FOR BETTER CROPS 67 



certainly choke the youn^^ plants, and no amount of mowing 

 will prevent their doinj? so. 



Many of our customers prefer seeding" during the summer 

 months, and this is certainly a very excellent way, frequently 

 succeeding as well as our own, although sometimes failing on 

 account of summer drought preventing the young plants from 

 obtaining sufficient growth to go through their first winter. 

 Many farmers become prejudiced against the early spring seeding, 

 owing to their using oats as a nurse crop, but if they would use 

 the beardless barley, they would doubtless be well pleased with 

 the earlier sowing. 



For summer seeding we recommend as a good method, having 

 the alfalfa follow a crop of early potatoes, or it may be possible 

 to plow wheat stubble early enough to secure a stand before 

 winter. An excellent way is to plow the ground early in the 

 spring, harrow it as frequently as the weeds appear, and sow the 

 alfalfa during July. If the rains come right, such alfalfa should 

 make excellent growth before winter and be certain to succeed. 

 We really believe that where beardless spring barley may be 

 used as a nurse crop, the early spring seeding is advisable in the 

 states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and much 

 of Pennsylvania. The late seeding is certainly preferable in 

 some of the New England states, in Virginia, and the states 

 south of the Ohio river. The reason for the late seeding in these 

 states is that their climate seems to be such that the alfalfa 

 thrives better when sown late than when sown early, and also in 

 part of these places quack or crab grass and other weeds will 

 give so much trouble that the early seeding is almost sure to 

 fail on account of them. The farther south one goes, the later 

 is it safe to seed alfalfa. We have many customers in Georgia, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, who seed as late as 

 November 1st, but their winters are so mild that the alfalfa 

 never winter-kills, and it comes on the next spring in just as 

 good shape as if it had been sown earlier in the season. 



Fertilizers — We find that on nearly all soils, phosphate does 

 alfalfa more good than any other fertilizer. AYe recommend 

 basic slag on soils that are acid and where you do not wish to 

 sow lime, or untreated phosphate rock on limestone soils that are 

 not acid. For the quickest and best results on these limestone 

 soils, use one hundred pounds acid phosphate and nine hundred 

 pounds untreated phosphate rock per acre. The untreated 

 phosphate will absorb acid from the acid phosphate, and the 

 combination will bring the quickest results of any form of 

 phosphate which can be applied. Also, applied in this way, the 

 superfluous acidity being taken up by the raw phosphate, there 

 will be no danger of making your land sour. Good barnyard 

 manure as a fertilizer for alfalfa cannot be beaten; it should, 



