288 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



a piece of land in alfalfa and keep cutting it from one side to the 

 other, and maintain it fresh all the time ; when he gets through 

 from one side of the field, the other side is ready to cut again, 

 and it can be profitably used with very excellent results in that; 

 way. Properly, a man should probably have part of his farm 

 in alfalfa while he is raising other crops on the other part, and 

 after a field has been in alfalfa for four or five years, he should 

 plow it up, plant those other crops on the alfalfa ground, sow the 

 rest of the land in alfalfa, and follow that sort of rotation. 



Wherever fall seeding is found to do well it is generally 

 conceded preferable. This means in a general way sowing, say 

 in August or September. And with all conditions favoring, the 

 first half of the month, or earher, is best. Whatever the time 

 selected the largest measure of success comes to the farmer who 

 has made proper preparations. Fall sowing has a number of ad- 

 vantages peculiarly its own. First, no time is lost in the pro- 

 ducing record, for sowing then two or three cuttings will be had 

 the following season, while with spring sowing it is often a 

 struggle for existence in «the first year, owing to weeds and the 

 dry weather while the plants have as yet but a feeble root hold 

 That fall-sown continues its growth promptly in the spring and 

 naturally stands a good chance to smother the weeds, the great 

 foes to establishing alfalfa; the frequent mowings also help in 

 their extermination. Another feature is that the small, delicate 

 alfalfa plant, and there are few more dehcate at first, in its 

 earlier stages obtains its nourishment from the surface soil, and 

 hence the cleaner the ground the more plant-food there is avail- 

 able to the alfalfa, and the thriftier the growth. Incidentally, 

 it is largely for this reason, too, that alfalfa should not be sown 

 with a nurse crop. 



The quantity of seed to sow per acre is much in dispute. 

 Twenty pounds is the maximum, which is advised on the theory 

 that it is better to sow too much rather than too little, and es- 

 pecially considering the chances there are that from one cause or 

 another so many of the seeds or plants may prove failures. A?» 

 a matter of fact, however, if each seed in twenty pounds grew 

 on a single acre, that acre would have ten times as many plants 

 as could thrive or survive. 



