224 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



How to Inoculate. The safe way is by use of soil 

 from either a successful alfalfa field or from a sweet 

 clover patch. If it is near at hand load up the earth in 

 a manure spreader, and just before sowing the seed dis- 

 tribute the soil' lightly over the field, following the 

 spreader close with a harrow that will mix the inoculat- 

 ing earth with the soil below so that the bacteria will 

 not be hurt by the sunlight, which is commonly fatal to 

 them. If one must purchase soil one can make it fine 

 and mix 100 pounds with 20 pounds of seed and sow the 

 two together, covering instantly. If the seed and soil 

 are very well mixed together they may be sown with a 

 drill. There are now made drills that sow alfalfa seed 

 very well, putting it in at slight depth and affordiing 

 nearly perfect opportunity for growth. One can dry 

 inoculating material in the shade, make it fine by pass- 

 ing it through a sieve, wet the seed well and as soon as 

 it has drained but not dried mix with it enough of the 

 dry earth to make it sowable or drillable. This method 

 requires very little earth and gives good inoculation, 



Spring or Summer Seeding. In Oklahoma spring seed- 

 ing is commonly practiced because then farmers can have 

 enough moisture to start the plants, while their falls are 

 commonly dry as well as their midsummers. In Kansas 

 the same conditions prevail more or less, though some 

 midsummer and fall seeding is done there. In Iowa 

 sowing after oats or early potatoes or on land that 

 has been kept fallow during the early season gives good 

 results, while, because of the weed-infested nature of the 

 soil, spring seeding is not always successful. In Illinois 

 much midsummer seeding is done, and some spring seed- 



