406 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Our entomologist recommends the disking of alfalfa fields after the 

 removal of each crop in order to exterminate the insect. The 

 practice has been found effective in destroying the insect and has 

 also resulted in renewing the fields in a splendid way. 



WASHINGTON. Prof. R. W. Thatcher, Director of the Washing- 

 ton Experiment Station, Pullman: Alfalfa is the leading hay plant 

 in all our warmer irrigated belts that are not used strictly for fruit- 

 growing or vegetable-gardening. It is also becoming more and 

 more prominent in the southeastern part of our state for both a 

 pasture and a hay plant for hogs and what few cattle our wheat- 

 farmers may keep. It is just beginning to be grown in the western 

 part of Washington and enough has been done to show that all that 

 part of our state seems to need inoculation for alfalfa, but that it 

 will do well on any of the well-drained soils of western Washington 

 if such inoculation is given. I believe that it will become a very 

 prominent hay and pasture plant in western Washington. Nothing 

 has been done thus far in the matter of fertilizing for alfalfa. The 

 usual practice is to seed without a nurse-crop. 



Clover is a very important forage plant in western Washington, 

 and is just beginning to be grown to a very limited degree in the 

 easternmost part of the wheatbelt where the rainfall is above 20" 

 per annum. At Pullman our trials on the experiment station have 

 shown clover to be as valuable as alfalfa in short rotations, as the 

 yield has been about equal to that of alfalfa and it is got rid of by 

 plowing while alfalfa requires persistent cultivation before it is con- 

 quered. To secure a stand of clover with certainty in eastern 

 Washington, however, it is necessary to prepare the seedbed in "the 

 spring in such a way that a good, firm bottom will be secured 

 with a shallow, mellow surface mulch, then seed with an ordinary 

 grain drill, slipping the spouts of the drill from the grain box onto 

 the grass seedbox conducting the clover seed into the shoes of the 

 drill, then setting the shoes to run shallow. In this way the seed 

 is placed where the little seedling will not be destroyed with one or 

 two hot drying days. Seeded in this manner we find no more diffi- 

 culty in securing a stand of clover than of oats. With the frequent 

 rains that occur in the early part of the season in western Wash- 

 ington such special pains are not necessary in seeding. 



Alsike clover is useful in our state in very limited acreages 

 where the drainage is poor or the land is subject to overflow the 



