290 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



DRILLING VS. BROADCASTING OF ALFALFA. 



Approximately twenty-two per cent of the seedings were made with 

 a drill and the remainder were sown by hand or with a broadcast seeder. 

 In many of the seedings made with the drill, the drill was followed by 

 a harrow or the seed was distribnted by the seeder attachment in front 

 of the drill so that they were essentially broadcast seedings. The data 

 on the exact method of seeding is insufficient to justify its presenta- 

 tion in tabular fonn and the drawing of definite conclusions from 

 the ?(ame. It may be said however, that the drilling (dropping the 

 seed through the grain hose) has the advantage over the broadcast 

 method in that practically all of the seed may be placed at the proper 

 depth in the soil and that a somewhat lighter seeding will give equally 

 good results. In a few cases alfalfa has been drilled deeply on heavy 

 soil, followed by heavy rains which has prevented the alfalfa from 

 coming up. On medium or heavy soils the seed should be put in to a 

 depth of about 1 inch and on the light sandy soils, to a depth of ll^ 

 to 2 inches. 



RATE OF SEEDING ALFALFA. 



Table XI shows the number of seedings which have been made at 

 difl'erent rates and the percentage of good, medium and poor seedings 

 and failures in each class. It may be noted from the table that ap- 

 proximately one-half of the seedings were made at the rate of sixteen to 

 twenty pounds per acre, one fourth at thirteen to fifteen pounds per 

 acre and one tenth at ten to twelve pounds per acre, there being very 

 few seedings at less than ten or more than twenty pounds per acre. 

 The average rate per acre was 17.8 pounds. . 



TABLE XL— RATE OF SEEDING ALFALFA. 



Rates of seeding. 



T^ss than 10 pounds 

 10 to 12 pounds. . . . 

 1.3 to 1.5 pounds. . . . 

 16 to 20 pounds. . . . 

 21 to 25 pounds. . . . 

 Over 25 pounds 



Total 



Number of 

 seedings 

 reported. 



16 

 54 

 136 

 251 

 26 

 29 



Percentage of seedings graded as 



Good. Medium. Poor. 



43.8 

 35.2 

 33.1 

 43.4 

 50.0 

 41.3 



.512 



37.5 

 22 2 

 39! 6 

 25.9 

 27.0 

 34.5 



18.8 

 37.0 

 22 1 

 25^9 

 19.0 

 17.3 



Failure. 



00 

 5.5 



The above data does not indicate that the rate of seeding within 

 certain limits is a very important factor in the seeding of alfalfa. A 

 pound of alfalfa seed contains approximately 150,000 seeds so that 

 a seeding of ten pounds per acre is equivalent to thirty four seeds per 

 square foot. It may be readily seen that this application, or even five 

 or six pounds per acre, is sufficient if the seed is good, if it is evenly 

 distributed and if covered to the proper depth on a well prepared 

 seed bed. However, on account of the difficulty of securing conditions 



