CULTIVATION 7I 



The disking has several beneficial effects. It splits 

 and spreads the crowns, causing more and consequently 

 finer stems to spring up, affording hay of the most 

 delightful quality, easily cured; it loosens the soil about 

 the crowns, conserves moisture and destroys the weeds. 

 There need be no fear of killing the plants if the disks 

 and the harrow-teeth are set straight and weighted or 

 otherwise adjusted to give direct and steady forward 

 movement. As an implement for the cultivation and in- 

 vigoration of an alfalfa field the disk harrow has no 

 equal, and its frequent use is by those who know it best 

 deemed quite indispensable. 



RESEEDING 



If it is a question of reseeding the whole field, the 

 problem is simple. In that case disk and harrow the 

 ground and sow half as much seed as was sowed at first. 

 But to restore bare spots is more difficult; the young 

 plants from the reseeding in these spots will be shaded 

 by the larger growth about them, and such reseeding 

 seldom gives the desired results. There is no doubt that 

 very many fields are given up as failures and inferior 

 crops planted in them, when a thorough disking would 

 have renewed the growth, saved a crop, and, what is more 

 important, a stand of alfalfa. Many reports have come 

 to the writer of fields that had little sign of life the first 

 of March, yet when thoroughly disked, cross-disked and 

 harrowed, surprised the neighborhood by showing in 

 two weeks a strong growth. 



Some wishing to be on the safe side, have sown a ' 

 little seed after this heavy disking and harrowing, but 

 many of them have reported an entire loss of the seed, 



