HABIT OF GROWTH. 91 



Cutting Promotes Thrift. — It is a curious fact 

 tbait alfalfa needs to be cut in order to keep in thrift. 

 This is especially true in the region east of the 

 Missouri Eiver. Doubtless it is in part an acquired 

 habit, speaking strikingly of the length of years that 

 our alfalfa has been sown and mown by man. In 

 Ohio, for example, one will sometimes put down a 

 fence through a young alfalfa field. Afterward he 

 cannot mow quite close to the fence and there will 

 be comers where the alfalfa remains uncut. It is 

 then a continual object lesson of the effect of neglect, 

 since the uncut alfalfa becomes unthrifty, a prey to 

 leaf fungus and other diseases. As the season goes 

 on the cut alfalfa retains its thrift and vigor; the 

 neglected gets more and more unthrifty. At last 

 weeds and grass overpower it and in a few years 

 nearly every plant has disappeared, while the plants 

 regularly cut alongside have quite retained their 

 pristine vigor. 



Late Mowing Harmful. — 'In warm countries alfalfa 

 is always green and growing, so there is moisture 

 enough, yet it has its periods of partial rest and its 

 times of greatest vigor. In the arid and irrigated 

 west it seems to do no injury to 'the alfalfa to mow 

 it down late in the season, or to pasture it close in 

 the fall. In the eastern states, on the other hand, 

 it is distinctly hurtful to alfalfa to cut it down so 

 late that it will not go into winter with a good 

 growth covering it to hold the snow and protect the 

 crowns. Always there should be a growth of at 

 least a foot of alfalfa when killing frost comes. This 



