Fall sowing will give enough growth to resist frost killing
in many places in the valley if the moisture in the soil is enough to
carry the plant as well as start it, or if showers come frequently -
otherwise it is dangerous, not from frost but from drouth.
Alfalfa Hay and Soil Fertility.
We are feeding all our hay to dairy cows, returning the manure to the
soil. At present prices of hay, my neighbors who sell theirs, seem to be
as well off, with considerable less work; but how about the future? Can
this soil be cropped indefinitely and the crops sold, without returning
anything to the land?
It is a mistake to think that you can sell alfalfa hay indefinitely
without reducing the soil. It may gain in nitrogen by the wastes of the
plant, but it will lose in other constituents unless reinforced by
fertilization. No single act can make for the maintenance of the soil as
the growing and feeding of crops and return of manure does.
Dry-Land Alfalfa.
I am in a country of strictly dry farming. I have a wash or gulch on my
place and would like to know if I could, with success, plant it to
alfalfa without irrigation; soil is sandy loam, no evidences of springy
moisture at all. What kind should I try?
Alfalfa will endure much drouth. What it will do in a particular place
can only be told by trying. Sow Turkestan alfalfa. If the rains come
early so as to wet the land down in September and October, sow the seed
then.
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