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Show KING OF HAY CROPS Alfalfa Is One of Best Drought Resistant Plants. Crop Cornea Nearer to Giving Something Some-thing for Nothing Than Anything Else on Farm Also Improve! Im-prove! the Soil. illy W.( l'At.MKi: ) Alfalfa is the king among hay crops, the queen among soil improvers, improv-ers, the prince among drought resist-am resist-am plants. It comes neater to giving something for nothing than anything else on the farm. It will produce more hay per acre, and hay of a high I ceding value. While giving that valuable val-uable crop of bay it will ut the same time leave the soil richer In nitrogen and humus every year that It occupies the land, and supplies the very things t hut the grain crops take out the fastest fast-est and leaves the soil in the greatest need of. Still the whole story Ih not told, as weeds cannot grow readily after the alfalfa gets a good stand and ir they should grow a little the alfalfa Is cut before the weeds are ripe no they cannot go to seed. The roots go deep and so open up the Midi better I than the subsoller. The one dlsadvatl-I dlsadvatl-I tage In growing alfalfa Is that It Is la little (llftlcult to start; so when a gK)d stand Is secured it ought to be 1 left for several years. It Is not a good rotation crop like clover. This li. really no great drawback though, as It will produce a crop that is worth j more than any crop that can be prow n. ! Alfalfa will grow on any good noil that is well drained; in sand It will not do so well, and hard pan Interfer-fetes Interfer-fetes with Its root growth. Standing ; water Is death to It. When starting i alfalfa It must be kept In mind that alfalfa has bacteria living In nodules on Its roots. Tin se genus furnish ; the plait with nitrogen which they take from the Roil air. Thy put It into a form that the plant can use iiiid so supply the alfalfa w ith the nitrogen nitro-gen that it nei ds and more too. The alfalla plant has In a measure )ot - the power of taking nitrogen from ttie ! soil as the other crops do, so It can 1 not make much growth alone. It In 1 turn funilshra the genus with food I of a different kind so It Is a ( o opera-, opera-, live affair, each furnishing that which It ran secure the cash st. When the alfalfa is starting It docs not have the germs on Its roots and si Is very delicate and must be given goiKl care. The Ik st way to do that is to get some soil from a field thnt has Ix-en growing alfalfa successfully for u few years and sow It on the new field at the rate of 200 pounds per acre. The best way to prepare the poll Is to manure for a crop of corn clean cultivate the corn then sow the alfalfa al-falfa on the disked corn stubble, putting put-ting In eight to ten pounds per acre and with the drill so as to get the seed burled one to two Inches do not sow any nurse crop with It. A bare fallow thnt has been kept free from weeds will also be a good preparation, prepara-tion, as will also potato ground. Hut In any case It should be manured. When the alfalfa Is up eight to ten Incites It should be cut back. This will not hurt the alfalfa; In fact will do It gruvd-but will be hard on the weeds. The amount of seed corn sown should vary with the rainfall; under Irrigation, Irriga-tion, or where the rainfall Is abundant, more seed than specified above should be sown. It has been found by experiments ex-periments that where the plants were nine Inches apart three cuttings were secured In 1910 and the yield was nearly near-ly Z'-i tons, while where the plants wer only two Inch's apart only one cutting of about half a ton was secured. se-cured. In digging out the roots )t was found that where the plant were far apart the roots went down seven to eight feet while In the case of the plants that were close together the roots did not go d iw n more than three f'-et. |