VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, FEB. 13, 1904.
NO 7.
Alfalfa ln Indiana.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
In giving my experience with alfalfa, I
will be be as mild as facts will permit, for
I want your readers to believe me. The
Irishman that dictated a letter to his
friends in the old country said tell them
that he had meat to eat twice a
day. His employer asked him if he did
not have it three times a day? He said,
yes, but they won't believe that.
Almost  eight  years  ago  I  sowed   my
first alfalfa; about one and a half acres,
on ground   that had been cultivated    in
tomatoes, followed with wheat, the previous years. The wheat was winter killed;
and  I disked the ground thoroughly    in
the spring and sowed spring barley, and
about _.0 pounds alfalfa seed per acre, and
harrowed it in.        I also sowed little red
clover,    thinking    that    if   the    alfalfa
failed I would have a crop of red clover.
I cut the barley and alfalfa early for hay.
I did not v_ait for the barley to ripen.
On account of the continuous heavy rains
just at this time.     I did not save any
of this crop for hay, but left it on the
ground.     In about thirty days I cut it
again,  and  secured a  fair crop  of  good
hay.        After  this,   I  pastured  it,  .until
heavy  f rosts. came,....... The  second year,
I cut three crops of hay and pastured
again until frost The third year the
alfalfa looked very thin, on the ground
as the little red clover had mostly disappeared, leaving much of the ground
bare. I thought it should lbe reseeded;
so I disked it thoroughly, both ways, sowed more alfalfa seed, and harrowed with
spike tooth harrow, the teeth slanting
" backward a little. This disking and harrowing happened to be "just the thing,"
but the re-seeding did not amount to
much ,as the old alfalfa plants tillered so
much as to almost cover the gronnd, and
I soon cut a fine crop of hay, and disked
again. I have since kept up th' cutting
about every thirty or forty days through
summer and fall, getting four crops of
nice hay per year from the same ground,
and also pasturing a little afterwards.
Last year the first patch that I sowed
made about two tons of dry hay per acre,
(estimated.) I did not weigh it, but I
don't think I ever saw more or nicer hay,
taken from one and a half acres of land,
at one cutting. This one and a half
acres are rich black loam; the kind ol}
soil that I then supposed alfalfa required;
but to test the matter I scattered some
seed over the clay knolls and found that
clay land, manured lightly is better for
alfalfa than black soil. It don't grow
so rank on clay soil but the hay is of
finer quality.
I have always had good success on well
drained land, as mine all is, and I have
sown alfalfa from April 10 to Aug. 1. In
June, 1902 I sowed about 20 acres in a
corn field just before the last cultivation
and plowed the seed in with a two horse
cultivator, set to run shallow.
I got a fine stand, except on about
2% acres of rather sandy soil where alfalfa seemed to perish from lack of moisture. Had this not been sown in the
standing corn, which thus prevented the
necessary clipping of alfalfa, the moisture
might have been saved for the young
plants. It so happened that we had
showers that fall frequently, and I think
this alone accounts for the fine field of alfalfa that I now have. Last May, less
than one year from sowing, this field made
a fine crop of hay. The second crop
grew to about 10 or 12 inches high, and
then seemed to stop growing; tha leaves
turned brown and began to drop off.     I
thought my alfalfa was dying, so I put
two machines into the field and cut it
as soon as possible, and disKed the field
thoroughly, using three horses with disk
set to cut as deeply as possible. I did
this as soon as possible, not waiting for
all the shocks of hay to be taken out of
the field, before doing it. I then went to
the oldest patch of alfalfa and procured
several loads of "inoculated alftilfa soil,"
. om.thing to do with her being fat, yet I
think the alfalfa cut quite a figure in
it also.
Alfalfa should be cut for hay, when it
is on from one-tenth to one-third in bloom,
then the stems are tender, and not too
coarse or woody for good hay. As soon
as wilted a little, rake into winrows; let
cura a little more, and then put into shocks
and let stand uutil thoroughly dry,  when
* -. ?■  V >,\** v   %_; «
CHINESE LILY.
Grown in one of our Indiana Farmer windows.    They  are  very  easily  grown,
and every farm house sitting room ought to have them.    They bloom early and
are fragrant and cheery.
and scattered it over this field. The result was astonishing. The alfalfa soon
turned to a dark green color, and in a few
weeks I cut a fine crojp of hay, and
about October 15, I cut the fourth crop
of nice hay, but not so heavy from this
field; which I think does very well, sown
as it was, in the standing com only one
year   previous. I   even   pastured   this
field several days with a_»ut 40 head of
cattle, and the nlfalfa, now is in fine
shape under the immense snow of' this
winter; and it gives promise to make a
crop that we may have to handle, as they
say. Abe Lincoln, once suggested,
"stack all you can out of doors, and put
the rest in" the barn."
Last year my 50 acres of alfalfa and 50
acres of blue grass furnished pasture for
50 head of cattle and several horses, nine
head of sheep and about 40 hogs, besides
making about 100 tons of hay. My cattle are nearly all fat enough f|br beef on
this hay without any grain. I am only
feeding the calves grain. The cows get
no grain at all. On December 28, I
sold a barren recorded heifer, to a local
butcher, for 4 cents per pound. This
heifer had not had a monthlul of grain all
winter, and none last summer. The
butcher said she was the fattest ani-
mad he had ever killed, and that he had
never seen a fatter one. He said the
fat was 3% inches thick on the libs. Of
course the good blood of this heifer had
it is ready to put into the barn, or sack.
Pon't 1ft alfalfa get dry before raking,
if you do you will lose the leaves, the
best part of the hay. Alfalfa put into
rather tall slender shocks, while a little
green, will settle so closely that its leaves
will turn water almost like shingles. Let
the _locks stay u .til hay is dry, then your
hay will be nio;, and green in color, and
tljon; will be no danger of spontaneous
combustion.
If the weather, in harvest is- rainy you
may need to take ." horse and rope ar._
move the shocks occasionally, to prevent
tleir kil.ing the alfalfa under them.
Try a patch of alfalfa and you will
want more of it. I mean to sow eight
or ten acres more each year, until I get
the whole farm in alfalfa. What I sow
fiom now on will be on blue grass sod
that is turned under without a jointer
on the plow, and I will have alfalfa and
blue prats both on the same ground, making the best pasture on earth, One
roots deeply and the other very shallow,
s. they do not bother each other. Try
an acre this way for hogs.
Lebanon, Ind. J. N. S.
Mabel McKinley Baer, niece of the late
President McKinley,* has offered $25,000
toward establishing a free conservatory
of music in New York and will give
her own services entirey free of charge
as one of the instructors. .
Some Hints for Our Next Legislature to
Consider.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I noticed an article in your paper a
short time ago about the farmers feeding
the quails to get tliem through the winter,
and the Gun club eucouragiug all farmers
to do likewise. I don't see what encouragement there is to the farmer to feed
tho quails and get them through the winter and our Legislature make laws allowing those sports with their dogs and guns
to slaughter them. They "don't" kill
them because they want to eat them, but
just for sport. The farmer gets none of
them, he has no time to practice shooting, and could not kill a quail in a dozen
shots a flying. He is not allowed to take
a pot shot. The man with the log had
just as well take a pot shot, for he gets
tj m all any way. I see that some of
our neighbor farmers have been arrested
for hunting raibbits with ferrets. This is
very unjust, the farmer is the only person that will kill the rabbit. Those sports
"don't" shoot at a rabbit. The rabbit is
a detriment to the farmer. They will bark
his young trees and kill them, but if the
game warden hears of a poor farmer hunting rabbits with ferrets he has him arrested and makes him pay a-6ne. Ho had
better be out ditching for the farmer, he
would be in better business.
Our Legislature spends a great deal of
unnecessary time with the game and fibh
laws. Just say no fishing only with hook
and rod, and no quails to be killed for
one hundred years, and them no dog to
be used in hunting them. We have no use
for the game warden. Make every farmer a game warden. We farmers will feed
tne quails if the quail hunters will let
them alone. J. W. M.
Alexandria.
—Candidates for the Legislature should
make a note of the above. It expresses
the opinion of a .majority of our farmers
on the subject.
George Newman, a farmer, neir Napoleon, was found dead in a field a quarter
of a mile from the roadside, and within
tlie same distance of his own home, on
the 29th ult., where his body had been in
tbe snow since the Aionday evening before. At first it was thought he had
frozen to death, but later developments
show that foul play may have been the
cause. Newman started from home on
-ionday morning with a load of grain,
which he sold in Napoleon. About 4
o'clock he, in company with a neighbor,
started for home through the blizzard.
When his neighbor was within a half mile
of home, he made the remark that "he
would soon be home, too." On Tuesday
morning his horses were found in his
barnyard with only the wagon tongue attached. A searching party was organized,
and a short distance from where Newman
was last seen alive his wagon was found
standing by the roadside. Near by lay
Newman's cap and boots. No tracks
were visible owing to the heavy snow.
Friday afternoon his dead body was
was found in a fence corner a quarter of
a mile from the wagon. Near the body lay
the dead man's coat and waistcoat, and
on the florehead of the man were four
ugly wounds. Newman was forty years
old and leaves a wife and eight children.
The value of the output of electrical
apparatus during 1903 is estimated at
$158,650,000, against $139,050,000 in 1902.
The archbishop of Canterberry
rank as first peer of the realm.
takes