202 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



sirable. "When oats are left to ripen their grain 

 a poor stand of alfalfa is almost inevitable. 



I have often sown oats with alfalfa, mowing 

 them for hay when in bloom with good results. 

 When oats are sown no more than a bushel of seed 

 should be sown to the acre. If the soil is very rich 

 and the seedbed very good three pecks per acre 

 will be enough seed, or even a less amount. Oats 

 stool much more vigorously than barley and thus 

 thicken up and shade the alfalfa plants too much. 



Oats must be mown off earlier even than barley 

 to leave good stand of alfalfa. When the little sta- 

 mens begin to hang out from the oat heads then cut 

 for hay at once. Or if the oats should lodge mow 

 immediately and remove from the ground. Oats 

 make more hay than barley, but it is harder to cure. 



Flax has sometimes been used as a nurse crop 

 for alfalfa with pretty good success. 



Alfalfa is sown in wheat successfully in some 

 places. It is absolutely necessary that the land be 

 previously inoculated, or that the inoculating earth 

 be put and harrowed in before the alfalfa is sown, 

 or failure will surely result. It is necessary to 

 harrow the wheat and make a fair seedbed so that 

 the alfalfa seed may be covered. On the whole, 

 wheat is not a good nurse crop for alfalfa, since 

 if the soil is rich it is apt to lodge and smother out 

 the baby plants. 



Oowpeas, soy beans, rape, Canada field peas, all 

 these things have repyeatedly been tried with no 



