IRRIGATION" FARMING. 



grow. But in most cases all the required conditions for 

 success with this mode of seeding cannot be depended 

 on. The soil well fitted the previous autumn may have 

 become so crusted by an open winter as to prevent the 

 seed from becoming covered by the crumbling soil, or 

 an early drouth may be fatal to the young alfalfa. 

 Farmers who are familiar with the seasons will decide 

 whether to adopt this mode of seeding, or to use a later 

 mode by harrowing. Covering the seed by harrowing 

 prevents a part from growing by burying too deep, but 

 the loss of seed in this way is less than many suppose. 

 It is true that alfalfa seed will not grow if buried over 

 an inch in a heavy soil, or an inch and a half in a 

 light one. With a light harrow not more than half the 

 seed will be buried too deep, and often not more than a 

 third, and if the soil surface has been well pulverized 

 all the rest will grow. . The writer has seen old-fashioned 

 farmers "brushing in " broadcasted seed, and the plan 

 worked all right. In his own experience the writer has 

 always used the modern press drill, with the tubes set at 

 various distances apart, according to the purposes of the 

 crop, whether for pasture, hay, or seed. The variance 

 is from four to nineteen inches. The drill should be 

 run the same way the land slopes, so that irrigation may 

 follow the drill ways, which is a convenient way of ap- 

 plying the water on the field. Contact of water in irri- 

 gating does iiot injure the plants, if the water is not 

 kept on too long at a time and sun scald is guarded 

 against. Oats or wheat are often put in as a nurse crop, 

 and many contend for this practice, which is condemned 

 by others. The oats are mixed with the alfalfa seed 

 and all sown together. The roots of the grain hold the 

 alfalfa in place during irrigation, and the subsequent 

 quirk TO will of the grain serves to shade the tender 

 youn<r alfalfa shoots from the blistering effects of the 

 noonday sun. In any event ran 1 inu.-t he taken that, 



