86 FOB BETTER CBOBS 



reg-ion when well enough drained, alfalfa may be very profitably 

 grown if care is taken first to liberally distribute over the fields 

 stable or yard manure, working it into the soil to create there 

 the ferment or yeast needed in that soil to start the bacterial 

 life, and after it is once established it will endure profitably 

 for a number of years ; how long it is not yet possible to say. 



Sowing Alfalfa on Eastern Clay Soils — The best method of 

 sowing seems to be to break the land, after having thoroughly 

 well manured and drained it, and plant one year to corn, keeping 

 the corn clean of weeds and fox tail grass. The next year it 

 should be again plowed as easily in winter or spring as it can be 

 and deeper than ever before. After danger of hard freezing is 

 over, say in late April, the seed is sown upon a nicely pulverized 

 seedbed, at the rate of from ten to fifteen pounds per acre. At 

 the same time a bushel of beardless spring barley is sown for a 

 nurse crop. Oats are not admissible, since on this well manured 

 land, they usually lodge and destroy the young plants beneath. 

 The barley is taken off when ripe for grain and the young alfalfa 

 is clipped at the same time. It may need one or two subsequent 

 clippings, and it may not. The safe rule is to let it alone as long 

 as it continues to grow thriftily. When it rusts and stops grow- 

 ing, or when fox tail grass or weeds crowd it, it should be mowed 

 off close. The object of the barley is to discourage that marauder, 

 fox tail grass, which it does quite effectually. Thus you will 

 gain also the crop of barley for the use of the land. It is not 

 iisual to get much alfalfa the first year of sowing. If any of the 

 clippings make hay enough to be worth raking off, save them. 

 Keep all animals off the field the first season. 



!Never Allow Animals to Tread on Alfalfa Fields in. 

 Winter — It is sure death to the crowns to be tramped upon in 

 cold weather, especially in the eastern states. Neither should 

 wagons ever pass over the meadows in winter. 



Making Alfalfa Hay— The time to cut alfalfa is when it has 

 begun to bloom, the lower leaves to turn yellow and drop off, 

 and buds to start out from the base of the stems. Cut then, 

 for it has in it the greatest amount of nutrients. Allowed 

 to stand longer, the stems become woody, some of the leaves 

 are lost, and the hay is not so palatable, nutritious, nor digest- 

 ible. If cut too soon, before the buds have set on the stems, 

 sometimes the succeeding crop is seriously injured, for what 

 reason is not yet known. 



Rush the Hay Making— If possible, all of one crop should be 

 cut down within a week, seeing that it is all ready at one time. 

 Thus the hay is secured in best condition and the following crop 

 is benefited by being given the space in which to grow. Wide 

 cut mowers are convenient things in the alfalfa field. After the 



