Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1915 — Alfalfa Fields Doing Nicely. [ARTICLE]

Alfalfa Fields Doing Nicely.

“Uncle” Charlie Pullins brought to The Democrat office yesterday morning some stalks of barley and alfalfa of this spring’s sowing on his place in the west part of town. The barley was sown April 10, three pecks to the acre, and the alfalfa sown on top of it. This is on the old Dr. Washburn pasture and the cultivated field south of the house. It has grown very rank, some of the barley stalks now measuring four feet in length and are headed out. Some of the alfalfa is eighteen inches tall and has roots six to eight inches in length. The barley has blown down quite badly and Mr. Pullins fears that it will kill out the young shoots of alfalfa and that he will have to sow the field over again, or at least parts of it. He now has practically all of the old Dr. Washburn place, consisting of seven acres, sown to alfalfa except a small patch for a garden. He finished Harvesting his old alfalfa field there on Monday, the first cutting, and had a very fine crop.

By the way, there are now quite a good many patches of alfalfa growing in Jasper county, in about Rensselaer and the north part of Jasper, and with very satisfactory results as a rule. The total acreage in the county is probably several hundred, and the growers are well pleased with the crop. Several cuttings each year are obtained and at the price which alfalfa hay usually sells for here, in the neighborhood of S2O per ton, it makes one of the best paying crops one can raise. A greater acreage is being put out each year, and it is probable that in ten years’ time Jasper county will be noted for its successful growing of this crop.