Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1914 — ALFALFA RAISED ON JASPER COUNTY SOIL [ARTICLE]

ALFALFA RA ISED ON JASPER COUNTY SOIL

Almost Any Soil Will Grow ftSome Precautions In Selecting the Kind Best Adapted.

It was only a few years ago that no one believed alfalfa could be raised closer than Kansas or Nebraska. Then after it was successfully established in a limited way at different places in the county the opinion was it could never be a general crop from the supposed fact that only a few types of soils could produce it. But now <we have come to 'believe that there is but ft small percentage of Jasper county but can be made to raise it. The word “made” in that statement should not be overlooked. In selecting land for alfalfa the beginner will do well to be governed largely by the performance of corn upon the ground in Question. Keeping in mind that the . drainage ! should be such as would prevent there being standing water on it in winter, and as the air is warmer than water the dryer land will be warmer and start the plant earlier in springtime.; Every type of soil in Jasper county can be made to grow it, excepting possibly the peat or muck Which will most certainly heave It out badly in winter. Land that produces forty or more bushels of corn per acre and is sufficiently drained regardless of whether it be clay, loam, black loam, sandy loam or sand should not be difficult to set in alfalfa. Plants, lake animals, can not do their best without a balanced ration and in this respect they are even at a disadvantage as compared to animals, from the fact that animals hate the power of locomotion while plants are stationary, and iif the required plant foods are not in reach of the plants it is the business of the farmer to place them there. While the lands of the arid west have the advantage of us in the matter of lime, phosphoros and potassium, they pay dearly for

water that we have a perpetual, everlasting right to. Then the center of population is how within the borders of Indiana. In many localities of the west alfalfa seldom sells for more than five dollars per ton and after all it’s the dollar that counts. In this respect we have them beaten a country block.

CARPE DIEM.