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WHAT 1 KNOW ABOUT ALFALFA.
BY II. D. WATSON.
My acquaintance with alfalfa as a
forage plant dates from the ' 70s , when
residing in California.
In the spring of 1889 I came into pos
session of a twenty-acre field of strag
gling alfalfa , two miles west of the city
of Kearney , Buffalo county , Nebraska.
It immediately attracted my attention ,
for the reason that I had supposed it
would not thrive at this altitude with
out irrigation. At that time the thought
came to me , if this plant can be grown
hero without irrigation , it affords the
greatest opportunity for successful ag
riculture I have ever known. I there
fore resolved to watch it a little , which
I did , very much to my advantage.
During the following year , which the
people of Kansas and Nebraska so well
remember because of the terrible dryness -
ness which prevailed over a large portion
tion of these states , I succeeded in cut
ting from this twenty acres of land
nearly fifty tons of hay , in three cut
tings , worth on the ground at that time ,
because of the scarcity of hay in this
vicinity , over $600.
Sowed Some Alfalfa Seed.
I then determined to sow some alfalfa
seed as soon as possible and watoh it
from seeding. My first opportunity
came in the fall of 1892-at which time
I fitted the ground for twelve acres , and
in the spring of 1898 , after thorough
preparation , sowed the seed. The year
of 1894 was a particularly disastrous one
to the farmers of our section ( central
Nebraska ) , not alone because of the
drought , which almost equaled in sever
ity that of 1890 , but because of a severe
hail-storm , covering an area five miles
wide and fifty miles long , that destroyed
everything in its track , including the
second cutting of my alfalfa. I cut ,
however , that year , from the twelve
acres sown in 1898 , from thg first and
third crops , forty tons of hay ; and from
the twenty acres above referred to , from
the first crop , twenty tons. After the
hail-storm on July 8 the alfalfa on the
twenty-acre piece made a growth of
twenty-nine inches in thirty-one days ,
which was cut for seed , and yielded
seventy bushels of seed , then worth on
the market $4.50 per bushel , or $815.
As hay was worth ten dollars per ton at
that time , the products from thirty-two
acres of alfalfa would have brought ,
had they been sold , over $900 , or about
thirty dollars per acre.
This result in time of drought so in
terested me that in the fall of that year
I ploughed 1,000 acres of land , and , af
ter the most careful preparation , seeded
it in the spring of 1895. A part of this
acreage was sown with oats , using one
bushel of oats to the acre , and the re
mainder seeded without a nurse crop.
Since then I have sown about 1,000
acres more , 800 of which is a good
stand. This 1,800 acres of laud now set
to alfalfa is in prime condition. In this
connection it gives me pleasure to be
able to say I have an additional 1,000
acres ploughed for seeding to alfalfa in
1899.
Preparation of the Soil.
Being asked to tell you "what I know
about alfalfa , " it seems proper that I
should first tell you how the soil is pre
pared. The land is invariably ploughed
in the fall , in such a manner as to leave
no back or dead furrows , and as deeply
as possible , using a subsoiler on all land
the surface of which is more than fif
teen feet above the sheet-water that , I
am told , underlies the greater portion
of Nebraska. The land is left in the
furrow until all the frost is out of it in
the spring. We then go on to it ( some
times as early as February ) with a float
an instrument made of oak plonk ,
with which you are all no doubt famil
iar. Mine is sixteen feet long. With
this , we thoroughly crush and level the
ground , and follow immediately with a
disk harrow , going over the laud as
many times as may be necessary to per
fectly pulverize it , with the wheels set
straight in order to pack the soil as
much as possible. I am so particular
about the preparation of the soil that in
some instances the land is disked five
times. After disking , the land is
dragged thoroughly , using four horses
on a twenty-foot harrow at least once a
week on the average , or after each ram-
storm. This is done to prevent evapora
tion of the moisture which is so neces
sary to the growth of all vegetation ,
and especially this plant.
Seed Per Acre.
Based upon the result of many tests ,
I invariably use twenty pounds of seed
to the acre , sowing with a Oahoon seed
er , and sowing ten pounds each way ;
that is , ten pounds to the acre is sown
crossing the field in one direction from
east to west , or north to south , accord
ing to the wind then reseeding the
laud with ten pounds to the acre , cross
ing the field at right angles to the first
sowing. I never sow oats or other
grain with the alfalfa seed now , as my
experience has been that the alfalfa
plant requires all the moisture available
in this section , and cannot afford to
share this very necessary requisite to its
growth with any nurse crop. The seed
ing is completed between April 10 and
May 15. As experiments , I have seeded
every month in the year.and found that
the best results followed early seeding ,
as the young plants then receive the
benefits of the spring rains.
About the middle of June , or sooner ,
if the weeds are large enough to shade
the ground ( with us the sunflower and
redroot are quite rank by that time ) , I
mow the land , leaving the weeds to dry
where they fall , as they make a very
fine mulch for the alfalfa. In four or
six weeks more , according to the growth
of the weeds , I mow again , leaving the
weeds on the ground as before. This
has given me in two instances a crop of
alfalfa in September of the year of seed
ing , although generally I have got no
hay crop until the second year.
My first seeding was in alternate
strips of eighty acres , one strip with one
bushel of oats to the acre and the next
strip without the oats. The stand on
the strips sown without the oats is to
day more than twice as heavy as on
those sown with oats. Two or three
times since I have seeded small areas
with oats , and once with barley , only to
find the same result.
Third Crop for Seed.
For raising our own seed , I now in
variably use the third crop , as we have
found , if we use the first , nature will
require the whole season to mature it.
The same reason prevents us from using
the second ; whereas by using the third
crop we are enabled to get two cuttings
of hay. We always , however , calculate ,
where we intend to save the seed , to get
the first two crops off by July 1 , which
gives the third crop ample time to ma
ture its seed before frost. We have also
found that if we take the third crop for
seed , instead of either of the other two ,
we have less foliage on the stems , al
most the entire life of this crop going
to the seed , which is a great advantage
in threshing. In gathering the seed
crop we use self-rakes. We generally
thresh in winter , as we have more time
during that season of the year , using a
Birdsell huller.
I urge the importance of great care in
procuring seed , as otherwise consider
able trouble may ensue. For instance ,
I bought some seed in the spring of 1896
wliich so liberally endowed my farm
with Russian thistle and foxtail as to
practically ruin the stand. I have not
found the Russian thistle difficult to
eradicate , as it cannot stand repeated
mowing ; but foxtail , like alfalfathrives
on mowing , so that if yon once get it
into your field you had best plough it up
and start overthat ; isplough up the en
tire field and reseed it. The danger of
dodder is so well understood that you
need no warning in regard to that.
Interesting Experience.
Some of my alfalfa experience has
been very interesting. You will re
member that in the beginning I referred
to the twenty-acre piece of straggling
alfalfa. The field was straggling for
this reason : The gentleman who sowed
it in 1884 which makes the piece four
teen years old being a banker and not
a farmer , and knowing nothing about
grasses , remarked to one of his neigh
bors that he was "going to sow some
grass seed and trust to God. " He con
cluded that he would "learn all about
grasses then. " Without special prep
aration he sowed a mixture of alfalfa ,
