184 CLOVERS 



likely to be true of imported than of American 

 grown seed. 



Renewing. — Alfalfa may be renewed and also 

 renovated where the stand secured at the first has 

 been insufficient, where it may have been injured 

 from various causes, where it is being crowded with 

 weeds, and even with useful grasses, and where the 

 land requires enriching. 



The stand of alfalfa secured is sometimes thin and 

 uneven. This may arise from such causes as sow- 

 ing too little seed, whether over-dry or through the 

 crowding of the young plants. When this happens, 

 in many situations it is quite practicable to thicken 

 the stand by disking the ground more or less, adding 

 fresh seed, according to the need of the crop, and 

 then covering the seed thus added with the harrow. 

 Such renovation would be comparatively easy on 

 clean land, were it not for fact that the alfalfa plants 

 already rooted overshadow the young plants, always 

 to their injury, and sometimes to their total destruc- 

 tion. The spring will probably be the best season 

 to attempt such renovation, but there may be in- 

 stances where the winters are not severe, in which 

 autumn seeding will succeed as well or better than 

 spring seeding. Because of the uncertainty of the 

 results of such renovation, the aim should be so 

 to prepare the land and sow the seed that a good, 

 thick stand will be secured at the first. 



Should the alfalfa fields be spotted, because in 

 places the nurse crop lodged and smothered the 

 plants, or because excessive moisture destroyed 

 them on the lower portions of the field in an abnor- 



