116 ALFALFA 
The seed at the rate of twenty pounds to the acre is 
sown either with a hand seeder or a seeder attached to 
the front part of a disc drill. The seed must be well 
covered or it will not grow. The author wishes to im- 
press upon the reader the importance of getting the 
seed deep enough into the ground, or well covered, as 
he has noticed that where the seed was covered the best 
that the stand of alfalfa was the best. The author is 
firmly of the belief that the majority of failures in se- 
curing a stand of either clover or alfalfa are occasioned 
by failure in getting seed covered a sufficient depth. 
The best time to sow alfalfa seed is from the first to 
the middle of August. The plant will reach a height 
of seven or eight inches in six weeks. At this stage 
many claim it should be clipped with a mower. The 
author has practiced the clipping of baby alfalfa and 
has also allowed it to grow without clipping and was 
unable to see any difference in either method; but after 
the first season alfalfa must be mowed at the proper 
stage, which is when new shoots begin to push out from 
the plant near the ground, or it loses its vigor. 
Authorities on alfalfa tell us that the alfalfa plant 
when first started must get its nitrogen, which is neces- 
sary to its life, from the soil; that after the plant is well 
established it draws its supply of nitrogen from the air; 
that for this reason you must have your soil inoculated 
with nitrogen-gathering bacteria, and have plenty of 
nitrogen in the soil or you cannot get the alfalfa plant 
to establish itself. Then, if this is true, some method 
must be used to secure the supply of nitrogen and nitro- 
gen-gathering bacteria in the soil intended for the alfalfa 
