SEEDING AND CUTTING. 201 
Subsequent Cuttings——When the barley is taken 
away the alfalfa comes vigorously on and makes 
another cutting in about 40 or 50 days. The time 
to cut this is Judged by the buds or shoots upon 
the stems, just as at the first. This is in fact the 
inviolable rule in cutting alfalfa if you would pre- 
serve its vigor and productiveness. 
After this cutting it is left strictly alone. No one 
trespasses again on the alfalfa, no animals graze 
it, no mower invades its domain. It may be 24 
inches high when killing frosts come; no matter; 
leave it stand and next year you will gain all that 
and much more with it. 
Value of Barley Nurse Crops.—Why the nurse 
crop with spring sowings? First, because there is 
pretty good profit in beardless barley hay. We 
feed it to all our animals. The alfalfa has grown 
about as well for the presence of the barley as it 
would have grown alone. And the barley rather 
subdues other annual grasses. There is a curious 
principle in Nature that some plants are delete- 
rious to other plants. Cockle burrs, for instance, 
poison land for corn, and where barley grows well 
foxtail grass is not so much seen. Then when the 
barley is taken away the alfalfa seems to push right 
on, almost unmolested. We can get a much better 
stand of alfalfa with a nurse crop of beardless 
spring barley than we can to sow it alone, and we 
get the barley hay as a clear gift. 
Other Nurse Crops.—Why not choose oats as a 
nurse crop? With us they are not nearly as de- 
