156 'CLOVERS 



author has succeeded in getting a good stand of 

 alfalfa by sowing seed at the rate of 15 pounds 

 per acre, along with 2 to 4 pounds of Dwarf Essex 

 rape seed, and grazing the same with sheep. Other 

 growers, during recent years, have succeeded sim- 

 ilarly. The grazing should not begin until the plants 

 have made a good start, but it should not be deferred 

 so long that the rape and the weeds will unduly 

 shade the alfalfa plants. The pasturing should not 

 be too close, nor should it be so long continued that 

 the alfalfa plants will not be able to provide a good 

 growth in the early autumn before the advent of 

 winter. 



The management of the spring-sown crop the first 

 season requires careful attention in areas where the 

 hazard exists in any considerable degree that the 

 plants may take serious harm at that season, or, in- 

 deed, fail altogether. In Western areas, from Can- 

 ada to Kentucky and Missouri, it is important that 

 the stubbles of the grain shall be cut high, amid 

 which alfalfa grows when it is sown with a nurse 

 crop. When not thus sown, it is of prime impor- 

 tance that the plants shall stand up several inches 

 above the. surface of the ground before the advent of 

 winter. This is specially important in States west 

 of the Mississippi River. The objects effected are 

 three-fold. First, the snow is arrested and held for 

 the protection of the plants, and to furnish them 

 with moisture when the snow melts. The extent to 

 which the stubbles and the erect young alfalfa 

 plants will hold snow is simply surprising. On the 

 exposed prairies, the snow usually drifts so com- 



