FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 381 



Or if weeds threaten to overpower it clip it close with the mower. 

 Leave a strong growth in fall to shelter it and hold snow. Turn no 

 stock on it the first season nor ever in c'old weather, as tramping it in 

 winter kills the crowns. Do not let barley shocks stand long on young 

 alfalfa; they will kill it. 



Do not be discouraged if your stand is apparently thin. If plants 

 stand five inches apart they are thick enough. 



Covering alfalfa fields in winter or late fall with manure, spread 

 evenly, is a go'od thing if the land is worn. Sowing two hundred and 

 fifty pounds of phosporus and potassium fertilizer to the acre when 

 starting alfalfa is a good thing in some cases. 



In southern soils it has been proved that drilling the phosphatic 

 fertilizers in old alfalfa fields in spring greatly increases the yield. 

 Doubtless in some soils applications of potassium would return large 

 profits. Alfalfa has the power to gather nitrogen from the air, through 

 the medium of tubercules on its rootlets. In this manner it greatly en- 

 riches soils on which it grows. Addition of mineral elements of fer- 

 tility enables alfalfa to gather the more nitrogen and thus more greatly 

 to enrich the soil. Experience of centuries in Europe proves that al- 

 falfa is one of the greatest soil enrichers in the world. Experience in 

 America confirms this. Alfalfa fields when broken yield heavily of 

 corn, wheat, p'otatoes or whatever may be sown thereon. In many cases 

 the increased yield is marvelous. The better the growth of alfalfa the 

 greater the soil improvement. 



When it is desired to get rid of alfalfa there is no difficulty in de- 

 stroying it. It required a good plow and team to cut through tough 

 alfalfa sod, but once broken it dies at once. Nor is there the least dan- 

 ger of alfalfa spreading over fields where it is not desired. Soils on 

 which alfalfa has grown are much better drained, more porus and mel- 

 low thereafter. 



When once the field of alfalfa is established there is at hand a 

 source of food for all live stock, better than any that has heretofore 

 been available to the stockman. When cut before it has become woody, 

 when cured with its leaves remaining attached to the stem, alfalfa 

 forms a forage richer than any other in protein, that muscle-builder, 

 milk-giver, that substance so much needed on the stock farm to develop 

 the growing animal and to make maternity bounteous. 



A\aien once established, alfalfa is much benefited by spring culture. 

 II may not be rooted vigorously enough for disking the second season, 

 but by the third year it will be greatly helped by using the disc harrow 

 as soon as the soil is in condition in spring. Alfalfa roots thr'ive best 

 when they have plenty of both air and water. Disking lets in air nnd 

 checks the escape of water. When grasses invade alfalfa fields thp 

 spike-toothed harrow may be used with effect to drag them out. 



