FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 289 



Quality in seed should be carefully looked after, and the 

 percentage of germinability and purity ascertained before buying 

 If the farmer does not have faith in his own ability to properly 

 make these tests he may have them made without charge by 

 sending samples to his state experiment station. The average 

 seed on the markets is likely to be found with heavy admixtures 

 of trash and the seeds of many noxious weeds as well as those 

 of other plants. The best seed has a bright golden or egg-yel- 

 low color, with a glossy appearance, and 90% should grow. 



Sowing may be done by broadcasting and the seed covered 

 by harrowing, or with grain drills ; an inch of fine, firmed soil 

 is the ideal depth and covering. Many prefer planting with drills 

 having a press-wheel attachment, as with this the depth can be 

 regulated. Some are partial to running the drill across the land 

 in one direction, sowing half the seed, and cross-drilling with the 

 other half, thus avoiding ''skips" in the stand. It is probably 

 advisable to use either the portable seeder or the drill, for with 

 the former a more even distribution can be had than if the sow- 

 ing is done by hand, the seeder to be followed by thorough har- 

 rowing, while sowing with a drill makes it certain that the seeds 

 are in instead of on top of the ground. Of late a grain drill ad- 

 justable to making seed rows three instead of six or eight inches 

 apart is finding considerable favor. When it is used cross-drill- 

 ing is not necessary. 



For success alfalfa must have in its soil certain bacteria that 

 are common to few other plants, but sweet clover is one of those 

 having the same inoculation. When alfalfa is planted in a field 

 where none has grown before, it is wise to introduce some of the 

 right bacteria. The process is simple. Soil from ground on 

 which alfalfa or sweet clover is growing luxuriously and where 

 the nodules in which they multiply show that it contains the de- 

 sired bacteria, is scattered broadcast, at the rate of 200 to 500 

 pounds or more per acre, and harrowed in, just before or after 

 sowing seed. If the soil is sour 500 to loco pounds of lime per 

 acre is a corrective, and a liberal coating of manure once in two 

 or three years is a wonderful tonic to its growth. 



Alfalfa should be mown for hay when it begins to bloom. 



