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
_Dr. E. H. Jenkins, Director Connecticut experiment station._--Alfalfa
has been tried in a haphazard way in Connecticut for many years and
scattered plants and colonies may often be seen in fence corners and
headlands. Within five years, however, some farmers under direction of
the agricultural station at New Haven, or on their own initiative, have
made more careful experiments and while failures are numerous, there are
at present a number of small areas well established, yielding three or
four cuttings yearly and highly valued by their owners. On the farm of
C. W. Beach of West Hartford, F. H. Stadmueller had for seven years a
considerable field of alfalfa which yielded well and was used as a
soiling crop. Mr. Barnard of North Haven, after repeated failures, has a
fine field and feeds it to both cows and poultry. The Gaylord Farm
sanatorium at Wallingford, John Matthies of New Milford and others might
be cited as successful growers of alfalfa. It does well on a variety of
soils with us. Liming heavily, 1500 to 2000 pounds per acre, is a
necessity. Some form of inoculation of the soil is generally required
and clean, well-tilled land. Weeds are the worst enemy of the newly
seeded alfalfa and easily smother the crop. For that reason we prefer
August seeding, using at least 30 pounds of clean, fresh seed. It will
pay to fallow the land, in order to kill the weeds before seeding down.
Thin spots cannot be successfully patched by seeding later. Great care
in preparing the land pays with a permanent crop like alfalfa.
DELAWARE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits: Its Uses as a Forage and Fertilizer — John Shaqi
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