112 PRODUCTIVE FARMING 



from the air. The store of nitrogen in the roots and stubble, 

 when plowed under, will help produce large corn or other 

 crops on that field afterwards. 



Sprouting Weed Seeds. An early field of oats-and-peas 

 should be grown in the spring and the stubble plowed under 

 in June or as soon as the crop is all off. The ground is har- 

 rowed about once a week until the middle of August. This 

 makes a good alfalfa seed bed; it controls the soil moisture, 

 and also causes the weeds to sprout and be killed by the 

 harrow. Now if we select alfalfa seed that is free from weed 

 seed, we will have very little or no trouble from weeds in the 

 alfalfa field later on. The seed should be examined with a 

 good reading glass before sowing. 



Inoculation of Soils. As alfalfa requires its own bacteria 

 in the soil where it is growing, the grower should get four 

 or five hundred pounds of soil from the nearest alfalfa field 

 and spread it on each acre of the new field. Do this when 

 the sun is not shining so the bacteria will not be killed. It 

 should be harrowed in immediately. These germs in the new 

 soil will be ready to help the young plants as soon as they 

 start to grow (see ^figure 55a). New alfalfa fields require 

 inoculation before sowing the seed, except in a few parts of 

 the country where certain wild legumes like sweet clover have 

 used the same kind of bacteria. 



Liming the Field. Alfalfa is a great lover of lime. It 

 is best to plow the field and apply at least a ton of fine lime 

 to each acre not long before seeding. If some lime was put 

 on that field in early spring before the oats-and-peas so much 

 the better. 



The Seeding of Alfalfa. We should be all ready to do 

 the alfalfa seeding by the time the first August rains moisten 

 the ground enough to sprout seeds well. 



Half a bushel of seed, or thirty pounds, is abundant for 

 one acre. Half of it can be sown the long way of the field and 

 then the last half put in cross-wise of that. In sections 



