244 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



1,500 bushels of wheat may bring $1 per bushel and 

 may not ; call it that and we have $1,500. By utiliz- 

 ing the corn stover the alfalfa hay could mostly be 

 sold; say we sell 400 tons of it at $8, we have $3,200. 

 Adding up we have gross sales in this instance of 

 $6,700. The thing works out about the same. In 

 some ways this is the better rotation. For one thing 

 corn following corn, even for two years, suffers 

 somewhat from insects. In this rotation corn is al- 

 most absolutely sure as it is always on alfalfa sod 

 and is manured as well. It sho.uld never yield less 

 than 100 bushels per acre under such treatment. 



Work for this Rotation. In this rotation one finds 

 this amount of work to do each year : 60 acres of 

 alfalfa sod to break. This should be mown off four 

 times as the late mowing for some reason makes the 

 roots easier to break. One good three-horse team 

 of heavy horses will break the 60 acres, taking it in 

 a leisurely fashion from October till spring, when- 

 ever there is open weather. Alfalfa sod fits easily 

 for corn. The wheat is sown in the clean corn 

 stubble by simply disking and drilling in. It should 

 have additional phosphorus to start it vigorously 

 off before cold weather. The wheat stubble should 

 be plowed very swiftly after the wheat is taken off, 

 and here is the worst feature of this scheme; at the 

 same time one may need teams in the corn field and 

 in the alfalfa meadow. It may be necessary to ar- 

 range to hire additional teams at this time to get this 

 seeding well and promptly done. It will greatly help 

 if the wheat stubble is thoroughly disked the mo- 



