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Show KING OF HAY CROPS Alfalfa Is One of Best Drought Resistant Plants. Crop Comes Nearer to Giving Something Some-thing for Nothing Than Anything El6e on Farm Also Improves Im-proves the Soil. (By W. C. PALMJSK.) Alfalfa is the king among hay crops, the queen among soil improvers, improv-ers, the prince among drought resistant resist-ant plants. It comes nearer to giving something for nothing than anything else on the farm. It will produce more hay per acre, and hay of a high feeding value. While giving that valuable val-uable crop of hay it will at the same time leave the soil richer in nitrogen and humus every year that it occupies the land, and supplies the very things that the grain crops take out the fastest fast-est and leaves the soil in the greatest need of. Still the whole story is not told, as weeds cannot grow readily after the alfalfa gets a good stand and if they should grow a little the alfalfa is cut before tbe weeds are ripe so they cannot go to seed. The roots go deep and so open up the soil better than the subsoller. The one disadvantage disadvan-tage In growing alfalfa is that it is a little difficult to start; so when a good stand is secured it ought to be left for several years. It Is not a good rotation crop like clover. This is really no great drawback though, as it will produce a crop that is worth more than any crop that can be grown. Alfalfa will grow on any good soil that is well drained; In sand it will not do so well, and hard pan Interfer-feres Interfer-feres with its root growth. Standing water is death to it When starting alfalfa it must be kept in mind that alfalfa has bacteria living in nodules on its roots. These germs furnish the plant with nitrogen which they take from the soil air. They put It into a form that the plant can use and so supply the alfalfa with the nitrogen nitro-gen that it needs and more too. The alfalfa plant has In a measure lost the power of taking nitrogen from the soil as the other crops do, so it can not make much growth alone. It in turn furnishes the germs with food af a different kind. When the alfalfa is starting it does not have the germs on its roots and st is very delicate and must be given good care. The best way to do that is to get some soil from a field that has been growing alfalfa successfully for a few years and sow it on the new field at the rate of 200 pounds per acre. The best way to prepare the soil 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 buried one to two Inches do not sow any nurse crop with It. A bare fallow that has been kept free from weeds will also be a good preparation, prepara-tion, as will also potato ground. But in any case It should be manured. When the alfalfa Is up eight to ten Inches It should be cut back. This will not hurt the alfalfa; In fact will do it good 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 2 tons, while where the plants were only two inches apart only one cutting of about half a ton was secured. se-cured. In digging out the roots it was found that where the plants 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 down more than three feet. |