Show all about alfalfa or lucern several articles have appeared in the prairie farmer and nud various other papers or of late speaking of the alfalfa of california and mexico as a highly productive and valuable forage plant and some writers have asserted that it is a native product of the pacific coast thus conveying the idea that it is something now and unknown to our agricula turis jurists ts and hence we flud inquiries beginning to be made for the seed and enterprising 0 seeds men are importing it from california in the belief that it is a new product which promises to bo be valuable to our fari fart farmers partners ners being an ad of progress and Im improvement improved proven lent I 1 am not disposed to discount discourage ge experiments with any now or old oid ON productions that give giveans any promise of benefit which I 1 certainly think the alfalfa does in certain locations but I 1 think it proper to give the following statements to disabuse the farming public of several popular mistakes concerning 0 it in the first place instead or of being new the is orie one of the oldest of cul cui forage plants being in noth ng else than the well g k known lacern of england 1 and france dativa sativa called alfalfa i 1 i 1 spain of which country it is sai to be a native and was doubt doubtless lebs leas carried from there to mexico and california for which regions it is admirably adapted owing to its ability to withstand drought in inconsequence consequence of f its great depth of root there can be no doubt about the ide identity nty 0 of f the alfalfa and 1 lucern lucern forth for the tho experiment has been made of growing the plants from the seeds of ape the one from mexico and the other from england side by side and I 1 have myself seen both tile tiie plant and seed from california and many acres of the same in europe where whore it has been grown for centuries forty years or more moro ago lucern was grown r own and highly recommended bg by y chancellor livingston ivingston Ij and some others in the state of new york and experiments with it were made in several other states about that time or a few years later as I 1 remember when a boy buy reading accounts of it in the new england farmer buells buella cultivator and the genesee farmer in 1839 when spending the summer in england Eng lanct lanci and scotland Scot landI landl was struck with the productiveness and value of this plant as I 1 saw it grown in cert certain itin liln localities and being engaged in the seed trade at the time in manchester I 1 imported and sold or gave away for trial seed of lucern and also of alsike alseike clover the latter then being very little known cin lin en land both these have since been distributed to some extent from the department at washington as well as by seeds men in 1 1 again spent a summer in europe and saw nice field fields i and patches pitches of lucern in france and germany as well as in england but only for the special purpose of soiling or feeding while green to cows and horses seldom being used for hay and rarely more than from one to three acres of it on a farm the objections to its general and exten extended deJ culture are that it takes so long time three years for the crop to arrive arriva at maturity affording no return the first or second year and but little the third while in the meantime it must be cultivated in rows so as to keep it clear of grass rass I 1 and weeds which would otherwise get possession then if on rich and deep soil the crop will last and do well for eight or ten years but this prevents theland the land from being brought into any system of rotation which is now the rule with nearly all british farmers besides the amount of time and labor required for its growth lucern will thrive only on very deep and rich soil koll with a porous subsoil quite free from water the root or tho iho plant is like that hat of red clover but much longer penetrating to the depth of four oi or live feet when fully grown and this is what enables it to thrive in the rich and dry soils of california where the tho absence of rain durin during 9 summer is fatal to most kinds of vegetation for such climates where the soil sell is suitable the alfalfa will no doubt bo be found immensely valuable and for people elsewhere who have but little land and wish to grow some green crop for soiling cows co wj or horses the cheap est pst cfall of all ali modes of feeding where lucern pasture ture turo is not at hand a patch of lucern if the soil is sul sui suitable table tabie may bafo be found und quite valuable and nl I 1 am disposed to try it if apprehension has been expressed that the alfalfa lucern may not endure the winters of our northern climate climati and this may possibly be true of such winters as that of arvlie or vile when the tile mercury sinks to 20 or 30 degrees below zero with very little snow but in all ordinary seasons I 1 should have no do fears on this point as iliavi I 1 havo read of its being grown successfully in new england mr colman in his european agriculture after rafter speaking of tile the value and use of lucern in england refers to the successful culture of it by the late john lowell eq near boston mr C also gives za the experience of an english farmer named rodwell w who I 1 sowed bowed e eight acres cres 11 of lucern in drills with wit b barley lr y in in IMS iss and in 1841 the fourth seasons sea pea sona growth commencing cutting the tile of may alay it ed the entire support for thirty horses for six weeks then the second mow 1 L ca in ing tile the third of july ted fed twenty horses hordes for six weeks and the third cutting beginning the loth of september kept thirteen horses borses fourteen days after which the autum nal feeding of sheep was equivalent to the cost of cleaning the crop the previous spring which was done with ith a peculiar kind of barrow and this needs to be repeated every second year if the eoll is inclined to grass in this case the soil was sandy with a dry subsoil of sandy loam and tile the crop was each year sear with a dressing of thirty bushels of soot boot per acre thejuan the quantity of seed used was twenty pounds per acre the price of the see seed d in england is about ten or twelve cents per pound in th this Is country it can be obtained of most large seed establishments I 1 think for about twenty five cents per pound al B BATE nate irAM I 1 painesville gainesville Paines ville 0 prairie farmer |