ment of the tender young alfalfa plant so that an extended drought 

 following the grain harvest may ruin the stand. This is a difficulty 

 far more serious with sandy or light soils because they are so readily 

 affected by drought. This danger is sufficient to make the nurse- 

 crop way of starting alfalfa a failure with sandy soil but not gener- 

 ally with the heavier clays and loams. We shall see, however, that 

 it can be avioded. 



Seeding Alfalfa Alone 



The surest but most expensive way to seed alfalfa, especially on 

 sandy ground, is to put the soil through a careful weed-killing pro- 

 cess of disking and harrowing at frequent intervals, and seeding in 

 May or early June. If the soil is extremely weedy the cultivation 



Fig. 43. Seeding Alfalfa with Barley. 



Flat rollers should be followed with a harrow. Otherwise the smooth 

 surface may bake, crust and harden. 



should be continued well on into the summer; otherwise June seed- 

 ing is most satisfactory, for heavy soils and May or June for light 

 soils, and one or two cuttings of hay may be obtained prior to Sep- 

 tember first. This will in a measure make up for the profits of a 

 grain crop. 



Though excessive cultivation kills weeds, stores up moisture and 

 firms the seed bed, it would not be necessary if the soil were weed- 

 free, or nearly so. Clean clay or loam fields growing such well-cul- 

 tivated crops as tobacco, sugar beets and potatoes can often be fall 

 plowed, disked, harrowed and inoculated, and the alfalfa seeded a- 

 lone on frozen ground the following spring. Two fair crops of hay, 

 rarely three, may be cut in the summer, although the first is apt to 

 be very weedy. 



Jack Frost Methods 



But very seldom do we find soils that are free enough of weeds 

 and weed seeds to warrant this "Jack Frost" way of seeding alfalfa 

 alone. I have seen it tried, and instead of cutting nice crops of al- 

 falfa the first year the harvest was mostly weeds. A grain crop 

 would not have crowded the alfalfa any more than the weeds did 

 and surely would have been more profitable. It is best for the be- 



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