20 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 
the meadow is of more importance than the nurse crop, it is advisable_ 
in a dry season to dispense with the latter; or, if planted, to cut it 
for fodder before the seedlings perish from thirst. 
The depth of seeding depends on the kind of seed, the char- 
acter and condition of the soil, and the moisture. It is said that 
no seed should be planted deeper than four times its diameter. When 
growing wild, fodder and pasture plants drop their ripe seeds, which 
germinate very near or on the surface of the soil. But nature is 
more wasteful than the farmer can afford to be; he should provide 
the best possible conditions for the development of a perfect seedling. 
Method of seeding: When the soil is quite firm, as for spring 
seeding on fall wheat land, harrowing after broadcast seeding, if 
the land is reasonably dry, makes a good tilth and covering for the 
grass and clover seeds and is beneficial to the wheat plants. When 
seeding after deep spring cultivation, the fodder crop seeds may be 
sown by the seeder in front of the grain drills and then rolled and 
given a stroke with a weeder; if the subsurface soil is firm and the 
surface in fine tilth the grain drill may be followed by a weeder 
alone to level the soil and redistribute the seeds that have been 
thrown together between the drills. If the weather is favourable, it 
is sometimes satisfactory, although bad practice, to broadcast the 
seed after the nurse crop has been sown and depend on rains to 
cover and protect it during germination. Any method that will 
insure its even distribution and a covering of half an inch is prefer- 
able to surface seeding without covering. Heavy rains are apt to 
wash the seed lying on the surface into the furrows and ditches. 
Then, too, many kinds of grass seeds that require two or more weeks 
to germinate may be destroyed if exposed on the surface. Sowing 
from one to one and a half inches deep is sometimes recommended 
for Alfalfa and other fodder crops on prairie soils. In semi-arid 
districts Alfalfa for seed crop may be thinly sown in drills from 
twenty to thirty inches apart. If the soil is very dry the growth will 
be dwarfed, but their deep roots enable the plants to get moisture 
enough to produce a fair yield of good seed. 
Implements are specially designed for sowing grass and clover 
seeds. Most grain seeders are fitted with an attachment, sometimes 
in front and sometimes behind the drill tubes, for sowing fodder 
plant seeds. If the surface is in fine tilth, and the grain drill is followed 
by a weeder or light harrow, to level the soil, the fine seeds are not 
apt to be covered too deeply, which sometimes happens in lumpy 
clay. The hand broadcast seeder, with a revolving disc to scatter 
