384 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ble in getting a stand if good seed is used and properly covered. That 

 does not determine the question. 



The question is, will alfalfa live through the winter, and if it lives 

 through the winter will it grow next summer without turning yellow 

 and losing its leaves. If the latter occurs, then examine the roots for 

 tubercles. If you find none your soil is deficient in the nitrifying germs 

 and the remedy is to try it again, this time furnishing the bacteria in 

 the shape of soil in which alfalfa has grown. If it fails to live through 

 an ordinary winter, a winter that will not kill winter wheat or clover, 

 that answers the question in the negative, and it is not worth while to 

 try it on that land again. 



Alfalfa is invaluable west of the Missouri river and on the extreme 

 western slope 'of Iowa. It is the grass of all grasses for that country. 

 East of that it is not so valuable for two resaons: First, because red 

 clover can be grown, which, under the conditions governing the curiuj? 

 of alfalfa in that section, is about equal^ to the alfalfa in feeding value, 

 and fits much better into the rotation. Still, where a farmer can grow 

 alfalfa, he should have from five to ten acres, which he can use as a 

 hog pasture or permanent meadow, and would in this section prove 

 very valuable property. In short, alfalfa can not take the place of 

 clover very far east of the Missouri river, and clover can not take the 

 place of alfalfa very far west of that river. Get this idea clearly in 

 your heads and then determine whether nature will permit you to have 

 an alfalfa meadow or hog pasture. 



DISKING ALFALFA. 



W. 8. Kelly in Twentieth Century Farmer. 



Two years ago I disked part of one field of alfalfa and carefully 

 watched results. I had frequently read that such treatment would tend 

 to thicken the stand. The machine was thrown in full disk and a heavy 

 man placed in the driver's seat and instructed not to look behind him- 

 self at the work until he had disked over a certain portion of the fiel(J. 

 This instruction was given because I feared if he should see how it cut 

 up the field he would quit and come to tell me about it. As for myself, 

 I kept out of sight. I didn't want to see it either. 



As a result, on the whole, I think — in fact, know — the stand was 

 slightly thinned out. The severed roots did not send up quite so many 

 shoots as those left untouched. I was. however, agreeably surprised 

 and rewarded by the increased yield. I think, on the whole, the yield 

 was about one ton more per acre for the season (four cuttings). Where 

 the disk was used the hay made a more rapid and ranker growth — so 

 much so that people passing on the road frequently stopped to ask for 

 an explanation. 



I account for the extra growth by the conservation of moisture with 

 the dust blanket formed by the disk. That season was excessively dry 

 and hot and the high winds licked the moisture from the ground at an 



