42 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



had never been in alfalfa. In sections where alfalfa has not been 

 previously grown it is frequently easy to secure a good stand. After 

 a year or two it then begins to weaken and either makes a feeble growth 

 or dies out in patches. In hard subsoils the roots of the first seeding 

 have a hard time to w^ork their way down, and may not be able to 

 penetrate to a depth of more than five or six feet, when they become 

 exhausted. If. when, plants shov/s signs of this exhaustion, the ground 

 is plowed and another crop sown the roots will decay, letting air into 

 the subsoil, where it can break it up and make it more porous. Thor- 

 oughly pulverizing the ground distributes the bacteria which are needed 

 by the alfalfa roots. A year after breaking up the ground should be 

 re-seeded to alfalfa. 



The plants from the second sowing wall find the ground prepared 

 for them in the depth which the roots from the first seeding penetrated. 

 By the time these plants have reached subsoil that has been untouched 

 they will have reached an age and vigor that will enable them to fur 

 ther extend their growth and to yield well. 



SEEDING. 



Seeding in Iowa should be done in the spring after the danger from 

 hard frosts is over. On Brookmont Farm w^e seeded sixty-five acres 

 April 24, 1903. and secured a good stand. Severe frosts will kill alfalfa 

 if they occur just as the first tw^o leaves appear. 



We recommend twenty pounds of seed per acre. With every condi- 

 tion favorable, experienced alfalfa-growers sometimes succeed in get- 

 ting a good stand by using ten to fifteen pounds of seed per acre, bur 

 this small quantity is not generally sufllcient. It pays to use enough 

 seed to secure a good stand, as alfalfa, unlike clover, never thickens. 

 and the number of plants per acre tends to continually decrease. 



The most even stand is secured by sowing with a broadcast seeder 

 and harrowing lightly. 



Alfalfa should be sown alone. It does not want a nurse crop. 

 Sometimes a good stand is secured when alfalfa is seeded with some 

 other crop, but many times it fails entirely. Young alfalfa is a deli- 

 cate plant and needs all the plant food and sunshine available and usu- 

 ally when it has to share these with another crop it dies. 



T^JEATMENT AL'll.H SEK!)I^O. 



The young alfalfa is one of the weakest plants i,vown. It gr^wr, 

 slowly, is a weak feeder, and is easily checked or killed by weeds and 

 by unfavorable conditions of soil, weather or treatment. Mature alfalfa 

 is a most vigorous plant. It grows down deeply in the soil, is a vigor- 

 ous feeder, and lives and yields well under many unfavorable conditions. 

 For this reason it will pay well to give the baby alfalfa plant good care 

 ;and favorable surroundings for the first year of its life. 



Young alfalfa responds most vigorously to a top dressing of fifteen 

 to thirty loads per acre of manure. This top-dressing is of special value 

 when done after the ground is frozen in the fall after seeding, as it 

 checks the alternate freezing and thawing that causes leafing, Young 

 alfalfa must have a fertile soil. 



