20 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 



the meadow is of more importance than the nurse crop, it is advisable 

 in a dry season to dispense with the latter; or, if planted, to cut it 

 for fodder before the seedlings perish from thirst. 



The depth of seeding depends on the kind of seed, the char- 

 acter and condition of the soil, and the moisture. It is said that 

 no seed should be planted deeper than four times its diameter. When 

 growing wild, fodder and pasture plants drop their ripe seeds, which 

 germinate very near or on the surface of the soil. But nature is 

 more wasteful than the farmer can afford to be; he should provide 

 the best possible conditions for the development of a perfect seedling. 



Method of seeding: When the soil is quite firm, as for spring 

 seeding on fall wheat land, harrowing after broadcast seeding, if 

 the land is reasonably dry, makes a good tilth and covering for the 

 grass and clover seeds and is beneficial to the wheat plants. When 

 seeding after deep spring cultivation, the fodder crop seeds may be 

 sown by the seeder in front of the grain drills and then rolled and 

 given a stroke with a weeder; if the subsurface soil is firm and the 

 surface in fine tilth the grain drill may be followed by a weeder 

 alone to level the soil and redistribute the seeds that have been 

 thrown together between the drills. If the weather is favourable, it 

 is sometimes satisfactory, although bad practice, to broadcast the 

 seed after the nurse crop has been sown and depend on rains to 

 cover and protect it during germination. Any method that will 

 insure its even distribution and a covering of half an inch is prefer- 

 able to surface seeding without covering. Heavy rains are apt to 

 wash the seed lying on the surface into the furrows and ditches. 

 Then, too, many kinds of grass seeds that require two or more weeks 

 to germinate may be destroyed if exposed on the surface. Sowing 

 from one to one and a half inches deep is sometimes recommended 

 for Alfalfa and other fodder crops on prairie soils. In semi-arid 

 districts Alfalfa for seed crop may be thinly sown in drills from 

 twenty to thirty inches apart. If the soil is very dry the growth will 

 be dwarfed, but their deep roots enable the plants to get moisture 

 enough to produce a fair yield of good seed. 



Implements are specially designed for sowing grass and clover 

 seeds. Most grain seeders are fitted with an attachment, sometimes 

 in front and sometimes behind the drill tubes, for sowing fodder 

 plant seeds. If the surface is in fine tilth, and the grain drill is followed 

 by a weeder or light harrow, to level the soil, the fine seeds are not 

 apt to be coveitd too deeply, which sometimes happens in lumpy 

 clay. The hand broadcast seeder, with a revolving disc to scatter 



