table is only two feet below the surface is best avoided. The old 

 "alfalfa-won't-stand-wet-feet" theory holds pretty well. Other con- 

 ditions being favorable, tile-drained land is satisfactory, but oc- 

 casionally trouble is reported because the alfalfa roots clog the drains. 

 Though the danger is slight and seldom serious it is well worthy of 

 mention. 



A Firm Settled Seed Bed Necessary 



Three years ago I observed a forty-acre field of alfalfa that had 

 been seeded the year previous with one bushel of barley to the acre 

 as a nurse crop. The land was heavily limed and manured and 

 inoculated. Climatic conditions were very favorable. Yet the al- 

 falfa was a miserable failure. Why? A loose seed bed. 



The soil was plowed just one week before the seeding of the al- 

 falfa and barley. It did not have time to become firm. The capil- 

 lary movement of the moisture from the subsoil was retarded and 

 the alfalfa plants did not thrive. Even the barley was a poor crop. 

 Fall plowing of the heavy soils has its many advantages for all crops, 

 but its principal benefit for alfalfa is that it gives the seed bed time 

 to settle and become firm enough to meet the requirements of the 

 alfalfa plant. 



The forty-acre field mentioned was plowed up in the falljand suc- 

 cessfully reseeded to alfalfa the following spring. 



Rolling a Very Desirable Practice 



Rolling is the only practice that will firm the seed bed sufficiently 

 when the seeding of alfalfa immediately follows plowing. The roller 

 is best used right after the seed is sown and should be followed by a 

 light harrowing to form a mulch. Harrowing is not necessary when 

 corrugated rollers are used. They firm the soil but leave at the 

 same time a loose surface. 



Loose Sandy Soils Need the Roller 



Particularly with open sandy lands, which because of leaching 

 and blowing must often be spring plowed for alfalfa, is rolling es- 

 sential. It brings on a rapid and uniform germination of the seed. 

 During dry weather it keeps the surface supplied with moisture, 

 which naturally moves up from below when the soil particles are in 

 close contact. 



A well-settled seed bed, with a mulched surface sufficient to cover 

 the seed and to prevent baking and crusting and the rapid evapor- 

 ation of soil moisture, is ideal not only for alfalfa but also for all 

 our grain crops with which alfalfa is so often seeded. 



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