly limed, if it shows signs 
of acid, and carefully seeded with Al¬ 
falfa at about the rate of 25 pounds 
per acre, one will generally succeed in 
this section of the country. I am begin¬ 
ning to think that there is no virtue in 
a nurse crop for Alfalfa. If your in¬ 
quirer wants oats let him raise oats, but 
if he wants Alfalfa then sow the pure 
Alfalfa seed without any regard to any 
other crop as a nurse crop. 
JOHN MCLENNAN. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
Only One 
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To decide 
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Originator of 
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acre and thereby in¬ 
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MORE 
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e 
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129 Lewis Street, Buffalo, New York. 
Hydraulic 
Cider Press 
Net owners 254 to 100$ 
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Ask for Free Cat¬ 
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Grind Your “ 
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204 E. Road, Crown Point, Ind. 
>» 
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Make gas only as fast as con¬ 
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164 Clark Street, Albert Lea, Minn> 
HOW 
TO 
GET BETTER LIGHT 
From KEROSENE (Coal Oil) 
Recent test by Prof. Rogers. Lewis Institute, Chicago, and 
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Glean and Grade Grain Free! 
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THE MANSON CAMPBELL CO., Detroit— Kansas City—Minneapolis 
Write 
