294 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
the fitness for mowing by the state of bloom. Usu- 
ally when alfalfa is ready to be cut it will be partly 
in bloom. Sometimes it will be much more ad- 
vanced in blooming than at other times. Some- 
times there will be few blooms showing, and yet a 
pronounced condition of readiness to be mown off. 
Whenever it is ready to make new growth, cut it as 
promptly as you can, regardless of the state of 
bloom. 
It is better, however, to cut it a few days too late 
than a few days too early, that is, better for the al- 
falfa. 
Late Cutting Damaging—There is another law 
that sometimes collides with this: alfalfa ought nev- 
er to be cut late in the fall anywhere east of the 
Missouri River. It very seriously weakens it to cut 
it late in the fall. There ought always to be left a 
growth of alfalfa at least 12 inches high to serve as. 
protection to the crowns. Therefore it is well to 
cease cutting by the first week in September, or 
earlier, according to climatic conditions. It takes 
some nerve to do this at first. One may leave in 
the field a ton of hay to the acre sometimes. He 
will get so much finer alfalfa with so much less 
death of individual plants in it the next year that he 
will be glad however. 
The First Cutting—Along the 40th parallel one 
ean cut alfalfa usually about June 1 and find it in 
prime condition; sometimes it may be cut a week or 
two earlier, It is essential to get this first cutting 
