90 FOR BETTER CROPS 



And it is a great aid to carry a file, and frequently file to a 

 knife edge the cutting edge of the share. A little Y shaped wing 

 running horizontally out from the landside under the edge of 

 the uncut land about three inches is a great help, since it makes 

 the plow run steadily and renders the next furrow far easier to 

 turn. 



Some of the alfalfa roots will not be cut off, and they will live 

 over, doing no harm in the succeeding crop. All that are cut 

 off will probably die, and there is no danger of alfalfa spreading 

 beyond the original limits of. its field. 



Alfalfa Makes Little Seed in Rainy Regions — It seeds 

 best in the dry parts of Kansas, Nebraska and westward. 

 Usually the first crop is allowed to make seed. It is easily 

 threshed, and in favorable seasons yields heavily, from one to 

 fifteen bushels per acre being reported. The only seed worth 

 much is the common alfalfa, but it is wise not to get seed 

 from a latitude south of you. 



Inoculation — Alfalfa will not thrive without the right 

 bacteria upon the roots. Nor will mil k sour without the bacteria 

 of souring being present. And yet milk sours, and yet women 

 folks do not add bacteria, knowingly, to their milk. Never- 

 theless milk will sour more rapidly if a little sour milk is added 

 to the sweet at milking time. So alfalfa will surely become 

 inoculated by natural processes if grown on fit soil, but it will 

 the sooner become inoculated if earth from an old field is dried 

 in the shed and pulverized and sown broadcast over the field 

 and harrowed in. There are also cultures available that are 

 used to inoculate the seed. They are sometimes of use. They 

 often fail to be of use, through some defect in the method. It 

 is not worth while to bother with cultures. It is worth while 

 when sowing alfalfa on land that has never had it before to use 

 soil from either an old alfalfa field or a sweet clover (melilotus) 

 patch. The bacteria that live on melilotus are the same that 

 live upon alfalfa. 



Do not sow either alfalfa or bacteria upon soils not a fit 

 home for bacteria. That means that the land should be dry, 

 sweet, and stored with vegetable matter. 



Some Other Things About Alfalfa — Bees love the blooms, 

 especially in the western lands. Alfalfa honey is prime. Alfalfa^ 

 covers the land with perennial beauty. It makes work for 

 many laborers to gather the harvests and to feed the hay. It 

 causes new homes to spring up, puts paint on school houses, and 

 sends little urchins trudging along country lanes with full 

 dinner pails and smiling faces. It is one of God's richest gifts 

 to man 



