206 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



more successful, so far as I have seen, than several 

 other less costly plans. 



Seeding After Early Potatoes. The land may be 

 plowed early and deep, fitted as soon as it is ready 

 to work and planted to potatoes, choosing some very 

 early maturing variety. There is hardly any better 

 plan than this. The potatoes well repay high manur- 

 ing and fertilization. They should have plenty of 

 phosphoric acid given them; in the eastern states 

 it is common to give early potatoes as much as 500 

 to 1,000 pounds of high grade acid phosphate per 

 acre; potash also usually tells a good tale when 

 applied to potatoes. Thus if the crop is highly fer- 

 tilized there remains a good surplus in the soil 

 available to the alfalfa. 



The potatoes well repay good cultivation and thus 

 weeds are destroyed and when the potatoes are dug 

 the land is left clean and thoroughly well loosened 

 up. It is an easy matter then to level it off, disk 

 it well and get ready for alfalfa seeding. This can 

 usually be done in July and as soon as the pota- 

 toes are fit to dig and sell they should come out 

 to make room for the alfalfa, the more important 

 crop of the two by odds. 



Do not plow the potato land. Disk it very thor- 

 oughly, then disk it again. If the soil is too dry to 

 make alfalfa grow, wait for rain before sowing the 

 seed. Should there come a shower, disk again and 

 wait for a rain that will moisten the underlying 

 soil. There is danger in sowing alfalfa seed in the 

 dust, expecting rain to come and bring it forward. 



