154 'ALFALFA 



at the expense of two cuttings of hay, it will not pay the 

 grower in the East to produce seed until larger yields per 

 acre can be secured. 



Alfalfa Acreage. -- The great amount of valuable forage 

 taken from a limited acreage has led many to think that a 

 large portion of the farm should be sown in alfalfa regardless 

 of condition. A word of caution to farmers who have 

 never grown alfalfa is necessary. They should try only a 

 limited acreage, not more than one or two acres to begin 

 with, for the purpose of studying the plant and the soil 

 conditions on the farm. The longer alfalfa is grown and 

 fed upon the farm the more ideal the conditions for suc- 

 cessful growth become, and the day is rapidly approaching 

 when alfalfa will be grown as generally in the humid regions 

 as common red clover now is. 



Soil Inoculation. Alfalfa is able to use the nitrogen 

 of the air, only when the nitrogen-fixing bacteria are present. 

 Where the soil contains these organisms in limited numbers 

 the plants not acted upon by the bacteria soon wither and 

 die. In some sections the ground is sufficiently supplied with 

 the alfalfa bacteria, but there are localities where they are 

 present in so limited numbers that it seems impossible to 

 get a catch of alfalfa that will survive the first winter. 

 Sweet clover, an ordinary roadside weed, is one of the dis- 

 tributors of alfalfa bacteria. When a farmer is in doubt 

 as to whether his land contains the proper bacteria he can 

 successfully inoculate his fields by scattering on them soil 

 from an old alfalfa field or soil on which sweet clover has 

 grown. For best results one ton of earth per acre should 

 be scattered immediately preceding the sowing of the alfalfa 

 seed. Farmers who have no alfalfa or sweet clover near at 

 hand from which to get infected soil in large amounts, 



