260 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



sweet potato, an exceedingly troublesome pest in 

 corn fields in the Middle States, is exterminated al- 

 most completely wlien the land is put into alfalfa. 

 So of many other troublesome things that might be 

 mentioned. 



Weeds that Kill Alfalfa. — There are weeds, how- 

 ever, that get the best of the alfalfa. Quack or 

 couch grass is one of these. This grass fills the soil 

 with a dense mat of roots, each one a burrowing, 

 creeping underground stem armed with a 'sharp 

 point. Wherever it gets a good foothold it is usual- 

 ly too much for the alfalfa and I am unable to out- 

 line any good and easy system of destroying it. 

 When it first appears upon the farm it should be 

 fought and exterminated before it gets much foot- 

 hold. It is possible that alfalfa could be sown in the 

 fall and so stimulated with phosphorus that it would 

 start very vigorously in spring and thus get ahead 

 of the grass and smother it out. It is well worth 

 experiment at any event. And it may be that by vig- 

 orous use of the disk harrow, followed with the 

 spring tooth harrow the roots eould be so disturbed 

 that they would give it up, and the alfalfa yet re- 

 main practically unhurt. 



Kentucky blue grass is another grass that is too 

 much for alfalfa. It creeps in and thickens up till 

 after a time the alfalfa is seriously weakened. It is 

 hardly worth while to fight so good a thing as blue 

 grass though it can be torn out with a spring-tooth 

 harrow. Blue grass does not usually come in before 

 three or four years, and by that time it is well to 



