9C Richard Frotscher’s Almanac and Garden Manual 
weather, to cure for hay. Meanwhile a portion has been cut almost 
daily for feeding green, or soiling. Used in the latter way ( for under 
no circumstances must it ever be pastured), I am able to give my stock 
fresh, green food, fully four weeks before the native wild grasses com¬ 
mence to put out. I deem it best to cut the day before, what is fed 
green, in order to let it become thoroughly wilted before using. After 
a large number of experiments with horses, mules, cattle and swine, I 
can aver that in no instance, from March to November, have I found 
a case when any of these animals would not give the preference to Al¬ 
falfa over every kind of grass (also soiled) known in this region. And, 
while Alfalfa makes a sweet and nutritious hay eagerly eaten by all 
kinds of stock, it is as a forage plant for soiling, which is available for 
at least nine months in the year, that I esteem it so highly. The hay 
is easily cured, if that which is cut in the forenoon is thrown into small 
cocks at noon, then spread out after the dew is olf next morning, 
sunned for an hour, and at once hauled into the barn. By this method 
the leaves do not fall off, which is sure to be the case, if the Alfalfa is 
exposed to a day or two of hot sunshine. 
It has been my habit to precede the Alfalfa with a clean crop — 
usually Rutabagas, after which I sow clay peas, to be turned in about 
the last of July. About the middle of September or later I have the 
land plowed, the turn-plow’ being followed by a deep sub-soil plow or 
scooter. After this the land is fertilized and harrowed until it is thor¬ 
oughly pulverized and all lumps broken up. The fertilizers employed 
by me are 500 lbs. fine bone-dust (phosphate of lime; and 1000 lbs. cot¬ 
ton seed hull ashes per acre. These ashes are very rich in potash 
and phosphates, containing nearly 45 per cent, of the phosphate of 
lime—the two articles best adapted to the wants of this plant. 1 sow all 
my Alfalfa with the Matthew’s Seed Drill, in rows 10 inches apart. 
Broad-cast would be preferable, if the land was perfectly free from 
grass and weeds; but, as it takes several years of clean culture to put 
the land in this condition, sowing in drills is practically the best. No 
seed sower known to me can be compared with the Matthew’s Seod 
Drill. Its work is evenly and regularly done, and with a rapidity 
that is astonishing; for it opens the drill to any desired depth, drops 
the seed, covers and rolls them, and marks the line for the next drill 
at one operation. It is simple and durable in its structure, and is the 
greatest labor-saving machine of its kind ever devised for hand-work. 
When my Alfalfa is about three inches high, I work it with the 
Matthew’s Hand Cultivator. First, the front tooth of the cultivator is 
taken out, by which means the row is straddled and all the grass cut 
out close to the plant; then the front tooth being replaced, the culti¬ 
vator is passed betw r een the rows, completely cleaning the middles of 
all foul growth. As often as required to keep down grass, until the 
Alfalfa is large enough to cut, the Matthew’s Hand Cultivator is 
passed between the rows. 
Alfalfa requires three years to reach perfection, but even the first 
year the yield is larger than most forage plants, and after the second 
it is enormous. The land must, however, be made rich at first; a top¬ 
dressing every three years is all that will thereafter be required. The 
