MANURES AND HUMUS IN SOIL. 157 
pleted of humus. Could more manure have been 
spared doubtless the field could have been gotten 
ready for alfalfa earlier, but it was not available, 
so red clover, which is less exacting, came in first 
and paved the way. 
Methods of Using Manure.—While there can be 
no question of the value of manure for alfalfa yet 
there are several ways of using it, some much more 
successful than others. It is seldom good practice to 
apply heavy coats of manure and at once sow al- 
falfa. The trouble is from the strong growth of 
weeds and annual grasses that will result and which 
may in part smother the alfalfa. Manure is often 
filled with weed seeds, has tendency to rush rapidly 
all weeds that naturally spring up and these worth- 
less things outgrow the little alfalfa plants. Weeds 
may usually be subdued by mowing off the field 
two or three times during the season, but there is 
danger in mowing young alfalfa at the wrrong time 
which sometimes destroys it. Briefly, alfalfa ought 
not to be cut till little shoots appear on the bases of 
the stems. These shoots appear as buds which de- 
velop into new stems. Before these shoots appear 
it sometimes quite destroys alfalfa to cut it off; this 
is especially true the first season of its existence. So 
one can not mow off weeds till these little shoots 
come. The writer has more than once seen efforts 
made to force alfalfa to grow by heavy manuring 
when what it really needed was liming. The only 
result was a worse crowding by weeds. 
It is very much better to apply a heavy coat of 
