ginner in alfalfa growing to use a standard method that has passed 

 the experimental stage, and let the more experienced growers try 

 their luck with Jack Frost. 



Seeding Alone Best for Sandy Soils 



Though the weed-killing process is expensive, seeding alone in 

 May or June, is a method of growing alfalfa that practically insures 

 success, because it eliminates the drought danger that obtains with 

 the nurse crop and the weed danger of seeding alone in the early 

 spring. It is particularly a method to be recommended to the be- 

 ginner, who would best start out in a small way with three to five 

 acres. It gives him time to lime if necessary, to inoculate, and it 

 makes the most ideal seed bed for alfalfa. One or two crops of 

 hay may be cut prior to September first if abundant summer rains 

 occur. It is the surest method on sandy soils. 



Look Out for Soil Washing 



Its greatest drawbacks are extra labor and expense and possible 

 loss of the use and profit from the land the first year. It can be 

 used only with fields that are not too sloping, otherwise serious wash- 

 ing and gullying will occur. Hilly lands should always be seeded 

 down with a nurse crop. After the farm has grown alfalfa for a 

 number of years, and the fields are plowed up for corn, they can 

 then be reseeded to alfalfa with gra ; n in a less expensive manner. 



Seeding After Harvest of Canning Peas, Early Potatoes, etc. 



There are other ways of seeding alfalfa alone. Such crops as early 

 potatoes, canning peas, oats and peas for hay, are harvested early 

 in the summer. Rains generally occur after the harvest and by 

 immediate seeding good stands of alfalfa are obtained. The weed 

 growth at this time of the year will seldom prove to be detrimental. 

 The seed bed should be prepared with the disk and harrow not 

 with the plow. Plowing would leave the seed bed too loose for 

 immediate seeding unless heavy rolling was practiced. Disking is 

 decidedly satisfactory and is more economical. 



Seeding After Grain Harvest Doubtful 



This same practice is seldom successful with the grain crops, which 

 are harvested much later. They dry out the soil and quite gen- 

 erally drought follows their harvest, which makes the preparation 

 of the seed bed almost impossible either with a disk or plow. With 

 late-fall growing weather, seeding after a grain crop may prove suc- 

 cessful, but here again eight inches of growth prior to freezing weather 

 is necessary to insure winter protection of the alfalfa. 



Seeding in Corn at Last Cultivation 



Some successes and many failures have been reported in seeding 

 alfalfa in corn just before the last cultivation. The writer has tried 

 this out from time to time with little success. Occasionally it works, 

 and those occasions occur when the rainfall during the summer is 

 abundant. Some difficulty will obtain in getting the seed distri- 

 buted uniformly unless a special inter-row seeder is used. An ex- 

 perienced sower can spread the seed by hand uniformly and if care 

 is used the whirling seeders are satisfactory. 



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