206 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
more successful, so far as I have seen, than several 
other less costly plans. 
Seeding After Early Potatoes——The land may be 
plowed early and deep, fitted as soon as it is ready 
to work and planted to potatoes, choosing some very 
early maturing variety. There is hardly any better 
plan than this. The potatoes well repay high manur- 
ing and fertilization. They should have plenty of 
phosphoric acid given them; in the eastern states 
it is common to give early potatoes as much as 500 
to 1,000 pounds of high grade acid phosphate per 
acre; potash also usually tells a good tale when 
applied to potatoes. Thus if the crop is highly fer- 
tilized there remains a good surplus in the soil 
available to the alfalfa. 
The potatoes well repay good cultivation and thus 
weeds are destroyed and when the potatoes are dug 
the land is left clean and thoroughly well loosened 
up. It is an easy matter then to level it off, disk 
it well and get ready for alfalfa seeding. This can 
usually be done in July and as soon as the pota- 
toes are fit to dig and sell they should come out 
to make room for the alfalfa, the more important 
crop of the two by odds. 
Do not plow the potato land. Disk it very thor- 
oughly, then disk it again. If the soil is too dry to 
make alfalfa grow, wait for rain before sowing the 
seed. Should there come a shower, disk again and 
wait for a rain that will moisten the underlying 
soil. There is danger in sowing alfalfa seed in the 
dust, expecting rain to come and bring it forward. 
