The Rural NewYorker 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Vol. LXXIII NEW YORK, DECEMBER 19, 1914 No. 4286 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
HEADQUARTERS FOR EASTERN ALFALFA. 
Central New York Alive With It. 
Part II. 
INOCULATION; SWEET CLOVER.—Inoculation 
as an aid to obtaining a good stand of Alfalfa is sel¬ 
dom needed. Therefore but few growers have tested 
it. Ordinary methods of seeding seldom even par¬ 
tially fail, but there is an occasional exception. Two 
cases were heard of in which inoculation was tried, 
hut not thoroughly, without success. One man was 
found who had paid $50 for chemicals which proved 
useless, hut who continued tin* old methods until he 
got his fields well stocked with Alfalfa. One grower 
got a hill producing good crops, hut failed to get a 
stand in the hollow at its foot until he plowed the 
whole and dragged some soil from the hill to the low 
ground. One place was seen in which persistent ef¬ 
forts to start Alfalfa have failed from causes entire¬ 
ly unknown. I'ut in most cases failure to secure a 
good Alfalfa sod can he traced to the use of land con¬ 
taining weeds or quack grass, or to imperfect prep¬ 
aration of the soil to receive the seed. Sweet clover 
is not used to inoculate the land for Alfalfa. Its one 
useful purpose is as forage for bees. It is generally 
regarded as a weed. 
SEED.—Most of the seed used here is obtained 
from seedsmen in Syracuse. Only one variety is sold. 
This has been grown for a long time, and gives sat¬ 
isfaction. A ery little effort has been made to grow 
a seed crop. In the few instances regarding which 
definite information was obtained the returns were 
too small to allow a profit. It is reported that a man 
some 10 miles from Syracuse, who goes from place to 
place to thrash grain, sometimes thrashes Alfalfa, 
hut efforts to get into communication with him. or to 
find anyone for whom he has thrashed Alfalfa, have 
failed. The general opinion of Alfalfa growers seem 
to he that a hay crop will pay much better than a 
seed crop. It is not certain that the maturing of the 
seed would not weaken the plants. It is also doubt¬ 
ful whether seed produced here would he as good as 
that which is grown in the drier climate of some of 
the Western States. 
THE DAIRY INTEREST.—It is a curious fact 
that though Alfalfa furnishes the very best feed for 
cows giving milk, the dairy interest has declined as 
the production of Alfalfa has increased. On some 
farms where 20 or more cows were kept a few years 
ago there are now only one or two. Quite a number 
of farmers in Geddes are convinced that there is not 
only a great saving of labor hut that there is also a 
much larger profit in selling Alfalfa hay than there 
is in feeding it to cows and selling milk. Still, a 
good many cows have been retained and some young 
stock is raised for sale. The Holstein breed pre¬ 
dominates. This is an ideal locality for stock rais¬ 
ing. and it might well become an important center 
of the Holstein interest. 
KNOWLEDGE—BELIEF.—In various ways Al¬ 
falfa is a peculiar plant. The most experienced 
growers are free to say that they do not know as 
much about it as they once thought they did. They 
admit that in some respects their methods do not 
harmonize with the teachings of certain scientists. 
They are modest in their claims. But they hold to 
them rather than accept theories which, however 
plausible they may be. conflict with the teachings of 
remarkably successful experience covering a period 
of from 20 to 50 years. The most remarkable inci¬ 
dent of this investigation was a conversation with 
an Alfalfa grower of considerable experience who 
holds the ancient belief regarding the influence of 
the moon upon the results of certain kinds of farm 
work. He firmly believes that many fields of Alfal¬ 
fa have been seriously injured, and that some have 
been destroyed, by cutting the plants in "the old of 
the moon.” While the moon is in this phase he will 
not mow his Alfalfa no matter how ready it is for 
the harvest or how fine the weather may be. 
THE GENERAL ESTIMATE.—There is no dif¬ 
ference of opinion as to the benefit of Alfalfa to its 
growers. It will not start itself, and it will not take 
care of itself forever, but it requires less outlay and 
less work than any other plant which makes any¬ 
thing like equal returns. It is the most permanent, 
the least exhausting, and the most profitable of the 
farm crops. Dairymen who have grown it say they 
“would not think they could make milk without it.” 
A grower who sells hay says that farmers “must grow 
it or go to the poorhouse." and one of the largest 
producers gave his estimate of its usefulness by say¬ 
ing that “the man who lias an Alfalfa plant grow¬ 
ing has a little machine working for him day and 
night.” 
A CONSERVATIVE REPORT.—The importance 
of the crop has not been exaggerated. The writer 
has been acquainted with Alfalfa for many years. 
As long ago as it was merely a curiosity in the East 
he tested it sufficiently to prove that it would be 
hardy and productive in Western Massachusetts. 
From that time he kept informed regarding the de¬ 
velopment of the Alfalfa interest in the country. For 
several years he has made an annual inspection of a 
great number of Alfalfa fields in Central New York 
and of a few in the eastern part of the State where 
as yet only small areas are given to this crop. The 
men whose practice has been described and whose 
opinions have been stated have been producing Alfalfa 
for many years. There is no “zeal of new converts” 
on the part of the growers or the writer. The ap¬ 
pearance of their farms and homes proves that the 
growers are prosperous. j. e. r. 
“HEAD OF THE HERD.”—The great bull shown 
on this page lias what every bull ought to have, “per¬ 
formance in his pedigree.” Back of him is a long 
line of cows which were in their time noted butter- 
makers. The ability to take butter fat out of grain 
and fodder was passed on and intensified by gen¬ 
erations of these cows and now this bull, their 
descendant, passes this tendency on to his daugh¬ 
ters. With reasonable care and selection they 
cannot help resembling “father’s folks” in their dairy 
work. That is what performance in the pedigree 
means, making the daughter “act like father's folks.” 
