ALFALFA IN SOUTH AMERICA. 349 



barley, wheat or flax, sometimes with maize, uncul- 

 tivated. The fall seeding (March or April) is best 

 when a seedbed can be prepared, but Argentine sum- 

 mers are dry and hot and it is difficult to get large 

 areas in good condition before rains fall. Therefore 

 much alfalfa is not sown till June or July (midwinter 

 with them) when rains have come and it is sown with 

 wheat or some other cereal. It requires more seed 

 when the nurse crop is used. 



This seeding with wheat seems so successful that 

 it is worth experiment in our Southern states, where 

 a similar proceeding might result as well if the soil 

 were made rich and filled with lime, both of which 

 conditions prevail in Argentina, Of this practice 

 in Argentina an Englishman, Mr. Glyne Williams, 

 who ranches about 300 miles south of Buenos Aires, 

 wrote in May, 1903 : 



Last year I harvested 30 bushels of wheat to the acre on a 

 piece where this year I have very good alfalfa. * * * The 

 advantages of sowing with wheat are obvious in the saving of 

 another plowing, and, far more than this, in the saving of 

 time. * * * Until I see more decided advantages than I 

 do at present in favor of sowing alone I intend to continue 

 sowing with wheat, so long as the latter remains a paying crop. 

 As far as my experience goes there is no objection to grazing 

 alfalfa with cattle while it is young. To do so with sheep 

 and eat it bare would, I think, be dangerous as they crop it too 

 closely. 



John Benitz, already quoted, thus records his ex- 

 perience : 



I have had the best results by breaking up virgin camp in 

 the fall or spring and at once cross disking, harrowing and sow- 

 ing with alfalfa alone and covering it with a lighter harrow. 

 Alfalfa so sown can be stocked with cattle two or three months 



