Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1916 — JOE WING’S WORK STILL LIVES [ARTICLE]

JOE WING’S WORK STILL LIVES

Ohio’s Alfalfa Authority Leaves Valuable Experience to Other Growers. The late Joe Wing of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, was undoubtedly America’s best-known Alfalfa Authority and enthusiast. Joe Wing made the almost unknown alfalfa plant a by-word in every nook and hamlet of our land. He first studied this wonder-working plant in the far West and then demonstrated on his own farm in Ohio the great possibilities of alfalfa for the American farmer. In his book, “Alfalfa in America,” Joe Wing says, “Sow almost any sort of alfalfa seed, sow at any time of moon or in almost any sort of way and you will succeed, if —here is the fatal “if’ —your soil is right. . . . Alfalfa growing is a soil question. Get the soil right and it is difficult to fail.” Drainage is the first and fundamental factor in getting the soil right. Alfalfa will not stand for wet feet any more than the most delicate child will grow strong if its feet are always wet and cold. The soil must be well supplied with organic matter and be sweet. If alfalfa is to be seeded on land where it has never grown before either the seed, soil, or both, positively must be inoculated with alfalfa bacteria. Finally, though all this be done, profitable alfalfa cannot be grown unless the soil has an abundance of readily available plantfood. The young alfalfa plants need a little ammonia to give them a quick start and keep them going until the bacteria on the roots become established. After that they need potash and a large proportion of phosphoric acid. For the average loam or clay loam soils, 300 to 500 pounds to the acre of a fertilizer analyzing 1 to 3 per cent ammonia, 8 to 12 per cent phosphoric acid and 2 to 4 per cent potash will give good results. Owing to the present war conditions making potash scarce and high priced, a smaller percentage of potash is advisable until conditions adjust themselves. On sandy or exceptionally thin land use a fertilizer running higher in ammonia and put it on heavier. Regarding fertilizer distribution, “Alfalfa in America” has the following.

“On Woodbine Farm we own a wide and large fertilizer distributor. This machine sows a strip 8 feet wide and the box holds 1,000 pounds of fertilizer. It simply sows the stuff broadcast on the surftice. With such a machine a man oan go rapidly over his old meadow, or sow his phosphorus over his land preparatory to seeding his alfalfa. No one should hesitate to buy the fertilizer, since a dollar so invested will usually return three or four in the crop of hay.”