686 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



the moisture and texture of the soil. If the seed bed is very well pre- 

 pared there is great danger that the drill may run too deep. Use care 

 to insure against this difficulty. To get the most uniform stand it is 

 often advisable to go over the field twice, putting in one-half of the seed 

 each time and crossing the field the other way the second time over. If 

 drilling is impossible, the seed may be sown broadcast and harrowed in 

 well, or even disked in. If this be done toward evening, then any mois- 

 ture in the surface soil will help to secure germination. 



There are in common use in Iowa, four methods or times of seed- 

 ing alfalfa, which may be enumerated as follows: 



1. Seeding in the spring with nurse crops. 



2. Seeding in the spring or early summer without nurse crop. 



3. Seeding in the late summer following the removal of some other crop. 



4. Seeding in the late summer on summer-fallowed land. 



SPRING SEEDING 



Alfalfa may be seeded in the small grain in the spring in identically 

 the same manner as red clover. The seeding will be more likely to suc- 

 ceed if the seed bed is well prepared the previous fall or early in the 

 spring. 



Barley, wheat or rye make better nurse crops that oats. The oats re- 

 quire more water; they produce much foliage which tends to shade and 

 "smother," and they come off of the ground late, when the season is 

 likely to be dry and the sun burning hot. 



Whatever small grain is used, its rate of seeding should be reduced 

 from a third to a half. This will cut down the yield of small grain com- 

 paratively little, while it will give the alfalfa a much better chance. 



Fig. 21. — A perfect stand; vigorous growth, and not a weed in the 

 field. Seeded the middle of August in the extreme northern part of the 

 state. (Kossuth county.) 



