10 CIRCULAR 863, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



While these methods have been successful in experimental 

 work, their practical application on a large scale is obviously 

 difficult or impossible. Attention was, therefore, turned to me- 

 chanical abrasion and it has been shown that, properly carried 

 out, scarifying is not only effective but also practical. By scarifi- 

 cation the germination may be raised to between 75 and 85 per- 

 cent, depending on the efficiency of the operation. Excessive 

 scarification may result in many seeds being internally injured 

 so that they produce worthless, broken sprouts. Most commercial 

 scarification is done by standard machines made for this purpose. 

 Recent studies have indicated that scarified sericea seed deterior- 

 ate in germinating ability rather quickly, making it advisable to 

 delay the scarification of seed until near planting time. 



Method of Seeding 



Sericea is seeded the same way as the clovers, and scarified 

 seed is best seeded alone. In Missouri and in Tennessee, and 

 occasionally elsewhere, winter seeding of unhulled seed has been 

 successful, but in the Gulf States such seeding has uniformly 

 failed to produce good stands. In Tennessee and at Arlington 

 Experiment Farm in Virginia seeding of scarified seed on winter 

 grain has given good results, but in the Gmf States seeding on 

 grain has not been successful. This failure in the Gulf States is 

 probably associated with spring droughts, during which the com- 

 petition of the grain was too much for the small sericea seedlings. 



The essentials for successful seeding are a firm seedbed and 

 shallow cover. On the soil conservation projects in the Gulf 

 States the most successful method has been seeding scarified seed 

 on a well-prepared bed without a companion crop. The last opera- 

 tion in the preparation of the seedbed should be cultipacking, 

 after which the seed is sown without covering. Rains will wash 

 enough soil from the small cuitipacker ridges into the furrows to 

 cover the seed. 



If a cuitipacker is not available, the seedbed may be well packed 

 and may be dragged with a spike-tooth harrow as the last opera- 

 tion. The seed will fall into the harrow marks and be covered 

 by rains. On sloping land these operations should be on the con- 

 tour. A spring-tooth harrow is not satisfactory since it loosens 

 the soil too much. Cultipacking after seeding has resulted in 

 good stands, but on some soils it may result in the formation of 

 a crust that would be fatal to the seedlings. Sericea is often 

 seeded on eroded knolls, gullies, and other places where careful 

 soil preparation is not possible. In such cases the surface is 

 lightly scratched with such tools as may be available and the 

 ground mulched after seeding. Almost anything will serve for 

 mulch, the debris from a lespedeza seed crop being especially 

 desirable. When straw is used care should be taken that it is 

 spread evenly and thin. If allowed to fall in bunches the young 

 seedlings are smothered under the thick mat of straw. 



Sericea may be started on badly eroded places by covering these 

 with the straw from a seed crop. There will usually be seed 

 enough left in the straw to make a stand. Plants in full seed 



