24 ALFAI,FA 



withstand the winter, fall seeding may do best. There 

 are, however, localities in which it would make no 

 difference at what time the seeding was done, as before 

 the alfalfa was well started the sower would wish the 

 seeding had been done at some other time. 



QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF SEED 



The quantity of seed to sow on an acre is a ques- 

 tion of no little importance, but growers differ widely 

 in their opinions. The limit is from twelve to thirty 

 pounds, owing somewhat to the method of seeding. 

 The favorite quantity is twenty pounds to the acre. 

 If the seed were universally good, and the ground 

 always well prepared, this would be grossly extrava- 

 gant. Professor Headden has made some interesting 

 observations upon the ' ' stand ' ' of alfalfa in a number 

 of meadows. A field of alfalfa six months old was 

 found to contain 653,400 plants per acre ; another field 

 ten years old was found to contain 526,793 plants per 

 acre; another contained 139,392 plants to the acre. 

 All of these three fields yielded pradlically the same 

 quantity of hay per acre — a little over four tons. 

 Another field twelve years old was found to contain 

 only 70,283 plants per acre, and yet yielded over three 

 tons of hay per acre. The stands in these different 

 fields were respedlively fifteen, twelve, three, and less 

 than two plants per square foot. A pound of alfalfa 

 seed contains about 210,000 seeds. If ninety per cent 

 of them germinated, twenty pounds per acre would give 

 3,780,000 plants, or eighty-eight per square foot. After 

 nine-tenths of the young plants perished from crowd- 

 ing or accident there would yet be an ample stand. 

 From these fadls one can readily find reasons for differ- 



