158 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
manure and plow it under the preceding year, then 
plant a crop of corn and keep the crop absolutely 
clean of weeds and grass so that no seeds will be 
formed. This gives pretty clean land for alfalfa 
sowing the succeeding year. Impossible to keep 
corn land clean, say you? It is neither impossible 
nor very difficult. On Woodland Farm it has been 
found that about 5 plowings with two-horse culti- 
vators followed with two goings through with one- 
horse garden cultivators of the many shoveled type, 
kept the corn almost absolutely clean, and men with 
hoes rapidly completed the work. A good stand 
of corn greatly helps here. 
Eradicating Fox-tail Grass —Fox-tail or pigeon 
grass (Chaetochloa glauca) is one of the worst ene- 
mies of alfalfa in all eastern America. It is an an- 
nual grass that becomes very thick in young mead- 
ows and sometimes in old ones. Mowing it off does 
not prevent its going to seed, in fact mowing it off 
only seems to make it grow thicker. It cannot be 
eradicated by disking in new alfalfa fields. Take it all 
in all it is the worst pest of alfalfa in the eastern 
states. Crab grass is next to it, but crab grass does 
not trouble where there is plenty of lime in the soil, 
while fox-tail is no respecter of lime or anything 
else. 
Fortunately fox-tail has its weak point; its seeds 
do not live long in the soil but soon germinate there 
and grow. On Woodland Farm we have kept a corn 
field absolutely clean for one year, and next season 
sown the land to alfalfa, with the result that we did 
