52 BULLETIN 428, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



BROADCAST SEEDINGS. 



A serious difficulty was encountered in obtaining a satisfactory 

 stand in tests where broadcast seeding was employed, owing primarily 

 to the high percentage of hard seed and the slow early growth of 

 the seedlings. Reasonably good stands were obtained, however, at 

 Brookings in May, 1909, as the result of sowing on well-prepared 

 land at the rate of 10 pounds per acre without a nurse crop. One 

 of the plats had a thin stand for the first tAvo years, but as the plants 

 became older the low crowns spread sufficiently to produce a thick 

 stand. (Fig. 20.) Such a condition rarely, if ever, obtains in the 

 case of Medicago sativa. A stand of this species, thin at the outset, 

 usually becomes thinner as time elapses. While the individual plants 



Fig. 20. — A plat of Medicago falcata, Brookings, S. Dak., sown broadcast in the spring 

 at the rate of 10 pounds to the acre. 



become larger with age, the mortality in common alfalfa is sufficient 

 to seriously deplete the stand. 



In broadcast seedings the procumbent forms of Medicago falcata 

 are inclined to be more nearly erect than in hills or row plantings, 

 but even where good broadcast stands are obtained, the procumbent 

 tendency is still sufficient to occasion considerable loss in harvesting. 

 (Fig. 21.) In plats where Bronvus inermis had volunteered, the 

 loss in harvesting was appreciably diminished and a material increase 

 in total yield was obtained. (Fig. 22.) 



So far as may be determined from preliminary investigations, it 

 would appear that although more difficulty is experienced in ob- 



