1976 



The Cornell Reading Courses 



CARE OF THE STAND 



If the alfalfa is spring- or summer-sown without a nurse crop, the weeas 



must not be allowed to get ahead of 

 the seeding. They should be clipped 

 back with a mower, the cutter bar 

 being set from five to six inches high. 

 It is important not to clip the young 

 alfalfa close to the ground, below 

 the leaves, during the first four 

 months, as good stands are often 

 killed by so doing. 



The established field 



Alfalfa should be cut when the 

 new growth that starts up from the 

 base of the plant as itrnears maturity, 

 is from one to three inches high. 

 If the new growth is allowed to 

 become longer than this, there is 

 danger of injuring the next crop 

 when cutting the present one. At 

 this time usually not more than one- 

 tenth of the plants should be in 

 bloom. The most successfiil alfalfa 

 growers judge the time of cutting 

 by the shoots at the base of the 

 plant rather than by the bloom. It 

 is not safe to judge by the blooming 

 alone, for alfalfa often fails to bloom 

 when the season is cool or wet. 



Disking the alfalfa field early in 

 the spring or after the first cutting 

 3 is often practiced in dry climates, 

 but in humid climates, such as that 

 of New York, the plants injured 

 by the disk are very likely to develop 

 root rot and thus, on the whole, 

 decrease the stand in time. How- 

 ever, on an old stand that is thin 



Fig. 152. — Portion of alfalfa stem showing 



new shoots, natural size: i, new shoots; 2, 



old stem showing height at which previous 



crop was cut; j, soil line. Alfalfa should 



not be cut before the new shoots appear, and 



the mowing should be completed before the and must be broken Up in another 



shoots get tall enough to be clipped i- 1 • -n ^- 1 ^ i--u 



^ '^^ year, diskmg will stimulate growth 



for at least one season and destroy many of the weeds and much of the 



