gathered up in a 20-minute walk through a “town” that had been poisoned. Nearly all the animals die inside their burrows. The cost of destroying them, according to Professor Lantz, is not over two cents per acre, not counting the labor, and a man can distribute the poison over about a quarter-section in a day
c He neglects to prepare the alfalfa seed bed properly. He should begin disking and harrowing as soon as the preparatory crop is off the ground, and continue this at intervals of ten or fifteen days until time for sowing, when the soil should be as fine as for an onion bed.
d He uses poor seed; seed that is infertile, or adulterated with weed seeds—undesirable and unreliable in every way.
2. Dying out the second year, which in most instances is due to one of two causes, viz.: neglect to plow under stable manure for the preceding crop, or pasturing alfalfa in its first year. Not an animal should be turned on an alfalfa field for pasture until the second or, preferably, the third year. Another cause is disturbance of the soil and plants by severe freezing. This may often be prevented in a degree by a light top-dressing of manure in December.
3. Failure through harvesting and stacking.
4. Injury from insects or disease.
These are practically all the things that need occasion serious vexation. Of course alfalfa calls for more work in harvesting than corn, or clover, or timothy; but one acre of prosperous alfalfa is worth two or three of corn, or clover or timothy, even for market, while for feeding purposes the difference is even greater. The “poor” farmer, the lazy farmer, the “corner grocery” farmer should not sow alfalfa.
CHAPTER XXV.
Miscellaneous
ALFALFA IN THE ORCHARD
Probably nine-tenths of those who have written on this subject have condemned the practice of sowing alfalfa in the orchard. They have said that the alfalfa demanded so much moisture that the trees would be dwarfed if not destroyed. In going through an immense amount of material in the preparation of this book only two instances have been found of men who claim that the alfalfa is a benefit to orchards. One of these was from Texas and the newspaper quoting him did not give his name. He was reported to have used his orchard for hog pasture, keeping on five acres from ten to fifteen sows with their pigs from early April to September. He claimed that the alfalfa instead of robbing the orchard of moisture actually contributed to the surface moisture and benefited the trees.