1912. 
8 87 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ALFALFA WITHOUT WEEDS. 
Thorough Fitting, But No Nurse Crop. 
Your correspondents seem to be having trouble in 
getting Alfalfa started on account of the prevalence 
of weeds, and they will continue to have trouble as 
long as they persist in trying to raise Alfalfa and 
weeds on the same ground and at the same time. In 
Western New York, where lime is seldom necessary 
and inoculation never (as it grows equally well with 
or without inoculation), there seem to be two ways 
of starting Alfalfa with absolute certainty of getting 
a stand practically free from weeds. First of all 
abandon the use of nurse crops. One gets a satisfac¬ 
tory stand of Alfalfa with oats once in five years, 
with barley twice and with wheat three times out of 
five. Two rains, not more than a week apart, are 
necessary, one just before and the other 
just after the nurse crop is taken off, 
to keep the delicate Alfalfa plants from 
perishing. The occasional successes 
lead others to try nurse crops and lose 
their Alfalfa seeding. If properly sown 
alone in the Spring the crop of Alfalfa 
that year is worth more than any nurse 
crop. 
The ground should be thoroughly 
fitted as early in the Spring as it is dry 
enough to fit properly. If the Alfalfa 
is to follow a crop of potatoes or beans 
1 should not advise plowing, and the 
only objection to fitting corn or cabbage 
stubble without plowing is the rubbish 
which would be left on the surface, and 
that is not as serious an objection as it 
would seem. It is fully as much work 
to fit the ground properly after plowing 
as before, for the soil must be made 
fine and compact as deep as it is plowed. 
A layer of loose lumps at the bottom of 
the furrow would prevent the water 
from rising by capillary attraction to 
feed the young plants near the surface. 
The soil should be thoroughly worked 
by various tools until there is a perfect 
seed bed to a depth of four to five 
inches, with the upper inch especially 
fine, for a lump of earth as large as a 
hen’s egg may contain a dozen weed 
seeds that will not germinate until the 
lump is pulverized. When the ground 
is thus fitted do not sow the Alfalfa 
but wait two weeks to allow every weed 
seed that the cultivation has brought 
near enough the surface to germinate 
to do so, and then wait for a shower. 
After the rain, when the ground is dry 
enough to work properly, drag it 
thoroughly with some tool so set that 
it cannot go more than one inch deep. 
This last is very important, the object 
being to destroy the weeds just started, 
and not bring up any fresh weed seeds 
from below. Then sow the seed, about 
25 pounds to an acre (half in each di¬ 
rection to be sure of getting it evenly 
distributed), drag it with a smoothing 
harrow so that most of the seed will be 
from a half to three-quarters of an inch 
deep, and if dry enough roll it to bring 
soil and seed in close contact. 
If the land was good enough to raise 
300 bushels of potatoes, 30 of beans or 
20 tons of cabbage the year before, it 
will yield 2)4 to three tons of Alfalfa, 
at two cuttings, the year it is sown, 
and four to six tons at three cuttings 
each of the following years. Like all 
other crops, Alfalfa will do better on 
good land than on poor, but unlike 
many other crops, it will make poor 
land good and good land better by 
growing on it. On any land a liberal 
intimated that there were two ways of getting a stand 
of weed-free Alfalfa. The other is as follows: If 
other work crowds so that one cannot get the land 
ready for the Spring sowing, or if the land was in 
sod the previous year, then plow it as early in May as 
possible, and summer-fallow it thoroughly, by drag¬ 
ging once a week (with an extra dragging after ever_y 
rain) until July 15. Then after the first rain which 
follows July 25 give the ground a shallow but thor¬ 
ough stirring and sow the seed as recommended in 
the Spring sowing. You will have accumulated suffi¬ 
cient moisture in the ground so that the Alfalfa will 
continue to grow through August and September re¬ 
gardless of rain. Both of these methods have been 
tried repeatedly in this vicinity with unvarying success, 
and other methods have been tried with some successes 
and many failures, according to prevailing conditions. 
-*r- 
■ ■■ 
•>*> > 
VIEW OF THE CONNECTICUT HEN CONTEST. Fig. 381. 
PRIZE LEGHORNS] AT THE HEN CONTEST. Fig. 382. 
NO CAUSE TO COMPLAIN. Fig. 383. 
coat of stable manure the preceding year, and an All this applies to a section of Western New York 
application of 300 to 400 pounds of a phosphoric acid about 40 miles wide and extending along the southern 
bearing fertilizer, either acid phosphate or slag, at boundary of Lake Ontario, except occasional fields 
the time of sowing the Alfalfa, will hasten the start where sorrel grows and where an application of lime 
and increase the subsequent yields, and though I have is necessary. Other sections of the country may need 
never tried it, I have no doubt that 100 pounds per both lime and inoculation to get the crop started, but 
acre of finely pulverized nitrate of soda sown broad- I should not hesitate to sow in either of the above 
cast after the Alfalfa is started (about two inches 
high) would improve it greatly. 
In this locality the ground can be properly fitted 
about May 1, and the seed sown May 15 to 20. The 
first cutting would be about August 1 and the second 
September 15, after which it would make a satisfac¬ 
tory growth for Winter protection. In the opening I 
ways in any locality where the soil-rock is largely 
limestone and where Sweet clover grows by the way- logions ' 
side. These methods of sowing apply to gravelly or 
sandy loams, but clay (which is the best soil for Al¬ 
falfa in this locality) should be plowed in the late 
Fall and lie in the furrows through the Winter. If 
cultivated the previous year it can be fitted early and 
sown in the Spring, but If in sod it should be summer- 
fallowed and sown the last of July. The seed should 
be tested, by the Agricultural Department at Wash¬ 
ington, both as to purity and germination, and it is 
well to mix a little good Timothy seed with good Al¬ 
falfa at the rate of one quart of Timothy to six 
quarts of Alfalfa, as the Timothy helps to cure the 
first (and heaviest) cutting each year, and shows 
very little in the second and third cuttings. I have 
seen, of mixed Alfalfa and Timothy, 3)4 tons per acre 
at one cutting in June. harry g. chapin. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
THE MANY USES OF RYE. 
The time for seeding of Winter rye is now at 
hand. Any time from August 1 to November 1 it is 
safe to put it in, here in Massachusetts, and we even 
sowed it one year November 9, when 
it made a two-inch growth before freez¬ 
ing and a good crop of grain and straw 
the following Summer. It is one of the 
most accommodating of farm crops j 
it asks for little care in preparation of 
the ground, demands no heavy fertiliz¬ 
ing, is adapted to light soil, and will 
thrive if given half a chance on rough 
ground or a tough sod, and gives some 
crop while helping to subdue it. The 
ways of handling it are many, and we 
do not need to determine when sowing 
it just how we will crop it in the 
Spring. So it is Excellent farm practice 
to seed it on any open ground in the 
ball, and have it as a conserver of 
fertility, and Winter covering, and then 
do with it the next season as may suit 
our cropping plans. 
We have for many years followed the 
plan of at once fitting with the disk 
harrow much of our cultivated ground, 
as soon as it was cleared in late Sum¬ 
mer or ball, and seeding to Winter rye, 
1)4 bushels to the acre. Grass and 
clover seed can be put in with the rye if 
sowed early; or these can be sown on 
the surface in the Spring (if a grass 
seeding is desired) and the two crops 
be secured the first season. In this 
case (and it is growing to be the usual 
custom with us) the rye is cut about 
June 10, when in the milk stage, and 
used for straw. I his gives a better 
chance for the grass seeding to come 
on; and we have grown specially good 
yields of late sweet corn on this ground 
after turning in the rye sward; and so 
had our two crops per season in this way. 
So as a Winter cover crop, as a nurse 
crop for grass or clover seeding, as an 
early pasture, as Spring-cut feed for 
cows, as a green crop to be plowed in, to 
cut for hay, to harvest for straw, or when 
ripened for both straw and grain, for all 
these purposes rye is adapted, and fills 
a large place in farm economy in this 
section. The practice of June cutting, 
to be followed by grass or clover or by 
a late hoed crop, we can especially com¬ 
mend, and another most excellent use 
of the rye is as a preparer of rough 
ground for the finer vegetables. One 
season, having an old sod to bring into 
cultivation which was tough and in¬ 
fested with witch grass, we turned it 
in August, harrowed thoroughly, and 
sowed to rye and clover with generous 
chemical fertilizing. The next year we 
cut rye early, then clover, and had a 
good clover sod to plow for the next 
season s crop, with the witch grass 
mostly eradicated and the soil friable. 
We could hardly carry on our farming 
at Orchardside without the use of rye. 
Rye straw used to be a standard money crop on many 
Eastern farms, while the grain provided daily bread, 
especially among the Dutch farmers of New York and 
New Jersey. e. f. dickinson. 
Massachusetts. __ 
You may not think the question asked on page 888 about 
gas wells and orchards is very important. It is vitally 
important to hundreds of men who live in oil and gas 
They are often asked to lease their lands to gas 
Some of them would not do so if they knew the 
wells would injure their orchards. Others want to get an 
idea beforehand about what “damages” the well diggers 
would pay. We know that gas escaping from city pipes 
often kills shade trees. Fruit trees are usually more sus¬ 
ceptible to such injury. Will some one give us definite 
facts about the damage from escaping gas? 
