380 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



F. ALFALFA. 



SEEDING TO ALFALFA. 



Joseph E. Wing in Breeders'' Gazette. 



There is no mystery or magic necessary in seeding to alfalfa. It is 

 easy to secure a good stand of alfalfa, as easy at least as with clover 

 and grasses, generally easier. Yet there are a few simple but quite es- 

 sential points to bear in mind. 



The land must be rich. If it is poor make it rich with stable ma- 

 nure before you sow alfalfa on it. Better manure heavily, grow then 

 a crop of corn, keeping it clean so that no weed seed is sown in the soil, 

 and next season sow to alfalfa. Or potatoes may precede alfalfa with 

 good results. The land must be well drained, either naturally or by 

 tiles. If it is very tough, heavy limestone clay, loosen it up by means 

 of heavy manuring, else* it will throw out the alfalfa the first winter. 

 It ought to be a limestone scil. If you are off the limestone, if blue 

 grass is not natural to your farm, do not sow alfalfa without first lim- 

 ing the field. Spread evenly about twenty bushels per acre of freshly 

 slacked lime in powder form and harrow in. There are millions of 

 acres in Ohio. Indiana, New York, Pensylvania and adjoining states 

 where alfalfa can be profitably grown, and when once understood there 

 is no crop of more value to the farmer, especially to the stock farmer. 



It pays to give careful attention to getting a stand, as it remains 

 In profitable growth for many years when once well started, and it 

 greatly enriches the field on which it grows. Plow the field deeper than 

 ever it was plowed early in winter if you can. Work it up with har- 

 rows early in spring. If you can not plow early, disking corn or po- 

 tato stubble in the spring may prove better than late plowing, as it gives 

 a better seed bed. Make a seed bed as fine as if for garden crops. 



Sow a nurse-crop of spring barley, using less seed than you would 

 usually. "We have sown as little as one bushel to the acre. Sow the 

 alfalfa in front of the drill, using fifteen pounds of seed to the acre. If your 

 land is very rich and well prepared you may sow a little less. If the 

 land is dry and somewhat cloddy roll it hard after seeding. If it is 

 moist so that the rolling would pack it unduly, drag with a plank drag. 

 Leave it smooth. 



If you can get earth from an old alfalfa field in good health, sow 

 some of this soil on the field. The barley nurse-crop subdues weeds and 

 fox-tail grass, the worst enemy of alfalfa the first season. Let the barley 

 ripen, and when cutting it for grain set the reaper to cut as close to 

 the ground as possible. Should it from any cause lodge mow it off the 

 same day and make into hay or it will smother the young alfalfa. 



After the barley is taken off the alfalfa should grow up rapidly 

 again. Watch it and if it is overtaken by yellowness of leaf, which 

 means rust, clip it off as close to the ground as you can with the mower. 



