Show successful GROWING OF ALFALFA IN UNITED STATES farmers of the east as well as the west realize importance of its value and turn to its cultivation uy by charles B wins O nal nfl ir clr I 1 7 4 MW 5 A 71 ah 4 alfalfa harvest on ohio farm for generations men have watched this plant and have realized its fin they have seen its tre yields west of the missouri misso url river and in the arid state and briny farmere farmers realizing its value have tried to grow it in the eastern and central states unfortunately come some portions of the country are not naturally adapt ed to growing this plant and there have been many failures which have bave discouraged the farmers we are glad to note now however that scientific study of the subject appears to have solved practically all of the troubles and that it Is possible to grow this plant in any state in the union and to in make ake ft it succeed in splendid condl alon even where the soil la Is nth natural ly adapted to it men juen are doing this all over the country today to day says C B wing in the farmers review mak ing their soil right where it Is 1 not so naturally and their success N 1 in entirely too much mystery has been made of the growing of al at falfa so that many farmers hesitate about trang it simply because jnes recommends one method and smith another and the uninitiated are uncertain as to what hat the proper way really Is alfalfa really requires four things lime drainage the condl we think we have stated the condl eions in the order of their relative importance we believe there have teen more failures throughout the country owing to the lack of sufficient limo ilmo in the soil than from any other single cause and wo e feel sure that the inter est that Is now being taken in the cu ruest estion lon of lime and the number of men who are using lime on an land on which they contemplate sowing ta fa will result in a very large increase in the acreage of 0 this plant Pori formerly it was supposed that there were al at falfa belts throughout the eastern and central states which were tie tile only places in alfalfa could be successfully success lully grown but this theory Is now rapidly becoming obsolete because many are changing their condl eions sufficiently to permit a splendid success with alfalfa in 1 every stain state in the union and this in the face of the fact that many of their localities were ere very ill suited to its growth it now seems to careful observers vcra that the reason why alfalfa succeeded so ihlen west of the ulissis mississippi sippi river ie Is because these soils are extremely rich in deposits of lime that the reason why hy certain portions of ohio olito for instance succeed as well as they do Is that the poll there la 19 also h heavily charged with lime thia this fact Is birne out by many things that we would like to enumerate but wo we will men tion one in our own county alt astalfa alfa Is growing wild for many miles blong the railroad tracks section men complain bitterly of 0 it saying that it seems impossible to kill it IL when we stop to think of the unfavorable conditions under which these plants started merely dropped from a leaking bag transported eu ec on tali rail rall road falling among gravel and ders with lack of moisture no eed teed t bed whatever with the birds to prey upon it and soil soft where there la is any that Is more than likely of subsurface sub surface origin and decidedly lacking in fertility when we consider these things 1 IL seems to us that the only possible reason for its splendid success under these difficulties has been in three things first the railroad embank m bitts are composed of limestone grave bravet second they are thoroughly nral ciral ned and third owing to the pes p es ence of sweet clover growing along the railroad tracks the probabilities are that the alfalfa very frequently finds its inoculation quickly humus is certainly deficient as well as soil preparation we know of other in stances where the alfalfa growa grows well along the railroad tracks when the soil adjacent to these roads refuses to grow alfalfa satisfactorily we believe that this confirms our theory of the lime drainage and possibly inoculation which the alfalfa finds on the railroad rill road track bat which are probably lacking to a certain extent when this ground Is left our theory on this matter is confirmed from a great many other sources farmers who have bad had their alfalfa germinate pio properly perly in the first place but gradually go back and in a year or so go have it all gone gong have probably in nearly every instance been unsuccessful on ing to lack of lime farmers living in sections troubled by crab grass or by sorrel have actually found that liberal application applications of lime would do a serious injury to these weeds while the alfalfa throve arlen dudly |