ALFALFA 



protect the young plants from the drifting sand. 

 If this method is practiced, a lighter seeding of 

 grain should be made than when the grain is seeded 

 alone, and in a dry season it may become desirable 

 to cut the grain crop for hay before it matures in 

 order to prevent the alfalfa from being destroyed 

 by drought. The nurse-crop method cannot be con- 

 sidered a safe one for establishing a stand of alfalfa. 

 Treatment After Seeding. Alfalfa seeded in the 

 spring needs little care after the first season, more 

 than to mow a few times during the summer to 

 prevent the weeds from seeding and to keep them 

 from " smothering " the young alfalfa plants. It is 

 well to mow the field two or three times during 

 the season, but the growth of weeds and alfalfa 

 should not be cut too close to the ground until the 

 alfalfa blooms, when it may be mowed close with- 

 out injuring the plants. It seems to be true that 

 when alfalfa has become well established, frequent 

 close cutting seems to benefit the plant and cause 

 it to grow more vigorously, but this is not true of 

 the young, tender plants. It is true of alfalfa as 

 with any other young plant, that it must form a 

 top growth before or at the same time that it is 

 producing roots. The leaves are the stomach and 

 lungs of the plant, and before the roots can develop 

 the leaves must manufacture the products which 

 are built into the cells and tissue that constitute the 

 roots. If this top growth of leaves is cut off before 

 a sufficient root growth has been established to 

 easily restore the top growth, the effect is to check 

 the growth of the plant, weaken it, and perhaps 

 destroy it. The fall-seeded alfalfa needs no care 

 in the fall ; the full growth of plants and weeds 

 should be left as a winter covering. The next sea- 



