ROTATIONS WITH ALFALFA 387 



cultivate the land for a couple of years before starting anew. 

 Where these grasses are common, a short rotation is better 

 than leaving the land in alfalfa for many years. 



Alfalfa dodder is as serious a pest as dodder in clover. 

 The same remedies, the sowing of clean seed and the removal 

 of all dodder plants wherever they appear, are applicable. 



488. Alfalfa in Rotations. In the sections of the country 

 where alfalfa does not succeed particularly well or where it is 

 not a leading crop and more particularly where weedy grasses 

 crowd it out after a few years, the use of this crop in a four- 

 or five-year rotation is usually advisable. A good rotation 

 for these conditions consists of oats or some other small 

 grain, alfalfa and corn. The ground is prepared for alfalfa 

 as soon as the small grain is removed in the summer, and the 

 seed is sown a few weeks later. The following two to five 

 years the alfalfa is cut for hay, and then the sod is broken 

 for corn. From one to three crops of corn and two or three 

 crops of small grain are grown, to be again followed by 

 alfalfa. Numerous variations of this rotation may be 

 devised, such as the use of a crop of early potatoes or other 

 truck crop before seeding alfalfa, or the substitution of 

 potatoes for corn where corn is not grown. 



In some sections, it is desirable to leave a piece of land 

 in alfalfa for a number of years. No definite rotation is then 

 followed, the land being left in alfalfa as long as it continues 

 to yield profitable crops. The best success can be obtained 

 from this system only when the supply of phosphorus and 

 potash is maintained by the addition of fertilizers. When 

 old alfalfa sod is broken, the land is planted to potatoes, corn, 

 or small grain for a few years, and then reseeded to alfalfa. 

 Larger profits would often be made if the sod were broken 

 at shorter intervals and a regular rotation followed, as the 

 loss from diseases and insects would be reduced. 



