SEEDING AND CUTTING. 201 



Subsequent Cuttings. When the barley is taken 

 away the alfalfa comes vigorously on and makes 

 another cutting in about 40 or 50 days. The time 

 to cut this is judged by the buds or shoots upon 

 the stems, just as at the first. This is in fact the 

 inviolable rule in cutting alfalfa if you would pre- 

 serve its vigor and productiveness. 



After this cutting it is left strictly alone. No one 

 trespasses again on the alfalfa, no animals graze 

 it, no mower invades its domain. It may be 24 

 inches high when killing frosts come; no matter; 

 leave it stand and next year you will gain all that 

 and much more with it. 



Value of Barley Nurse Crops. Why the nurse 

 crop with spring sowings! First, because there is 

 pretty good profit in beardless barley hay. We 

 feed it to all our animals. The alfalfa has grown 

 about as well for the presence of the barley as it 

 would have grown alone. And the barley rather 

 subdues other annual grasses. There is a curious 

 principle in Nature that some plants are delete- 

 rious to other plants. Cockle burrs, for instance, 

 poison land for corn, and where barley grows well 

 foxtail grass is not so much seen. Then when the 

 barley is taken away the alfalfa seems to push right 

 on, almost unmolested. We can get a much better 

 stand of alfalfa with a nurse crop of beardless 

 spring barley than we can to sow it alone, and we 

 get the barley hay as a clear gift. 



Other Nurse Crops. Why not choose oats as a 

 nurse crop! With us they are not nearly as de- 



