The Hay Crop 263 



When alfalfa is sown in the spring the best growers have 

 found that a nurse crop Hke barley is of advantage in keep- 

 ing down the weeds. But the experience of most growers 

 has resulted in finding that the best success is had from 

 late summer or early fall sowing. A good preparation for 

 the crop is the growing during the early part of the sum- 

 mer a crop of cow peas on which a good appHcation of 

 acid phosphate and potash has been made, for no matter 

 how fertile the loam may be, any increase in humus- 

 making material will be a help. The heavy shading of 

 the peas keeps down the weeds and the peas can be mown 

 for hay, or in the South turned under after mature and 

 dry. But this would make the sowing too late in the 

 northern sections, and it would be better to pasture the 

 peas down before plowing for the alfalfa. 



From the middle of August to middle of September is 

 the best time for sowing according to latitude. Care must 

 be taken to get good and clean seed, for there is a great 

 deal of seed sold that has seeds of dodder mixed with it, 

 and dodder is a parasitic plant that is destructive to 

 alfalfa. Better get a sample of the seed offered and send 

 it to your experiment station for inspection, and thus be 

 sure of getting clean seed. 



Never sow less than twenty-five pounds of seed per 

 acre, and thirty pounds will be none too many. It has 

 been found that as the soil gets inoculated a smaller 

 amount of seed will do, but in the first start it is better to 

 use seed Hberally. In sowing in late summer or fall, it is 

 better not to use a nurse crop, but to sow alfalfa seed 

 alone. 



If a good stand is had in the fall, we have found it a 



