232 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



One can not safely sow alfalfa seed in the dust. There 

 is danger that there may come a shower sufficient to 

 make the seed germinate, but not sufficient to wet the 

 underlying dust. The result would be that the little 

 seedling would perish before its rootlets could reach soil 

 moisture below. One must wait till the earth is moist 

 clear down before sowing the seed, or take chances. 

 After a good rain, as soon as the soil is fit to work, har- 

 row to loosen the surface and then drill in the seed. 

 No nurse-crop is needed or permissible in fall or mid- 

 summer seeding of alfalfa. North of Tennessee one 

 should sow as early as possible after the middle of July. 

 Alfalfa is in no sense a plant like wheat or rye or tim- 

 othy grass, liking to be sown in the fall. It must get 

 a strong root before cold weather or it will likely perish. 



Making a Seedbed in the South. In Louisiana I had 

 direction of a demonstration farm on an old abandoned 

 cotton plantation. The soil was the so-called "buckshot." 

 that is, a dense clay made by a deposit of still flowing 

 water of the Mississippi River, rich in lime, rich in phos- 

 phorus and potassium but very deficient in vegetable mat- 

 ter and nitrogen. The land was level and wet, being 

 flooded by each heavy rainstorm. Previous attempts at 

 alfalfa-growing had commonly resulted in failure, though 

 the manager had established one thrifty field on slightly 

 sloping ground. The first successful step in getting al- 

 falfa there was to plow the land 10" deep in July, throw- 

 ing it into ridges 2 rods wide and as high in the centers 

 as we could raise it. The middle furrows were cleaned 

 out with a road grader so as to give perfect drainage. 

 When we had the land ridged, the rounded ridges re- 



