The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits: Its Uses as a Forage and FertilizerCoburn, F. D. (Foster Dwight)
History
The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits: Its Uses as a Forage and Fertilizer
Coburn, F. D. (Foster Dwight)
Alfalfa
_Prof. J. F. Duggar, Director Alabama experiment station._--Alfalfa is
grown in Alabama with entire success on the lime soil of the central
prairie region of the state. This is a strip of land from 10 to 20 miles
wide, extending southeast and northwest almost across the state and into
Mississippi. Beginning near Union Springs, this prairie passes near
Montgomery, Selma, Demopolis, Greensboro and northwestward towards
Columbus, Miss. On the prairie lands in this area alfalfa affords from
three to six cuttings per year, usually four, and the yield is from
three to six tons per acre. Irrigation is not practiced. The seed is
sown either in September or in the early part of March, usually from 20
to 24 pounds per acre. Almost a full crop is secured the first year from
fall seeding, but only from one-third to two-thirds of a full crop is
secured the first year from sowing seed in March. It is not customary on
this soil to use fertilizer on alfalfa, but an application of even a
light coat of stable manure immensely increases the yield on the poor
spots. Failure has generally attended attempts to grow alfalfa on
non-calcareous or sandy soils, though under favorable conditions, with
liberal manuring and constant warfare against crab-grass, it
occasionally succeeds. In Bulletin No. 127 of the Alabama experiment
station the results in alfalfa growing are summarized as follows:
Usually the best crop to precede spring sown alfalfa is cotton,
especially if cotton follows melilotus (Sweet clover). The best crop to
prepare the land for fall sown alfalfa is cowpeas, sown very thickly.
Farmers have found that alfalfa thrives when sown on Johnson grass
meadows, holding its own, at least for the first few years, against this
aggressive grass. Dodder, a yellow threadlike growth, is a serious enemy
of alfalfa. One of the remedies consists in mowing and burning. Seed
merchants often pass alfalfa seed through a machine which is claimed to
remove the dodder seed. On sandy upland soils at Auburn, alfalfa has not
afforded very profitable yields. On such soils it requires heavy
applications of lime or barnyard manure, and it is believed that more
profitable use can be made of manure. At Auburn neither nitrate of soda
nor cottonseed meal very greatly increased the yield of alfalfa that was
properly stocked with root tubercles. Acid phosphate and potash
fertilizers are considered indispensable here, and generally advisable
on sandy or other soils not rich in lime. Inoculation with soil from old
fields of either alfalfa or Bur clover greatly increases the yields of
alfalfa growing on sandy land. The germ that causes tubercles to develop
on Sweet clover also causes tubercles to develop on the roots of
alfalfa. Hence artificial inoculation of alfalfa is not necessary when
it is grown on prairie land that has recently borne a crop of
melilotus. Artificial inoculation of alfalfa is probably advisable even
for prairie soils when it is uncertain whether either the melilotus or
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