1077 
An Alfalfa Heretic’s Sermon 
Unusual Methods in Indiana 
A SURE CROP.—The other day I saw a man from 
Norwich, Conn. He was looking at a load of 
pea-green Alfalfa in the Indianapolis, Ind., hay mar¬ 
ket. He said he tried 15 years ago to raise Alfalfa, 
and failed. He also said many other farmers in 
Connecticut had failed time after time to raise Al¬ 
falfa. I told him I had raised Alfalfa in Central 
Indiana for 21 years and I regard it as altsolutely 
the easiest and surest crop to raise, and the most 
profitable one, also. He thought I must sow it “liy 
the moon or stars." I told him that I 
always sow in (or on) the ground; 
that I never sowed Alfalfa "in the 
moon" in mj' life. I raise it now, 
and for the last five years at less than 
one-tenth of the usual cost and have 
never had a failure since beginning 
this method; a method that is hooted 
at by most farmers, far or near; but 
I get results just the same. I am at 
the present writing (Aug. 29) finish¬ 
ing the harvesting of the second crop 
for this year of about 100 acres of 
fine Alfalfa; and the third crop is 
knee high, and ready to commence on. 
It was my load of “pea-green Al¬ 
falfa” that this “Yanliee” waj? look¬ 
ing at; and I sold it for $20 per ton. 
taken from the windrow; this price 
making at least 214 tons of dry hay 
per acre, while the first crop was 
almost as heavy. 
FOUR CROPS A YEAR.—I get 
four crops of Alfalfa a year, while my 
neighbors get only one crop of Tim¬ 
othy. My cro]) makes the land richer, 
theirs makes it poorer. I sow only 
>ix or eight pounds of Alfalfa seed per 
.i<-re in the Winter time, with no pre- 
jiaration of seed bed, except what 
.Tack Frost does, free of charge. I 
never “clip weeds high" (as is often 
reeommended) to kill weeds, and to 
!lii<ken the Alfalfa. I “let the weeds 
uM-ow until the harvest." or until new 
Alhilfa sprouts or new shoots have 
-l;irte<I for another growth; then I 
•lit just as close to the ground as pos¬ 
it >le, killing the weeds and stimulat- 
■ns,' the new shoots, or new buds into 
•i*^\v life, thus occupying the ground 
;<> the exclusion of weeds. I don’t cut 
the lungs out of Alfalfa, and I don't 
•hicken the weeds, as the other fel- 
...w does by his high clipping. 
THIN SEEDINCx BEST.—Alfalfa 
must have room to tiller—one seed 
vill often produce over 2(H) stems. 
Fncle Sam says, “Counts in old Al¬ 
falfa fields show stands of from one 
o six iilants to the s<iuare fc>ot. with 
t-qiial yields from all"; .vet this .same 
I'ncle Sam recommends 20 lbs. of seed 
>er acre, laitting, as he says, “100 
-eeds to the .sipiare foot.” I think this 
A "spreading it on pretty thick” when 
■ nly one to six plants can live on one 
qua re foot of surface. 
.TACK FROST SEEDING.—I sow 
■a “honeycombed” corn stubble, oats 
'tubble, potato or tomato ground 
vithout cultivation (ex' cpt by .lack 
Fi'ost, the greatest of all agricultur- 
■.•<ts). I not only save two-thirds of 
he 20 lbs. of seed per acre, but I save 
dl of that deep plowing, harrowing, 
relling, dragging, etc., that the. "other 
fellow” does in early Spring and Sum¬ 
mer to conserve moisture, kill wee<ls, 
and to make the ground solid again 
like it was before plowing it. I u.se 
the early rains and gentle sunshine by 
early (February or ISIarch) secaling; and I have 
strong, well-rooted plants that nor oidy stand the 
drought of Summer, and the cold of Winter, but 
I get fi-om two to three crops of Alfalfa the first 
year. The regulation cultivation all Summer, sow- 
it-just-befroe-a-drought-comes man. using 20 lbs. of 
seed j)er acre usually plows his sickly, overcrowded 
Alfalfa up and plants corn, saying "My farm '• not 
ad.-ipted to Alfalfa”; “I tiled it; I had a fine thick 
stand at fir.st, but it turned yellow and died." He 
doesn’t always plow it up either; for after the first 
Winter “spews” it out of the ground for lack of 
root growth that might have been obtained by e.-irly 
IShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
seeiling; the earlier the better. I have sown Alfalfa 
in January (before zero weather) and it grew waist 
high the first Summer. j. n. shiri.ey. 
Indianapolis. 
The Problem of Poultry Feeding 
A few years back Alfalfa meal was commonly con¬ 
sidered indispeusible in laying mash for hens, yet neither 
the Cornell ration nor the North American laying 
comix'tition mention it. The latter bulletin, issued 
Ain-il. 1915, also states. “Green food on some farms has 
always been considered necevssary to gwd health and 
high egg y-eld, yet the rate of mortality has never been 
lower' d in flocks in which green food is used. This is 
g-r- 
Corn on Alfalfa Sod Photographed August 2, 1917. Fig. 481 
Horse that Lives on Alfalfa Snd Hard Work. Fig. 482 
human being can definitely answer them. Take this, 
for instance: “Green food has always been considered 
necessary to good health and high egg production— 
yet the rate of mortiility has never been lowered in 
flocks where green food is used.” Then follow' tw'o 
assumptions: One, “The fallacy of the cleansing ef¬ 
fect of green waste material,” the other, "The im¬ 
possibility of maintaining a continuous green food 
f^npply.” Neither of the.se is proved. How do W'e 
know that without green food the mortality w'ould 
not be greater? Have any experiments been carried 
on long enough to definitely determine that as a fact? 
If so. I do not know of them. And as to the “im¬ 
possibility of maintaining a continu¬ 
ous supply of green food” it is not 
impossible. I am well aware that 
the mortality at the North Amer¬ 
ican egg-laying contests was aston¬ 
ishingly low, and have no doubt that 
this low’ mortality was due to the 
“clean.ser” fed to the fowl.s. I haven't 
the exact figui-es, but if I remem¬ 
ber right, it was less than 25 per 
cent, of the ordinary mortality. 
But w’hat interests the ordinary 
poultryman now’ more than anything 
else, is how’ to feed his fowls the 
most cheaply without low’ering egg 
production too much. He must rec¬ 
ognize the fact that it is better to 
produce 100 eggs at a profit than to 
produce 150 eggs at a loss. 
The proteins of the legumes, clover, 
Alfalfa, etc., must be utilized as far 
as pos.sible. A wet mash composed 
of these two w’ith cornmeal mixinl 
W’ith it makes a tolerably ^ood feed. 
Poultrymen should remember that fat 
in some form is just as neces.sary as 
the proteins to good egg production. 
A good laying hen will take all the 
fat fx’om her own body if she does not 
get sufficient in her food. Save all 
wa.stes; get bones from the butcher, 
put in all chicken legs, heads, etc., 
and boil into soups which niLxed 
with grain.s make most excellent 
feed. A French family would no more 
thiidv of throwing away the legs and 
head of a fowl than of throw’ing away 
the body. They make most excellent 
soup of what we wa.ste. 
Eifiy years ago .some Gonnecticut 
poultrymen “chipped in" and rai.sed 
a fund to send a young man to the 
port of Leghorn in Italy to import 
some Rose Comb Leghorns. He 
could not find such a bird in Italy. 
This is the reason. A steamer load 
of poultry leaves I.eghorn every week 
for Marsailles in France, and the 
Fi-ench make a popula dish of the 
comb, head and wattle.s. The bigger 
the comb and longer the w'atMes the 
better. Ro.se Combs would be at a 
discount, so they were not bred, and 
the young man came back to Connec¬ 
ticut w’ithout any. 'i\’hat Ro.se Comb 
Leghoi'iis we have are “honmmade." 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
Sleeping House Where an Indiana Farmer Spends His Vacation. This Camp Cost About Thirteen 
Dollars not Including Labor and Fits on a Farm Wagon. Fig. 483 
due to two reasons; One. the fallacy of the cleansing 
effect of green waste material; the other, the impos¬ 
sibility of mahitainiug a continuous green food supply.” 
Do our oat sprouters, mangels, lettuce, etc., also go to 
the discard? Do we have fads and fancies still in the 
egg business? Have we no standards yet? In the bul¬ 
letin aforesaid mention is made of an intestinal cleanser 
as follows : “Under no circumstances can this cleanser 
be considered an egg forcer, for no stimulants of any 
kind are used in its make-up. Stimulants In so-called 
egg-makei’s are the cause of Spring liver trouble and 
the consequent high rate of mortality.” They do not 
.state what this cleanser consists of. Do any of your 
re.-iders know, also dosage, etc.? J. F. 
New Jerst'y. 
The (luestion.s raised by J. F. in the above letter 
.are rorfainly very interesting, but I doubt if any 
The Food Control Law and 
Contracts 
Since the passage of the food con¬ 
trol bill many and strange questions 
are coming in. Many people do not 
understand the powers which this bill 
gives to the government, and they 
seem to imagine that Mr. Hoover is 
to be some sort of a czar (or what a 
czar was before Rus.sia broke loose), 
who has power to break contracts or 
upset business generally. The fact 
is that under this new law the gov¬ 
ernment will first of all ti’y to carry out its 
plans by .suggesting new and more efficient methods. 
It will rely upon patriotic feeling on the part of tlu^ 
people to carry out its plans—only resorting to its 
strong power when any set of men refuse to do their 
part. Among the questions received by us is the fol¬ 
lowing from Delaware: 
Would a food contract made before the war now be 
legal? I am enclo.sing the contract the farmers made 
with the canner. Tomatoes are are now bringing 50 to 
SO cents on the market. Farmers will lose thousands of 
didlars. Woidd not the canner be making excessive 
profit? If you cannot answer above question, will you 
give me the address of Mr. Hoover or some one who 
