180 CLOVERS 



some areas, especially where irrigation is practiced, 

 it is sometimes grown mainly for seed. On the irri- 

 gated lands of the West it is customary to grow the 

 first cutting of the season for hay and the second 

 for seed. But in many instances the second cutting 

 also is made into hay, and the seed is taken from the 

 third cutting; even in the States east of the Missis- 

 sippi, and also in Ontario and Quebec, seed is usu- 

 ally taken from the second cutting. But in Mon- 

 tana, \Vashington and Idaho, on the higher alti- 

 tudes, seed is not unfrequently taken from the first 

 cutting for the season, since, in the short season for 

 growth of those uplands, seed from cuttings later 

 than the first does not always mature so well. In a 

 large majority of instances seed does not form so 

 profusely from plants of the first cutting as from 

 those of later growths. This is thought to arise, 

 in part, at least, from the fact that bees, and it may 

 be other insects, are then less active in searching for 

 food, and because of this do not aid in the fertiliza- 

 tion of the plants as they do later. Nor does seed 

 of the first cutting ripen so evenly. An important 

 justification is also found for taking seed from the 

 later cuttings, in the fact that when a crop has pro- 

 duced seed, it grows less vigorously during the sub- 

 sequent period of growth that same season. So 

 pronounced is this habit of growth in alfalfa, that in 

 many localities, if the first growth is allowed to pro- 

 duce seed, but little subsequent growth will be made 

 again the same season. The second cutting, all 

 things considered, is the most favorable to seed pro- 

 duction, as, unless on irrigated lands, the third cut- 



