GROWING ALFALFA SEED. 447 



Wheeler has used the method on an experimental and field scale 

 and his results are confirmatory to those presented in this paper. 



The work on which the conclusions here presented are based 

 has been conducted at various experiment farms of this bureau 

 and on the farms of Lewis Brott, Sextorp, Neb.; E. Bartholo- 

 mew, Stockton, and Dr. W. A. Workman, Ashland, Kan. 



Row cultivation for seed growing has been in use for a num- 

 ber of years in the vineyard regions of southern Germany, par- 

 ticularly in Baden and Bavaria, in the production of seed of 

 Alt-Deutsche Frankische luzerne, a well-recognized German 

 strain. It is said that alfalfa is grown in cultivated rows for 

 seed in parts of Russia, where hand cultivators prove an ef- 

 fective and practical means of holding the weeds in check and 

 of conserving soil moisture. 



The method has been employed for a number of years by Dr. 

 L. Trabut, government botanist of Algeria. Fairchild describes 

 a method of growing wheat between alfalfa rows in Algeria 

 under light rainfall, where it has been found possible to pro- 

 duce a crop of wheat between the wide rows of alfalfa in alter- 

 nate years. The practical value of this method for the semi- 

 arid portions of the United States was indicated in the publica- 

 tion mentioned, without, however, making any direct reference 

 to the seed-producing possibilities of alfalfa sown in cultivated 

 rows under such conditions. 



Principles of Seed Production. Although alfalfa has been 

 grown increasingly in the West since 1854 or 1855 little has 

 been done to develop a rational seed industry. It is a matter 

 of common observation that even in recognized seed-producing 

 sections the seed crop is very uncertain. A study of some of 

 the factors that cause success or failure has indicated some of 

 the underlying principles affecting the production of profitable 

 seed crops. In Bulletin 118 of this bureau attention was directed 

 to the fact that cultivated alfalfa is not a homogeneous species, 

 but is composed of numerous races, strains, varieties, and even 

 sub-species. These vary greatly in many characters, and espe- 

 cially in their seed-producing capacity, no pure varieties of 

 known high value comparable with those we have of corn, wheat, 

 and other crops having as yet been established. It has also 

 been noted that the individuals constituting these diverse races, 

 elementary species, or whatever they may be called, exhibit great 

 variation among themselves. This is particularly true of their 

 ability to set seed. To overcome the source of error resulting 

 from this diversity in individual plants the method of vegetative 

 propagation described by Westgate and Oliver, of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, has been used in a portion of this work. 



