Under ordinary circumstances, we nearly always sow eighteen or 

 twenty pounds of Alfalfa seed per acre, providing- it is not sown in com- 

 bination with different varieties of grasses and clovers. If the crop is 

 to be grown principally for seed production, the amount of seed might 

 be reduced to fifteen or sixteen pounds, and if for pasture or for a cover 

 crop it might be increased to twenty-five or even thirty pounds per acre 

 to advantage. 



In preparing the land to receive the Alfalfa seed, it is an excellent 

 plan to cultivate the soil thoroughly, and then to follow with a weeder, 

 or with both a harrow and a weeder, immediately before the seed is sown. 

 If a nurse crop of grain is to be used, the seeder attachment should be 

 placed in front of the tubes of the grain drill. The land should then be 

 levelled either with a light harrow or with a weeder. In this way the 

 Alfalfa seed has the advantage of being located between the rows of 

 grain, and at a suitable depth in well prepared soil which has been worked 

 in such a way as to give the seed the advantage of both the fertility and 

 the moisture in the soil. 



Influence of Manures and Fertilizers on the Alfalfa Crop. 



The influence of manures and of fertilizers depends so much on the 

 mechanical condition and on the fertility of the soil, as well as on so many 

 other conditions, that it makes it a very difficult matter to conduct experi- 

 ments at any one place and thus obtain results which can be applied to all 

 kinds of land. Some soils are deficient in certain fertilizing elements, 

 and other soils are particularly rich in those very elements ; some soils 

 are almost barren of humus, while others contain humus in abundance; 

 some soils are in an acid condition, and Alfalfa would probably receive 

 a decided benefit from an application of lime, while that on other soils 

 would receive no advantage whatever if lime were used. All these things 

 and many others should be taken into consideration when studying the 

 results of fertilizer experiments conducted with Alfalfa at the College and 

 elsewhere, with the object of getting information to use as a guide in 

 ether places. 



In a representative part of the experimental grounds, four plots, 

 each one-twentieth of an acre in size, were set aside in the spring of 1895 

 to test the influence of farmyard manure on Alfalfa. On two of the plots 

 farmyard manure was applied at the rate of twenty tons (about twelve 

 loads) per acre, and this was thoroughly mixed throughout the soil. The 

 other plots were left unmanured, and the Alfalfa seed was sown on all 

 four plots. The crops were harvested and the results carefully recorded 

 in each of the three years 1896, 1897 and 1898. The following table 

 gives the average annual yields of green crop and of hay per acre of the 

 duplicate tests conducted during the three-year period : 



