230 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



pear they may be pulled by hand. Carefully avoid clip- 

 ping or cutting the alfalfa until it has sent out from the 

 base of the stems, at the crown, small shoots or suckers 

 that are about to make new stems. When these shoots 

 come the alfalfa needs cutting without much regard to 

 how large it is or whether it happens to be in bloom or 

 no. If it is mown off the first season before these shoots 

 appear it may be destroyed. In truth the rule holds good 

 during the life of the plant that it should not be mown 

 off before the shoots appear; after the first year it will 

 not die if mown too soon but it will be markedly weak- 

 ened. Let it alone, then, till it is ready to cut; then 

 cut it off with its accompanying nurse-crop and make 

 into hay. Ordinarily there will follow another growth 

 that will be made into hay in about 40 days. 



Fall Care of New-Sown Alfalfa. I admit that I am 

 writing this chiefly for the help of men living out of 

 the recognized alfalfa-growing districts. In Utah it did 

 not much matter what one did to alfalfa; it came serenely 

 forward the next year just the same, and this is true of 

 Idaho, Colorado and other western states. In all the 

 eastern country, however, it pays well to send alfalfa 

 into winter with a growth standing of at least 12". There- 

 fore we avoid late cutting and never in the East pasture 

 in the fall, unless we desire to destroy the alfalfa and 

 plow it up. Bear this well in mind : Land well inocu- 

 lated can safely be seeded in the spring, as the vigorous 

 alfalfa gets ahead of the weeds. 



Summer and Fall-Seeding of Alfalfa. Commonly 

 men sow alfalfa seed in late summer or early fall. The 

 reason for this is that their soils are thoroughly well 



