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The Rural Publishing Co. 
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1 110 
Rural New-Yorker 
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Single Copies, Five Cents 
The Business Farmers Paper 
VoL. LXXVI. 
NEW YOKK. OCTOBER 20, 1917 
No. 4452 
Another “ Sermon” on Alfalfa 
Shall We Seed Without Fine Preparation? 
The It. N.-Y. has come to be a very fine market¬ 
place for ideas. The sermon of “An Alfalfa Heretic.” 
on page 1077, has intere.sted me deeply, so much so that 
I would like to know his modus operandi of sowing in 
February or March. If his style would succceed here it 
would be a boon in these days of having to do it all 
yourself. Will he go more in detail as regards the ac¬ 
tual introduction of seed to the soil? F. A. avilsox. 
New Jersey, 
What is your opinion of the following? My land i.s 
clay loam with heavy clay bottom. My Spring-sown 
clover seed largely failed on the wheat field. Do you 
believe the J. M. Shirle.v methotl of getting an Alfalfa 
stand would work on such laud? I mean the method 
adA'ocated on page 1077, namely, sow Alfalfa seed in 
midwinter and let frost work it into the ground—about 
seven or eight pounds to the acre. How would it do to 
plow up some of this field I refer to, say in November, 
and sow in January following? This Shirley idea looks 
like quite a discovery ; saves so much work and is a 
sure thing and takes only one-aalf the usual amount of 
seed. The only question is, would this method be prac¬ 
tical in Virginia? K. E. bordex. 
Virginia. 
NORTHODOX SUCCESS.—For 15 .vear.s T fol¬ 
lowed the “orthodox method” of sowing Al¬ 
falfa, viz., plo'wed the ground, cultivated it each 
week for a month or two, .sowed 20 iK)unds of seed 
per acre. etc., but, as it happened. 1 never “clipped 
the weeds high to kill them, and to thicken the Al¬ 
falfa.” as is recommended by Alfalfa experts. Do 
ycm cut weeds high in the garden or cornfield? Do 
you thicken Alfalfa by cutting its lungs out? For 
.several years I AA'ondered why I could not sow Al¬ 
falfa in February or M.arch, . on “honeycombed” 
ground, just as I, and others, had sown clover for 
years. Finally I tried it on St. Patrick’s 1 >ay, lOlo. 
IMy father said he would give me $50 per ton for 
all the Alfalfa hay that I would raise on this little 
idece of corn-stubble ground. I said, “All right; 
prepare to pay me at lea.st ,$150 this year.” In July 
I was selling Alfalfa hay from this seeding at $1G 
per ton in the field, the buyer hauling it, and my 
father said he “had to go back or go broke.” I have 
followed this method now for five years and have 
neA'er failed, from reasons stated in the “Sermon” 
on page 1077. 
THE COHN STUBBLE.—I don’t break the corn 
stubbles, but cut them Avith the moAver at first cut¬ 
ting of Alfalfa, and put them up Avith the hay. 
They dry out, get shell.v, if left standing, and are 
easy to clip off, leaving the roots or stubs in the 
ground. They are clean. They help cure the hay 
by airing it. They make good bedding and manure. 
If stubs are broken doAvn they get Avater-soaked, and 
much dirt is throAvn up by their roots being turned 
out of the ground, and, of cour.se, they are raked up 
in the hay, to its detriment. 
“COLD STORAGE.”- The ideal Avay to soav Al¬ 
falfa. I think, is the Jack Frost method. “Nature 
prepares the finest seed bed in the Avorld,” e.siAecially 
if shallow cultivation has been practiced in the pre¬ 
ceding year’s ci’ops (as it should be to preseiwe 
moisture and to keep the ground level and free from 
AA'eed groAAdh). Why ploAV such ground as this, thus 
bringing up to Avarmth and air and sunlight. Aveed 
seeds that are already Avater-soaked and I’eady to 
groAv, when they never could grow if left too deep 
An Indiana Colt Getting His Noonday Lunch. Fig. 542 
in the ground? Why “plow the ground deeii" and 
then make if “.^olid” again by so much useless work? 
Alfalfa (the kind I u.se^ has a tap-root, and it Avants 
a good anchorage. This root does not Avant to strike 
an air pocket or a pile of cornstalks turned under by 
plowing. 
CON.^ERVING MOISTURE AND KILLING 
WEEDS.— M'e are told to ploAV deep and cultivate 
often to conserve moisture and to kill all the Aveed 
seeds. Did .a'ou eA'er notice that cla.v throAvn out of a 
AA'oll 40 feet deep avouUI soon be covered by Aveeds? 
These Aveed .seeds had been there for centuries, yet 
they groAA' nicely Avhen brought to the surface. Weeds, 
like the poor, you “have Avith you alway.s.” In- 
■stead of spending time and energ.v trying to “kill all 
the AA'eed seed by sprouting and uprooting them,” 
thus bringing up a fresh supirtj" at each cultivation. 
why not let the feAA' gi"ow that the Winter has not 
killed, and then kill them by close cutting when the 
Alfalfa buds have stai'ted nicely for a new gi*owth 
of Alfalfa? When you do this by Winter seeding 
you get the benefit of all the early rains and the 
gentle sun.shine of early Sprang, to enable your Al¬ 
falfa to Aviithstarrd Summer dr'orrghts and the rigors 
of the first Winter. You also get one or tAA-'o crops 
of Alfalfa ha.y, and sometimes three crops, the first 
year, and four crops the second year, provided your 
land is “•inoculated” and is rrot .sour. In the latter 
case a feAV tons of ground limestone shoirld be scat¬ 
tered over the groirnd: and, to “inoculate,” I ir.se .soil 
from an old succe.ssful Alfalfa field. SAA'eet clov'er 
soil AA'ill inoculate for Alfalfa, but I dorr’t like to use 
it and get SAveet cloA'er mixed Avith my Alfalfa. 
LOCAL CONDITIONS.—Mr. Wilson of NeAv Jer¬ 
sey .says: “If his style aa'ouUI succeed here, it w'ould 
be a boon in these days of having it all to do your¬ 
self.”^ Mr. Borderr says: “The only question is, 
Avo'uld this method be practical in Virginia?” Men 
Avho have farms adjoining my Alfalfa fields sa.v 
their larrd is not adapted to Alfalfa. The.v IraA'e rro 
faith, as a rule, in the “Jack Frost method of sow¬ 
ing .Vlfalfa.” Less than a AA'oek ago a man only a 
feAV miles aAvay called me rrp and asked arrother 
batch of questions aborrt Alfalfa, as he frequently 
had done for .several years. He said he has once 
more ploAved his Alfalfa rrp, and is this time going 
to try Fall seeding. I Avas rather shocked at this, 
.seeding after Ave have had several frosts in Central 
Irrdiana; but to-day, September 20, another man 
told me his tenant Avas preparing ground to sow 
Alfalfa yet this Fall! I told him it woirld be all 
right if hard freezing AA'eather AA'ould c*ome and stay 
Avith us for the . ‘x-t six or eight months, and keep 
his Alfalfa irr “cold storage” until warm Aveather in 
Spring Avould sproirt it. Why not use a little “horse 
sense” and wait until January to soav. at least, thus 
being sure of “premature” germination? 
SOIL BREPARATION.- The R. N.-Y. sa.vs this: 
