88 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



age from seed sown any other season. And if the plant roots are 

 going down after water why will they go deeper in an extreme wet 

 season than an extreme dry one? The fact is, the roots are search- 

 ing for plant food and not water. In three tests I have made, by 

 supplying plenty of potash, wood ashes on the surface so the plants 

 had access to it, after three or four years the roots were but little 

 deeper than the roots of many other plants. 



I have some that has been growing for eight years on upland 

 gravelly land, where there is a solid limestone rock within from 

 three and one-half to five feet of the surface, and this part of the 

 field is in good condition yet. 



I shall only touch the manner of seeding. I have had the best 

 results to sow it after cowpeas, cut the cowpeas off, do not turn 

 the ground but disk or work up a nice seed bed with a spring tooth 

 harrow, and sow any time from the 15th of August to the 15th of 

 September, when there is sufficient moisture to germinate the seed 

 and keep them growing. If sown broad cast sow twenty pounds of 

 seed to the acre, but with a press drill sixteen pounds will be plenty. 

 Sow enough to get a good stand at first, for if it comes up too thin 

 it is a big job to try to thicken it afterwards. Do not sow any 

 nurse crop ; it will take care of itself. It does well after wheat. 



If sown after wheat the ground should be turned as soon as 

 possible after the wheat is cut, but not turned deep, two and one- 

 half or three inches being plenty. When the weeds and grass start, 

 go over it with some kind of "weed killer," and do this as often as 

 they make their appearance, and by sowing time there will be a 

 nice seed bed. I have had very fair success sowing after corn. 

 Get the corn off out of the way, feeding while green to hogs and 

 dragging the ground until level, then harrow until the seed bed 

 is good. The seed should be covered about the same as millet or 

 any other seed of that size. Do not sow it on fresh plowed ground. 

 If sown on a very sour soil the seed will germinate all right and the 

 plants grow from 3 to 5 inches high, turn yellow and disappear. 

 After the plants are 6 or 8 inches high, examine the roots and see 

 if there are any nodules, and if not better inoculate with Alfalfa 

 Bacteria. This is easiest done by going to a field where alfalfa has 

 grown for several years, and getting a few hundred pounds of soil 

 and scattering it over the field. Do not pasture it until two years 

 old and never when the ground is soft. 



Now let us discuss briefly the care it should have after once 

 a stand is procured. I have received many letters telling me that 

 the writer's alfalfa did well for a few years, but the foxtail, crab- 



