i58o 



The Cornell Reading-Courses 



Fig. 244. — Alfalfa seeds below, compared with dodder seeds 



above (enlarged) 



heavy, and the stems are coarse ; and this crop is not easy to cure. Coming 



at a time when 

 haying weather is 

 not of the best, 

 the first crop is 

 usually cured in 

 small cocks. The 

 second and third 

 crops, being lighter, 

 with finer stems, 

 and coming in July 

 and late August 

 when haying 

 weather is good, 

 are easily cured. 

 The second and 

 third crops are 



often cured in windrows and stacked or put in the mow directly, without 



cocking. 



FERTILIZER AND MANURE FOR OLD SODS 



No crop responds more readily to barnyard manure than does alfalfa. 

 Whenever an estabUshed stand is not doing well — yielding less than three 

 tons per acre — it will pay to manure. The manure should be applied 

 during the winter. 



Acid phosphate has been found to give good results in certain cases. 

 One to two hundred pounds per acre seems sufficient. Nitrogen need not 

 be applied. 



ALFALFA SEED GROWING 



Usually the second crop, and sometimes the third crop, is used for the 

 seed crop. Dry weather is required during the blooming period to secure 

 a set of alfalfa seed, and July is the month when the proper weather 

 conditions are most likely to occur. In New York, however, it is seldom 

 that a good seed crop can be secured, and it is not to be expected oftener 

 than once in three or four years. The seed crop is har\'ested ^'ery much 

 as is clover seed, and as soon as cured it is threshed, either from the field 

 or from the stack. 



ALFALFA ENEMIES 



Dodder 



Alfalfa fields occasionally are infested with dodder, from seed. The 

 dodder seed germinates at about the same time as the alfalfa and in the 



