VIRGINIA
Prof. Andrew M. Soule, Director Virginia experiment station.—In Bulletin No. 154 from this station we summarize as follows: Alfalfa is being grown with success in various parts of Virginia and the indications are that it will do well in humid climates, providing the soil is brought into suitable condition for its growth. Alfalfa has many useful qualities. It yields from three to five tons of cured hay in a year, and remains on the land for a long period of time when once well established. It grows best on deep, open, porous soils well supplied with vegetable matter. The roots of alfalfa are from five to 15 feet in length, enabling it to draw much of its food from the subsoil. It thus enriches the land for succeeding crops and opens it up to the action of air and water. Land intended for alfalfa should be made very rich by plowing under legumes or applying farmyard manure. In addition, from 200 to 400 pounds of acid phosphate, Thomas slag or bone meal, with 100 pounds of muriate of potash, should be applied per acre. If the land is acid, which may be determined by testing with blue litmus paper, an application of 25 bushels of lime should be made. It is generally best to use the unslaked lime, which may be applied with a manure spreader, a grain drill or broadcasted over the land and covered with a harrow. Land intended for alfalfa should be carefully cultivated in hoed crops or summer fallowed so as to destroy weeds, the worst enemy of alfalfa during the early stages of its growth. Alfalfa may be seeded either fall or spring. When fall sown it can be cut for hay the next summer, whereas, the spring sown crop should be clipped several times during the first season and left to mulch the ground. Alfalfa seed is sometimes infested with dodder, which grows as a parasite on the plant. The orange-yellow threadlike appearance of dodder gives warning of its presence, and it can be easily destroyed by cutting and burning if taken at the outset. Alfalfa is frequently attacked by leaf spot in the eastern states. The disease is easily recognized as its name indicates, and persistent clipping will generally eradicate it. The amount of seed to sow varies, but 20 pounds will answer as a rule. Alfalfa should be cut for hay when coming into bloom, as it yields more nutrients per acre at that time, and succeeding crops yield better. Alfalfa is not more difficult to make into hay than is Red clover. It may also be pastured to advantage, though there is some danger of bloat, and, owing to the high feeding value of the hay, it is doubtful whether it would be good practice to graze it in the East, except with hogs. Alfalfa being a legume has the power of assimilating atmospheric nitrogen under certain conditions. It is thus a soil improver. Farmers cannot afford to purchase nitrogen when they can gather it from the air through the action of leguminous plants. Alfalfa often fails, even though all the physical conditions seem favorable, because the bacteria which live in the nodules on its roots are not present in the soil. This deficiency may be supplied by getting soil from an old alfalfa field or from fields where Sweet clover or Bur clover previously grew with success, or by means of artificial cultures. The Virginia experiment station, realizing the importance of alfalfa to Virginia farmers and the difficulty of securing inoculated soil at a reasonable cost, has undertaken the preparation of pure cultures which it is distributing at a cost of 25 cents per acre. Soil inoculation through artificial cultures is still in its experimental stages, but it seems wise that Virginia farmers should be given an opportunity to test these cultures at a moderate cost and determine once for all their real value under field conditions. The high feeding value of alfalfa has long been recognized. It is admirably adapted to the needs of all classes of live stock. It has been fed with profit to horses, cattle, sheep and swine. It can be so utilized as to largely take the place of wheat bran and other expensive concentrates. The plats of alfalfa seeded in the spring of 1904, both on the station farm and on Brush mountain, show the importance of soil inoculation and the advantages of using lime and phosphates on land intended for this crop. From a general review of the situation it appears that there is no reason why alfalfa, under good management, should not succeed in many parts of Virginia.