1914. 
THE RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
601 
TRANSPLANTING ALFALFA PLANTS. 
[A year ago Prof. N. E. Hanson of the South Dakota 
Experiment Station, wrote us about his plan of trans¬ 
planting Alfalfa in the dry Northwest. The little seed¬ 
ling plants were started in drills, dug up somewhat like 
cabbage and celery plants, and put in with one or the 
horse power plant setting machines. We wrote some 
of the best Alfalfa experts in the Eastern States about 
this, but most of them had never heard of it. Now 
we have the following further statement from Prof. 
Hansen, in answer to a question. As you will see, he 
does not yet advocate this plan for general use except 
under some conditions in the Northwest.] 
In some of the limestone sections of New York State 
Alfalfa does well, but in other sections it has been 
almost impossible to get a stand that would last. Many 
people (farmers) in this section have made a brave 
effort to grow it and most of them have given up with 
disgust at the results. Personally I have been studying 
Alfalfa for many years, but have had a farm for only 
three years on which to try it out. I believe that I 
am on the right way now, if I can get some hardy 
plants, and am therefore greatly inter¬ 
ested in Prof. Hansen’s plan of growing 
and setting plants. After reading his 
bulletin and circular. I am convinced that 
it is a very practical way, not only for 
seed, but for hay as well, and I certainly 
will give it a very thorough trial 
It has been a year since the bulletin 
was written and I would like very much 
to know how the past year has affected 
Prof. Hansen’s opinion as regards the 
setting of fields of Alfalfa plants for hay. 
and how far apart he would recommend 
their setting for a hay crop, with the idea 
of cultivating the first year or so until 
the crowns cover the ground. East Sum¬ 
mer I put in a five-acre field to Alfalfa 
in the usual way, sowing 20 pounds per 
acre. This field has good natural drain¬ 
age and we limed thoroughly, inoculated 
the seed with the bacteria for Alfalfa, 
gave exceedingly thorough tillage and in 
short did everything according to the 
New York State rule. It went into Win¬ 
ter in fine shape, is now covered deep 
with snow and we are wondering how it 
will look in late Spring and Summer. 
If yoti try transplanting dig your 
plants in the Fall, as the hark is too 
slippery in the Spring. Also, trans¬ 
planting in the Fall after a grain crop 
will probably be better than in Spring: unless you 
have a good cellar to store the plants to keep them 
back till the rush of Spring seeding is over. My 
machine transplanting method for Alfalfa was de¬ 
signed primarily for the dry uplands of the Far 
West, wherever the soil conditions are unfavorable 
for getting a stand of Alfalfa, as the plants dry up 
before the roots get to moisture. It was also in¬ 
tended to he a certain method of spacing Alfalfa 
plants on the driest uplands where no irrigation is 
possible. 
The old method of 20 pounds of seed per acre 
means 100 seeds per square foot. The experience of 
many farmers who are working with me on this up¬ 
land problem indicates that for the driest uplands 
in the Far West each Alfalfa plant should have 
eight or nine square feet. The varieties of the Rus- 
sian and Siberian Alfalfas that I am 
working with have very often 500 
stems per plant by the second year; 
each crown covering one or two square 
feet. Such plants must certainly be 
given more room. In the Eastern 
States the largest rainfall in my opin¬ 
ion, will allow for a much denser plant 
population. That is, many more plants 
can be raised on the square yard. The 
hay will also he finer. 
I shall be pleased to get your experi¬ 
ence later. I am not ready to recom¬ 
mend the transplanting method to the 
farmer. For the uplands of the Far 
West, farmers have been forced into 
the method of raising seed in culti¬ 
vated rows far enough for cultivation; 
usually three feet, owing to the limited 
moisture not permitting denser sowing. 
But wherever this is necessary, 1 be¬ 
lieve we can give the plants more 
space and greater certainty by the 
plant method than by the seed method. 
They will also survive the attacks of 
blister beetles and other insects the first year, which 
are sometimes disastrous to Alfalfa plants just com¬ 
ing up from the seed. Yields of five to six pounds 
are not uncommon from transplanted plants the first 
year. I wish no one to believe it faster than can be 
shown by field demonstrations. At all events it is 
a quick method of raising pure seed of new vari¬ 
eties. In 1013 at this station 350.000 Cossack and 
Oherno Alfalfa plants were grown from 3(4 pounds 
of seed on a little over an acre of land (exactly 1.13 
acres). This wotud set 72 acres at 3x3 feet or DOO 
plants per acre. The longer 1 work at the problem 
of Alfalfa for dry western uplands, the more I be¬ 
come convinced that transplanting one year plants 
into cultivated rows with suitable machinery is a 
safer and surer method than sowing the seed in cul¬ 
tivated rows, as the plants have one year’s start 
and can stand more hardship the first year. 
[prof.] n. e. HANSEN. 
South Dakota Experiment Station. 
FEDERAL SLAUGHTER HOUSES. 
Canadian Tariffs. 
I was greatly pleased at that short editorial on 
page 532 on the free food movement and its unsat¬ 
isfactory results. Little use in removing tariff walls 
when the trade is absolutely controlled by trusts 
and monopolistic gangs. We have the food problem 
in Canada more acute than it ever was in the 
United States. We are here, today, the highest 
taxed country in the world. We occupy the pinnacle 
of the mountain in high cost of living. We look 
NOT SPEEDY BUT RELIABLE. Fig. 2S4. 
down upon the whole world. We are the top- 
notchers in paying high prices for food products. 
We pay .$14 per head customs duty, or $70 per 
family, while you in the States pay but $3.50. or 
$17.50 per family. We positively can say that we 
pay 400 per cent, more direct customs tax than you 
do, and still you people complain. Besides this 
large tax, we pay an indirect tax to the protected 
manufacturer of $40 per head, or for a family of 
five, $200, as the yearly bill for Canadian manu¬ 
factured goods more than under a free trade policy. 
Adding $70, annual customs tax. to $200. annual 
subsidy to Canadian manufacturers, the breadwin¬ 
ner for a family of five would appear to contribute 
$270 yearly on account of tariff barriers. I have 
drawn the attention of Premier Borden to your 
editorial, and the solution you suggest, viz: public 
owned abattoirs under federal control where cat¬ 
tle shall be slaughtered and sold. 
A friend in Nova Scotia has been advocating this 
scheme for months, but the middlemen and even 
the editors of the papers he was contributing to, 
came down on him like thousands of bricks. The 
“middlemen” would be completely put out of busi¬ 
ness in the meat line here in public slaughter houses 
under federal control, when the animals would be 
slaughtered and sold probably by auction to the 
highest bidder after the manner of a board of 
trade exchange. Undoubtedly this plan would re¬ 
duce the price of beef in many cases one-lialf. In 
Ottawa, Saturday, dressed beef, good, sold at $11 per 
100 pounds. The retail price of chuck was lx cents, 
while roasts was 24 to 35 cents. The average retail 
price of the carcass was about 24 cents, first double 
the carcass price and two cents to the good. I trust 
that Premier Borden will give your suggestion the 
consideration it deserves. I stated that I thought it 
“criminal negligence” on the part of the government 
to stand pat, and not to act on this suggestion. 
Ontario. j. c. mcdonaed. 
LIMESTONE CRUSHING CLUBS. 
In my opinion the “community crusher” is the 
solution to the limestone problem. I found the 
lands of this county badly in need of lime, and so as 
soon as I had organized the farmers into clubs I 
took up the limestone proposition. In each of the 
clubs there is some member who is going to buy a 
crusher, and he will go around and crush the rock 
for the farmers in that district. They 
are going to charge $2 per ton for 
quarrying and crushing the rock, and 
I feel sure that they will reduce the 
price after this year, as I know that it 
is only costing them from 50 cents to 
$1 per ton to put the crushed lime¬ 
stone in the heap. Under this ar¬ 
rangement the farmer avoids a long 
haul, and I have figured that it costs 
about 25 cents every time a ton of 
crushed rock is moved one mile. In 
1012 the farmers of this county used 
about siX) tons of limestone, and last 
year they used 4.(mm) tons. I expect 
there will be 10 or 12 crushers at work 
in the county this year, and I believe 
they will use at least 10.000 tons. I 
shall be glad to give you any further 
information you may desire. 
GEOFFREY MORGAN. 
Christian Co.. Ivy. Farm Demonstrator. 
R. N.-Y.—The limestone crushing 
club will undoubtedly lead toward co¬ 
operative effort in other lines, and thus show the 
farmer how he may combine with his fellows. 
TITLE TO MANURE ON FARM. 
_ A owned two farms. Each farm was separated by a 
highway and not connected with each other. A sold 
one of these farms to E5. and it appears that A lives 
on the place he owns at present but kept his cattle on 
the place he sold to B. in the barn, also with the un¬ 
derstanding that B would allow him to keep his cattle 
on his place until the first of April, 1914. The title 
was closed in January and B moved on the place and 
took full possession. There were quite a number 
of loads of manure on the place that B bought, and 
when he was buying rhe place and taking title to it 
there was nothing said about it in any way. After B 
had the farm three weeks he started hauling out the 
manure and putting it on the farm he had bought. A 
came along and told him to leave this manure alone, as 
this was his property. He said. “If I sold you the 
farm I did not sell you the manure that was on the 
farm.” However. R kept on hauling out the manure. 
thinking he had a perfect right to it. A 
called up the sheriff and had B arrested 
for theft. He was taken before a justice 
of the peace and had to pay the costs. 
B is a poor man—a Polander just come 
from New York City, and has no friends. 
I think he was in the right. Give me 
your version of this matter, as one-half 
of this little community of ours seems to 
think that B was in the right. j. k. 
Connecticut. 
As a general proposition, manure 
made upon a farm, from the consump¬ 
tion of its products, and in the or¬ 
dinary manner, is regarded either as 
between the man who sells and the 
man who buys, or a mortgagor and 
mortagee, or landlord and tenant, as 
part of the real property and passes 
with the farm, and this is generally 
true of both the manure itself and 
of compost formed of its mixture with 
hay. straw, soil or other substances, 
and whether it or they be found where 
the manure is dropped or gathered into 
heaps or piles or moved to different 
parts of the farm. The reason for the 
general rule is that since the substance 
of the land produces the manure, it should remain 
on the farm for its enrichment, and Hie soil should 
not be impoverished because of its removal by a 
vendor or outgoing tenant. So in this case if there 
was nothing said between A and B at the time the 
farm was sold, the manure would pass with the 
farm and become the property of B, and he had a 
right to spread it on the farm. 
Of course manure may be sold from a farm by 
the owner or by a tenant, the same as the annual 
crops may be sold, and it may be the subject of con¬ 
tract; but where nothing is said between the vendor 
and vendee, the rule is as above stated with the ex¬ 
ception of the States of New Jersey and North Car¬ 
olina, where manure is held to be personal prop¬ 
erty and not a part of the realty. 
CROWN GALL ON PECAN TREE. Fig. 2S5. 
