No. 4.] ALFAI.FA IN NEW ENGLAND. 147 



manures give good results when put upon the field for the 

 crop preceding the seeding of alfalfa. There are less weed 

 seeds by following this method. Our practice previous to the 

 war was to apply 500 pounds of 2-8-10 fertilizer to the acre 

 just before seeding. Potash cannot be obtained, therefore we 

 are applying 300 pounds of acid phosphate and 75 of nitrate 

 of soda to the acre. Acid phosphate gives us much better re- 

 sults than basic slag or raw phosphate rock. We have demon- 

 strated this by sowing strips with different kinds of phosphatic 

 fertilizers. There is something about acid phosphate which 

 stimulates leguminous plants that our chemists do not under- 

 stand. The nitrate of soda is used to give the young plant a 

 quick start. The plant is weak in the beginning, and by stim- 

 ulating its growth it will be better prepared to cope with weeds 

 and obtain its own nitrogen from the air. 



Seeding should be done at the rate of about 20 pounds of 

 seed per acre. There are several tools for doing this work. If 

 a disk seeder is used it can be sown one way at a depth of one- 

 half to one inch; if the various broadcast seeders are used one- 

 half the seed should be sown each way and then lightly har- 

 rowed in, followed by a subsoil roller. Seeding in this climate 

 should be done early in the spring with a nurse crop, or early 

 in August if sown by itself. 



The kind of seed to use is of great importance. Unfortu- 

 nately, the alfalfa seed industry has not yet been standardized 

 so that we can always depend upon the variety or kind of seed 

 we want. For New England, seed should be procured that is 

 grown in the northwest on nonirrigated land, the farther north 

 or the higher altitude from which we can procure the seed the 

 better. Only the hardier varieties can be grown at high eleva- 

 tions or in the far north. Undoubtedly the Grimm is the best 

 variety obtainable to-day. There are a number of new varie- 

 ties of alfalfa which are being experimented with and which 

 may prove better for New England conditions, but these varie- 

 ties are not yet grown in large enough quantities to place the 

 seed upon the market. 



This summer I spent about a week in the alfalfa seed grow- 

 ing sections in order to study whether we could depend on 

 what these men were saying in regard to seed. I believe there 



