FOR BETTER CROPS 73 



will make the alfalfa stool out more and thereby help tlie stand, 

 or clover may be sown with the thin alfalfa with ^-ood results. 

 Another very excellent method which we recommend, is 

 plowing the alfalfa up, and plowing it quite deeply. This will 

 not kill nearly all of the young plants. Then immediately re- 

 seed, and the second time you will be almost certain to secure 

 an excellent stand of alfalfa. 



Weeds in Alfalfa — Good soils are frequently stored with 

 weed seeds: yet a thorough cultivation of the ground the year 

 preceding the sowing of alfalfa will accomplish much. Ordinary 

 weed seeds are pretty well destroyed by the mower running over 

 the ground two or three times the first season. Canada thistles 

 are said to be eradicated by the growing of alfalfa; and many 

 other serious pests, including convolvulus arvcnsis variously 

 styled bindwood. wild morning glory, or wild pea vine. 



Sometimes a little sweet clover (melilotus) is unavoidably 

 present in alfalfa seed. This need give no concern, since the 

 natural mowings given the alfalfa will eradicate it in two years. 

 There are weeds, however, that will get the better of alfalfa, 

 and that right-speedily. One of the worst is dodder. Not many 

 farmers know dodder when they see it. It is a parasitic vine, 

 having an almost leafless, yellow stem as large as a small twine 

 string, which runs through the alfalfa, twining around the 

 stems, sending little rootlets in to suck the juice of the plant. 

 Dodder begins its life from a seed dropped to the earth when 

 the alfalfa is sown ; but after having had a brief experience with 

 its roots in the soil, it leaves the earth and roots only in the 

 growing alfalfa, which it binds together in a death grip, making 

 a dense tangle of yellow vines and slowly dying alfalfa plants. 



Farmers cannot afford to treat dodder as they would any 

 other weed. It is so deadly that it must be stamped out imme- 

 diately, or it will become a very serious pest, and the methods 

 used to exterminate other weeds will not answer for this one. If 

 there are only occasional small patches to be found, mow the 

 alfalfa in these patches before the dodder begins to bloom ; then 

 in a few days, scatter straw over the infested areas, and burn it. 

 This may kill the alfalfa plants, but it will probably kill the 

 dodder also. If your field is badly infested, there is nothing to 

 do but to plow it up, and plant it to corn or some cultivated crop 

 for one or two years. 



Dodder Infests clover just as frequently as it does alfalfa, 

 and it is just as dangerous in the clover as it is in the alfalfa. 

 Farmers should take great pains to prevent this pest from 

 becoming established in their land, and should send samples of 

 their seed to their experiment stations for analysis before seeding. 



Alfalfa in Corn — We cannot recommend seeding alfalfa in 

 corn at the last cultivation, as many wish to do, because the 



