278 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



unsuccessful seedings resulted from insuflBcient preparation of the seed 

 bed. To this number should be added the percentage of failures due to 

 weeds as the weeds are the result of poor preparation of the seed bed. 

 Failure to secure sufficient inoculation also accounts for a large percent- 

 age of the unsuccessful seedings. Twelve and four-tenths per cent of the 

 failures were caused by winter killing. About 6.2 per cent of the 

 total number of seedings were partially or wholly winter killed. 

 The figures in the table indicate little as to whether the use of a nurse 

 crop is advisable, but they show that in 4 3-10 per cent of the unsucess- 

 ful seedings, the use of the nurse crop was the principal cause of failure. 

 The department's study of alfalfa fields over the state indicates that acid 

 conditions of many Michigan soils account for many of the poor results 

 in seeding alfalfa, but in most cases in the study of these reports it 

 was either not the most conspicuous factor of failure or the lime was 

 put on or left off the entire field so that the reports furnished little data 

 on this point. 



INFLUENCE OF TYPE OF SOIL AND CHOICE OF LOCATION FOR SEEDING ALFALFA. 



In Table III the reports are classified according to the type of soil 

 and subsoil and the groups are arranged in order of the percentages of 

 successful seedings. In the first column of figures the number of seed- 

 ings on the difi'ei'ent types of soil are shown and in the last four columns 

 are shown the results of seeding on the different types of soil. 



TABLE III.— INFLUENCE OF SOIL IN SEEDING ALFALFA. 



Sou. 



Gravel 



Gravel.. . . 

 Clay loam. 

 Clay loam. 

 Clay 



Sandy loam . 

 Sandy loam . 



Sand 



Sandy loam . 



Sand 



Sand 



Total. 



Subsoil. 



aay . . , 

 Gravel . 

 Gravel . 

 Clay... 

 Clay . . , 



nay.., 

 Gravel . 

 Clay . . , 

 Sand . . , 

 Sand... 

 Gravel . 



Number 



of seedingrs 



reported. 



12 

 13 

 14 



172 

 28 



99 

 46 

 22 

 54 

 69 

 13 



642 



Percentage of seedings graded as 



Good. 



72.7 

 53.8 

 50.0 

 52.7 

 51.8 



44.9 

 35.6 

 23.8 

 28.3 

 14.7 

 7.7 



Medium. 



Poor. 



18.3 

 38.5 

 42.9 

 29.0 

 29.7 



31.6 

 42.2 

 52.5 

 34.0 

 33.8 

 15.4 



9.0 



7.7 



7.1 



16.5 



14.8 



18.4 

 22.2 

 19.0 

 26.4 

 39.8 

 61.5 



Failure. 









 



1.8 

 3.7 



5.1 







4.7 

 11.3 

 11.7 

 15.4 



A classification of soils made by so nianv different parties must neces- 

 sarily be somewhat inexact and doubt loi^s some of these soils classified, 

 for instance, as sand or sandy loam in one section of the state may be 

 quite different from soils given the same classification in another section 

 of the state. In one section the heavier soils and in another section the 

 lighter soils may give best results. 



Still some valuable information mav be gained from these data. All 

 the soils containing gravel either in the surface soil or subsoil, with 

 the exception of the sand with a gravel, probably in most cases a sandy 



