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Show COMBINATION FOR HAY Timothy and Alfalfa Mixture Given Giv-en Praise in Bulletin. Found Highly Satisfactory for Irrigated Irri-gated Meadows Wherever Climate and Soil Are Suitable for Growth of These Crops. The department of agriculture has recently issued a bulletin on "Timothy Production on Irrigated Land in the Northwestern States." This bulletin speaks very highly of the timothy and alfalfa mixture for hay. It tates that, a combination of timothy with alfalfa makes a very satisfactory mixture for Irrigated meadows wherever the climate clim-ate and soil are suitable for the growth of both of these crops. Although Al-though the mixture has not been extensively ex-tensively tried, wherever it has been tried on the experiment farm an elsewhere, so far as the writer haj been able to learn, it has been successful, suc-cessful, and all signs would indicate that this mixture could be profitably used on a large proportion of the irrigated irri-gated land where timothy is now produced, pro-duced, and also on the native meadows. mead-ows. In localities where timothy and alfalTa have never been grown together, to-gether, the opinion generally prevails that such a combination would not be practicable, for the reason that the first crop of alfalfa is ordinarily .ready to cut for hay two weeks or more before be-fore the timothy crop Is harvested. It is generally believed by farmers who have not had experience in growing grow-ing timothy and alfalfa together that either the mixture would have to be rut before the timothy Is ready, or else the alfalfa stems would become woody and the alfalfa leaves turn yellow yel-low and fall badly by the time the timothy has arrived at the proper stage for cutting. These feaTS are groundless. By the time the timothy begins to bloom the alfalfa plants are already in full bloom. As it grows in a field in mixture mix-ture with timothy, alfalfa does not. lodge as it sometimes does -when it grows alone, nor does it produce such a dense mass of leaves at the base of I he plant as in fields of clear alfalfa. For this reason the lower leaves on the plant do not turn yellow and drop as readily as they do in a field where a dense stand of alfalfa is growing alone. Neither will the stems become as course when the alfalfa is grown with timothy as when grown alone. So leaving the alfalfa a couple of s weeks longer or until the timothy is r ready does it no harm. Furthermore, In localities where alfalfa hay is fed to horses, it is the custom to let the hay stand longer before cutting than if it were fed to sheep or cattle. Another advantage in using the alfalfa al-falfa and timothy mixture is that it cures into a brighter hay than does red clover and Its stems are finer. A mixture of 10 or 20 per cent of alfalfa Is much less conspicuous in timothy hay than is an equal proportion of red clover. Alfalfa will also afford a considerable second crop for a number num-ber of years, whereas in timothy fields clover tends to disappear after the first year. On all lands that are suitably drained drain-ed and where the water table is nof too near the surface the alfalfa and timothy mixture is recommended for permanent meadows. Where the soil Is too wet for alfalfa or tends to :A slight acidity the red top may be sub-' sub-' Btituted for the alfalfa. The reseeding of old meadows tends to keep down the weeds and keeps the soil generally in better condition. By proper treatment meadows that ordinarily produce only fhree-fourths to one and one-half tonn of hay per acre annually can be mate to produce three to four tons per acre from two cuttings. Equally as Good. t A Sunday school teacher in the middle mid-dle west asked all of her pupils who wished to go to heaven to hold up their right , hands. All did but one little girl. "Why, Mary," said the teacher, "why don't you hold up your hand today, just as you did last Sunday when I asked the same question?" "I know," Baid Mary, "but papa has lust got tickets for Los Angeles.'' |