LEGUMES 213 



276. The seed bed and seeding. The most common method 

 of seeding alfalfa is to sow it in the spring either with or with- 

 out a nurse crop. The land should be plowed in the fall, left 

 rough through the winter, and thoroughly worked in the spring 

 before spring seeding. This method is successful on soils 

 well adapted to alfalfa and in favorable seasons. The safest 

 method, especially in humid regions, is to sow in August, or 

 very early in September, on summer-fallowed land. On account 

 of the increased expense of preparing the seed bed, and also 

 because of the loss of the use of the land for a year, this 

 method is not so generally followed as it should be. 



From twelve to twenty pounds of seed to the acre should 

 be sown. The seed (Fig. 100) should be drilled, if possible, in 

 order to place it at a suitable depth in the soil. 



277. Duration of the stand. Alfalfa is a perennial, and 

 under favorable conditions a stand may endure indefinitely. 

 There are records of stands that have remained productive for 

 as many as sixty years. However, in the best farm practice, 

 alfalfa is plowed at the end of from five to eight years. In 

 a humid climate the best yields are secured during the first 

 five or six years. At the end of this period blue grass and 

 other plants begin to crowd the alfalfa plants. 



278. Alfalfa in rotation. Alfalfa is sometimes used in short 

 rotations instead of red clover, in which case such a rotation as 

 corn two years, oats or barley one year, and alfalfa two years, is 

 to be recommended for general use in the corn belt. Alfalfa 

 is better adapted to a longer rotation, and it is best to leave it 

 undisturbed for four or five years at least. By dropping the 

 alfalfa field out of the regular rotation for a few years and 

 practicing short rotations on the other fields in the meantime, 

 alfalfa can be grown on the various fields in successive groups 

 of years. The most practical way to utilize alfalfa in a rotation 

 is to plow under a strip of the old field each year and seed a 

 new strip equal in area to the one plowed under. Alfalfa leaves 

 the ground comparatively dry. Therefore, unless the rainfall is 

 abundant it is best to follow alfalfa with some such crop as kafir 



