Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1913 — EASTERN EYES ON ALFALFA PLANT [ARTICLE]

EASTERN EYES ON ALFALFA PLANT

Crop Will Do More to Restore Worn Out Farms Than AnyThing Yet Suggested. A carload of alfalfa seed shipped from Oklahoma to the farmers of the New England states opened the eyes of the eastern press and caused them to give much publicity to the importance of this valuable harvest. This carload of seed consisted of about 600 bushels, worth $7.60 per bushel, or $5,000 in round figures. It was retailed to farmers at $lO per bushell, or more, but even at that price it was cheaper than any other seed they could us© for producing stock food. The newspapers of the east have advertised the importance of alfalfa and so have most of the agricultural colleges, but the farmers who read western farm papers are just learning what it means and its popularity as a reliable and profitable farm crop. Where the ground has been prepared in the proper manner and pure seed sown under favorable conditions alfalfa has produced from one ton to a ton and a half per acre at a single cutting. As alfalfa always produces two and sometimes three crops a year the yield is much larger and the money-earning capacity of the land many times greater than any other farm feed that can be raised on New England soil. ft is a wrong theory that alfalfa cannot be raised in the east. Many farmers have tried it and failed, but the failure almost in every instance may be traced to four things: Sour soil, lack of bacteria, insufficient preparation of the soil and impure non-germinating seed. Lime will sweeten the soil. Soil from an old alfalfa field will supply the bacteria and the application of common sense and patience will do the rest Alfalfa will do more to restore worn out farms of the east and south and do it more cheaply than anything else.