SEEDING AND CUTTING, 217 
square foot—something over one seed to each square 
inch of soil. An alfalfa plant requires about 16 to 
25 square inches of space. Thus use of 30 pounds 
of seed is from 16 to 25 times too much, supposing 
that each seed dropped made a living plant. When 
sown in drills one pound of seed is enough for an 
acre, and seeding in drills will be a practical scheme 
in America. 
One pound of seed per acre makes approximately 
five seeds to each square foot. There ought to be 
nine plants per square foot to make a good stand 
on ordinary soil fit for alfalfa growing. That would 
require two pounds of seed, sown broadcast, if 
every seed made a plant. The germination of alfalfa 
seeds is not usually perfect; often with the best 
seed only about 75 per cent will germinate the first 
year. And not every seed will be covered right for 
germination. Thus if we allow half to perish for 
lack of right planting we will come to a need of four 
pounds of seed per acre to give an ideally perfect 
stand. 
As a matter of fact this amount is often sown. 
Where one desires to grow alfalfa seed a thin stand 
is better than a thick stand and four pounds of seed 
will suffice. Of course one must be sure of his seed- 
bed and of his seed if he ventures to use so thin a 
seeding. And he ought to be sure that the land is 
inoculated. On inoculated soil a thin seeding will 
give a better stand than a thick seeding will on un- 
inoculated soil. 
The Ohio experiment station has made an inter- 
