GRASS AND HAY 



45 



ON PLOTS 1. 2, 

 AND 3. APPLY 

 LIME AT THE 

 RATE OF 4.000 

 POUNDS PER 

 ACRE. 



ON PLOTS 4. 5. 

 AND 6, APPLY 

 LIME AT THE 

 RATE OF 2.000 

 POUNDS PER 

 ACRE. 



ON PLOTS 7. 8. 

 AND 9. APPLY 

 NO LIME. 



FIG. 2. A suggested outline for simple experi- 

 ments with alfalfa. 



FIG. 1. A suggested outline for ex- 

 periments with alfalfa. 



prove successful. The treatment giving the best results can be ap- 

 plied to an increased acreage the succeeding season. In this way the 

 experience which would otherwise require a number of seasons to 

 procure can be obtained at the end of the first year. 



Treatment After Seeding. Alfalfa seeded in the spring needs 

 little care after the first season, more than to mow the weeds a few 

 times during the summer to prevent them 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 without 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 kept 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 per- 

 haps destroy it. Authorities know of good stands of alfalfa that 

 were destroyed by a single close mowing, not due wholly perhaps to 

 the reasons assigned above, but to the fact that the young, tender 

 alfalfa plants which had been strongly shaded by a growth of weeds 

 were suddenly exposed to the heat of the summer sun and a dry 

 period of weather, which, together with the factors named, resulted 

 in killing out the alfalfa almost completely. 



A Good Stand. A good stand of alfalfa is a variable quantity 

 as regards the number of plants required per unit area. Tn a newly 

 seeded field, where plenty of seed has been sown and the conditions 



