PLANTS OF THE CLOVER FAMILY. 95 



little degree upon the nature of the start of the first 

 season. If the plants are weak when they enter the 

 winter, they are likely to perish before spring, and 

 if the stand is thin at the first, it is likely to become 

 more so, though in some rich soils it may be 

 improved by adding more seed. 



Experience has taught that with this crop also 

 farmyard manure is an excellent stimulant to growth. 

 On the whole, when this fertilizer is used in the fresh 

 form, it should be applied with the previous crop 

 that it may readily give up to the young plants the 

 unused content of fertility, and that many of the 

 weed seeds in it may be given time to sprout before 

 sowing the seed. When preparing the land 'for 

 alfalfa it would be a mistake to top-dress the land 

 with farmyard manure, even though much reduced 

 by fermentation, as it will still contain weed seeds 

 that will prove troublesome. 



The artificial fertilizers that ought to be applied 

 must be determined by the needs of the land. They 

 include nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash and lime. 

 The need for applying these is not so great west of 

 the eastern Mississippi watershed as east from that 

 line. The gray ash soils of the farther west are 

 usually abundantly supplied with the requisite food 

 elements. These fertilizers may better be applied 

 before the seed is sown, except the nitrogen, which, 

 in some forms at least, is more helpful when sown on 

 the young plants. Gypsum will benefit young alfalfa 

 plants quite as much as it benefits young red clover. 

 And it may be stated here, that unreduced farmyard 

 manure applied to alkali lands is so far an excellent 

 corrective of their alkalinity. 



