244 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



has set the buds at the base of the stems, too, and must 

 be mown off or it will make little more growth this year ; 

 so, though it is a disappointment not to get our customary 

 crop of hay the year of sowing, we shall start the mowers 

 soon and cut it as close to the earth as we can, knowing 

 that it will at once start out vigorously and thus make 

 strong root for winter. Though it might make a good 

 hay crop in late September, we shall hardly cut it then, 

 depending on its yielding us next year all the more for 

 having been treated generously this. 



How Long Does Alfalfa Endure? I have seen alfalfa 

 fields that had endured in good thrift for 40 years or 

 more. These fields were in the Southwest, on rich, deep, 

 dry soil where alfalfa roots could penetrate for 30' or 

 more. The stand was thin, but each plant was like a 

 small tree stump, and the roots like great gnarled stubs of 

 .oak fully 2" to 3" in diameter. Such facts as these have 

 led men to teach that alfalfa will endure forever. In east- 

 ern soils and under an eastern climate it will do no such 

 thing. It is commonly at its best the second or third year 

 after sowing, and then declines steadily in health and pro- 

 ductiveness. To get the most good from growing 

 alfalfa one should plow it up before it gets thin and is 

 displaced by grasses. We commonly let it stand three 

 or four years ; though our practice was to leave it much 

 longer, we now see the greater profit in plowing the 

 field as soon as it begins to decline, not trying to resow 

 or nurse it, but planting to corn, manuring the land for 

 corn a second year, then resowing to alfalfa again. 

 Thus managed, we keep our soil always at near the 

 height of its production. 



