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. 
Cowpeas, soy beans, rape, Canada field peas, all 
these things have repeatedly been tried with no 
