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
_Aaron F. Farr, Jr., Cache county._--Fifteen years ago, when I began
raising alfalfa, I had 40 acres, and for the past eight years I have had
about 135 acres, all on heavy clay soil, containing considerable salt,
and underlaid with very stiff, white clay. The soil is dry on top, but
below a depth of 2¹⁄₂ feet is damp, and salty water is found at a depth
of eight feet. Small grain was raised on the new land for one or two
years, after which the ground was plowed in the fall, and again in the
spring, harrowed, and well pulverized. Seed was put in, 12 pounds to the
acre, two inches deep, with a press drill. The time for sowing is about
the same as for corn, in April or May. If there is plenty of water, it
is well to sow the alfalfa with oats, and then cut for hay the first
season. Some of my land is irrigated, by flooding, three times in the
season, by means of a large canal from the river. The more water is
used, the more alfalfa there will be, but the hay from unirrigated land
is less sappy than that which has been watered. The plant is not liable
to winterkill here, and on sandy loam and gravel soils the full yield is
attained the second year, while, on heavy soils, it requires three or
four years. I have some that is 20 years old, and cannot say how long it
will yet continue vigorous. There is difficulty in ridding land of the
plant, unless it is flooded in the winter time. We have usually two
cuttings each season, with an average yield for each of about two tons
to the acre, although some parts of the land yield four tons at each
cutting. I have found it more profitable to raise seed than hay, and for
this purpose I prefer the second cutting, using the self-rake, allowing
the alfalfa to lie in small piles until dry, then hauling, stacking, and
threshing, the same as wheat. The hay lies about 22 hours in the swath,
24 hours in the windrow, and one or two days in the cock, after which it
is stacked in large ricks with a horse fork. If properly cured, it will
not mold or heat, as it will if damp. On land valued at $30 an acre, the
cost of the alfalfa, in the stack, is about $1.50 a ton. The cost of
baling is about $2 a ton, the popular weight for bales being about 100
pounds. An average yield of seed is from 300 to 500 pounds to the acre.
Threshers take one-sixth toll, and can thresh about 100 bushels in a
day. The common machinery saves only about two-thirds of the seed. A
bushel of seed weighs more than 60 pounds, and we put 175 pounds in a
two-bushel seamless sack. The average selling price of the seed is about
$3.50 a bushel. I have one piece of land, containing 60 acres, not
irrigated, valued at $30 an acre, from which, for ten years, I have cut
one crop of hay, and one of seed, and realized an annual net profit of
$1000 cash. As compared with clover and timothy for feeding farm
animals, my opinion is that alfalfa will fatten quicker, but will not go
so far. The pasturage is profitable and satisfactory for horses and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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