"Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
315 
States, because in the more southerlj’ sections the 
leaf mildew is apt to be very troublesome, spoiling 
the appearance of the leaves in late Summer. 
Lilacs can be cut Itack almost to the ground with 
perfect safety, and this is the plan to be followed in 
rejuvenating the leggy specimens .so often to lie 
feund on old places. If i runing is necessarv, the 
woi'k should be jierforined immeeliately after the 
blossoms have faded, for tlie lilac makes its buds 
for the next season duriinr the previous Summer. If 
jii",:ning is left until 'Winter oi- early Spring, a great 
many buds will be cul off. It is al.^o a benelit to- 
the plant if the faded llowers are removed. There 
is no rea.son why a much longer .season of lilac bloom 
.^I'.or.id not le imjoyed in the .average garden. It is 
ipiite jKissible by choosing the proper varieties to 
have flowers open for at least two months. 
Massachusetts. r. i. farkingtox. 
Silage Cutter as a Bean Separator 
I ILVN'E I'.aiseil beans all my life, that is since 
bo.vhood. and believed that I had thrashed or 
helped thrash beans by ev(>ry known method or 
makeshift, but I take otf my hat to the bean 
growers of Schuyler County, N. Y. A few days ago 
1 was attending a farnu rs institute at Reading 
('enter. My part on the pi-ogram was "A I’rolit- 
iible Rean Crop." I’.efore the meeting came to 
order I overheard a number of farmers talking 
about thrashing beans, and how the jobs recently 
Ihrashed yielded, etc. As I knew the roads were 
impassable ftir a bean thrashing outfit to move, I 
i,'.([nired as to how they were thrashing the beans. 
Tlu> an.swer was. "Why. with the silage cutter. .lust 
!•( v(*rse the knives, that is tui-ii them .so that the 
back of. the knife strikes d<nvn instead of the 
shai-p edge, open the throat to .-illow of easier feed¬ 
ing, feed even and steady, and the work is done 
rapidly and .satisfactorily." The beans and pods 
after passing througli the cutter ])ass out on a large 
perfoi’ateil table or s( reen, om* man standing there 
and raking the ])ods otf while the lit'ans f.nll throngh 
I he o])enin.gs in ;i jiile bemnith. 'I'liey are then 
shoxnned hack to <ine side Ii(*re was something 
Worth while. In nm.-'t neighborhoods there are 
small engines or other motive powi-r -that can easily 
!•( moved around, even when tin* roads are b.ad, 
and silage cutters abound in almost every locality. 
The.se farmer.s, like a great many others, had suc¬ 
ceeded in I’aising moi’e or less b(‘ans. but they were 
late in h.arvesiing, and before they were tit to 
thrash or the machine could get around to do the 
thra.shin.g. th(> loads w(Ma> blocked and bean thra.sh- 
ing promised to be delayed iiuletinitely. Farmers 
wanted to get those beans on the market, for they 
aia> not .siieculators to any extent. Some one had 
it dream that materia li/ted and the beans were 
thrashed. We must .iro a long way before the 
American farmer is found in a corner where he is 
t'liabh' to extricate him>elf. He will change 
nu'thods and find an outlet. ii. E. c. 
Successful Alfalfa in the Hudson Valley 
I HAVE' been greatly interesreil in Mr. Shirley’s 
articles on .Vlfalfa in Titi; R. N.-Y., ]iartictilarly 
tin‘ jiortions in relation to varieties and motjiod of 
seeding. For several .vears we have been testing 
varieties of Alfalfa in an endeavor to find one that 
will grow succe.ssfully on Dutchess silt loam in 
Dutchess Count,Y. X. Y. This soil has a hardpan a 
short di.stance below the surface, and the tap-root 
of Medicago saliva, the .goovl old common tap-rooted 
variety, has much diflicult.v in penetratin.g it. Some¬ 
times when this root hits the hardpan in its growth 
it will turn about and try to .grow upward. Fnder 
these conditions the plant .scion dies. A X'ow York 
business man. who has :t very large estate in 
Dutchess County, has .spent thousands of dollars in 
an attempt to grow this rariety of Alfalfa on his 
hardpan soil. He has given up in di.s,gust. 
In the Spring of I!»I4 1 purcha.scsl from I'rof. Han- 
Cossack Alfalfa from Set-Plants. Fig. 148 
sen, the L. S. (Jovernnienf explorer who wmit to 
Europe and Asia several trines to find new varieties 
of Alfalfa, one iKUind each of (^issack, ('herno and 
Semiiialatinsk Alfalfa seeds. At the same time I 
l-urchased l.OOO yearling iilants of the f'os.sack. 
Cherno and Omsk varietie-. I set these* plants in 
rows three foot apart and \y-> foot apart in the row. 
I sowed the schhIs in drills: some of the drills were 
tliree feet apart and some two feet. I also put in 
seven rows of (irimm. Alfalfa beside the other va¬ 
rieties. The yc’ar following 1 added several rows of 
(‘renhurg Alfalfa. I prepared my land for this 
.Mfalfa by tb.orough tillage, the application of four 
tons of ground limestone pot acre, a goo<l application 
of barnyard manure and 300 pounds of Thomas slag 
per acre. Rractically every plant set grew and is 
alive today, having passed through three severe Win¬ 
ters. 
The seeds of the various vtxrieties produced good 
plants. The Semipalatinsk, the Omsk and the Orc'ii- 
burg varieties are jmre Medicago falcata. They have 
yellow flowers, a finely branching root system, the 
crown is two to four inches under the surface of 
the ground. They grow well in our .soils and the 
coldest wc'ather and hc*aving .gi'ound cannot kmx k 
them out. Howc'c’cr, they do not rc'covc'r ipiickl.v 
after cutting, and their sp'ins with us do not stand 
erect. They .give us one .good and one small crop 
each reason. 
The Cossack. Ch.erno and (Jrimm are varieties of 
M-ediray;) media. They are crosses l;etw(>(':i Medicago 
falcata and iMedicago sativa -and .seem to have in¬ 
herited the desirable characteristics of both iiarent 
varieties. They have the branching root system to a 
great extent, flowers of various colors, the. crown is 
under ground, they stand erect, recover (piickly after 
cutting and produce three ,cood crops yearly in our 
section. The.v are able with their lon.g lateral roots 
to grow above the hardpan in our soils. The.v have 
been thx*oiigh three AVinters here without the apjiar- 
ent loss of a plant. Lf these varietic's, the (Jrimm 
has made considerably the best growth in our trial 
plots. AYe think that in the (irimm we havi* found 
a plant that will do Avonderfully well in all this sec¬ 
tion of tile East, Avhere Alfalfa has not I ccn snc'. e. s- 
fully grown. 
Finding that the Grimm under exactly the same 
conditions was doing mucli better than the other 
varieties, in 191(1 we thoroughly prepared a four- 
acre field In putting on more than four tons t f 
ground limestone jier acre, a fair application of ma¬ 
nure. and 39(1 pounds of acid phosphate jier acre. 
AVe couhl not get Thomas s-la,g, Avhich we much pre¬ 
fer for this use, and on .Tune 39 drilled in oiu* bushel 
of Grimm Alfalfa seeds on the four-acre patch. I 
mixed with this Alfalfa .sei'd two jiounds of white 
Sweet clover, one and one-half pounds each of Red 
clover a.nd Als'ke clover jior acre, m.v idea being that 
the.se clovers would help keep the wi'ods down the 
first and .second years and that later their roots 
V mild enrich the ground for the Alfalfa, and that as 
Grimm has a large crown this would spread and 
(x-cupy the space which the clovers had occupied. 
This field was inoculated by puttin,g 399 iiounds per 
acre of soil from a vigorous Alfalfa field into the 
fertilizi'i' compartment of a grain drill and drilling 
it into the .soil, and by inoculating each vaiaety of 
seed with th.e jmfiier cultures.. 
In the Summer of 1917, we cut three crops of ha.v 
from this field. 39 big two-horse load.s. The si'eds 
were sown liroadcast with an ordinary grain drill. 
AATiile the iilants we have set and the plants from 
seeds sown in drills have lived, grown and done well, 
we do not .get as much hay per acre from this jdau 
as we do when the seeds are sown broadcast. AVe 
are therefore now using the latter method entirel.v. 
I firmly believe that any farmer in the East who 
will sow Grimm Alfalfa on good. well-prei>ar(‘d. well- 
drained. rolling or sloping laud which has a I'cason- 
able amount of hnmu.s, which has had an application 
Alfalfa on the Farm ^^artin F.. Thew, Dutchess Co., N Y. Fig. 149 
