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. H. Garman, Botanist Kentucky experiment station._--We have grown
alfalfa on the experiment farm for a good many years and have been
impressed with its many good qualities, although we have not found it as
well adapted to our soil and climate as it appears to be in the western
states. In our small experimental plots, on good soil, it has recently
done remarkably well. This is partly the result of understanding it
better than formerly, and partly due to the care which these plots
receive. Last year we harvested, from some of them, hay at the rate of
from 6.32 to 10.03 tons per acre. The same plots are yielding very well
this season, but I think will not produce quite as much hay as last
year, though they look very well at present. Farmers in this state are
becoming interested in alfalfa, stimulated by the reports made to them
at farmers’ institutes, and urged by failure to grow Red clover
successfully in some parts of the state. But thus far they have not met
with uniform success. Part of this is due to a lack of acquaintance with
the plant and part may be attributed to our climate. A few men have been
growing alfalfa successfully for eight or 10 years, and I can see no
reason why many others should not succeed with it. The chief difficulty
appears to come in getting a start. Alfalfa, thoroughly started, holds
its own better than Red clover and yields much more forage. The value of
the forage is recognized by everybody, and I expect to see in the course
of the next quarter of a century a much larger acreage sown in
Kentucky.
LOUISIANA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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