272 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



--: > ', f f : 4 ;i ' : ^t^: 



FIG. 212. Rowed alfalfa in full bloom. 



and it will greatly reduce the amount of grain required. Ten or fifteen 

 tons of alfalfa hay, in addition to the other rough feeds produced, will be 

 a very material help to the dairy cows during the winter. 



In this part of the state rowed alfalfa has not been profitable from 

 a seed-production standpoint. What it may do in this line in the next 

 few years remains to be seen. None of the fields under observation have 

 been seeded longer than four years. 



It can not be expected that any crop will grow satisfactorily without 

 moisture, but alfalfa has proved to be one of the most drouth-resistant 

 legumes that has been tried on the divide land in this section of the 

 state. In 1913 perhaps as dry a year as western Kansas has ever wit- 

 nessed two men report yields of one ton of alfalfa hay per acre from 

 rowed alfalfa. 



Cultivation and fewer plants in a given area evidently have helped 

 materially in the production of this crop in very dry seasons. 



PREPARATION OF THE SEED BED. 



The principles that apply to the preparation of the seed bed for broad- 

 casted alfalfa will apply to the seeding of rowed alfalfa. At least two 

 different methods of preparing the ground have been followed, and each 

 with success. There are at least three difficulties in getting a stand 

 of alfalfa, and one should bear these in mind and use his best efforts 

 to overcome them. Perhaps the greatest of these is weed growth. Unless 

 the weeds are fairly well subdued there is little use in seeding alfalfa, 

 as the young plants will soon be smothered. For the destruction of 

 weeds, as well as for other reasons, the preparation of the ground should 

 begin in the early spring. Weeds should be allowed to start in the 



