I 8 ALFALFA 



the soil be of great depth, providing it is sufficiently 

 moist and contains plenty of plant-food. The land 

 need not be the richest, but it is a mistake to expeift 

 much from alfalfa on land too thin. It will respond 

 on thin land remarkably well, but not to the best 

 advantage; it is not, however, too broad a statement 

 to say that alfalfa will do well on any well-drained soil 

 that will profitably grow wheat or corn. It also fol- 

 lows in drier sedlions that land which will thriftily 

 grow artificially planted trees will produce alfalfa. It 

 has been seeded successfully upon newly broken wild 

 prairie sod, but it is best to grow several crops of some- 

 thing else before attempting alfalfa. 



In trans-Missouri prairie regions ground cultivated 

 three to five years or longer from first breaking is pref- 

 erable. There are several reasons for this. It is 

 difficult to get the new land in the proper condition for 

 a seed-bed. The grass roots hold the soil loose and it 

 dries out more readily on the surface, which is often 

 disastrous. New ground always responds with ordi- 

 nary crops more satisfadlorily and the available plant- 

 food in the immediate surface can be taken up by 

 shallow-growing crops and the soil be no less suited to 

 alfalfa. 



The depth to the water-table does not determine 

 whether a tradl of land will be suitable for alfalfa. If 

 it is known that the soil is moist from the surface, or a 

 reasonable depth below the surface, down to the water- 

 level, alfalfa will succeed, providing there be no layer 

 of rock intervening, though the water be ten to forty 

 feet down. But if there be a stratum of dry sand 

 between the surface and the water-level, as is the case 

 in many places along the rivers on the dry plains, 



