Alfalfa in Kansas. 43 



freezing and thawing and snow of winter and the beating rains of 

 summer may be very efficient aids in settling the seed bed, and thus save 

 considerable time and labor. 



In the case of breaking sod land for alfalfa, a Wallace county re- 

 porter offers the following: "Most of my alfalfa was sown on sod ground. 

 I prefer to break in March or April, two or two and one-half inches deep. 

 Follow each half-day's breaking with a roller if possible, or with a disk 

 set straight, while the sod is yet mellow. The idea is to get the sod flat 

 and not to pulverize it. If a disk is used it is necessary to follow with 

 a smoothing harrow and a plank drag to crush the lumps." 



Another Wallace county reporter says : "In seeding alfalfa in western 

 Kansas on buffalo grass or blue-stem grass, without irrigation, the safest 

 method of securing a stand is to sow on freshly broken sod in early 

 spring. On salt-grass land the grass should be killed out before seeding." 

 (See pages 234 and 235.) 



FIG. 34. A land roller is a very efficient aid in firming the seed bed. 

 [Courtesy Kansas Experiment Station.] 



INOCULATION. 



Artificial inoculation is not very generally practiced among the grow- 

 ers reporting. There were some, however, located mostly in the eastern 

 third of the state, who reported having inoculated soil for alfalfa. The 

 most popular method of inoculation is that of scattering from 300 to 500 

 pounds of soil from an old alfalfa field over each acre of the new field by 

 hand, just before seeding, and disking or harrowing it in. Soil from near 

 the surface of the old field, or a sweet-clover patch, is preferred. Some 



