20 FORAGE CROPS FOR THE SAND-HILL SECTION OF NEBRASKA. 



Where grain stubble is used it can be plowed in the spring after the 

 first crop of weeds has started, left rough until the second crop germi- 

 nates, and the latter killed by harrowing with a drag harrow or by 

 disking. 



Every effort should be made to get the seed bed as solid as possible, 

 either by repeated harrowings, if the ground has been spring-plowed, 

 or by the use of a roller. The frequency of the cultivations in the 

 spring, especially with the harrow, must be determined to a great 

 extent by the judgment of the man on the ground. Experience will 

 show how much it is safe to work the soil with this implement. It 

 must be remembered, however, that the weeds must be removed from 

 the soil. 



INOCULATION. 



Throughout central and eastern Nebraska no trouble is experienced 

 in getting a field of alfalfa inoculated. In the sand-hill country, how- 

 ever, many fields were noted which seemed to lack this very essential 

 aid to growth. Numerous cases of winter injury would have been 

 avoided if the field had been inoculated promptly and the growth 

 during the late summer and fall had been more vigorous. 



Lack of inoculation is shown by weak, spindling plants of a yel- 

 lowish-green color in the field. The addition of barnyard manure 

 or vegetable matter of any kind always assists greatly in procuring 

 inoculation. It is well, however, to take other precautions besides 

 the addition of manure. Ordinary sweet clover, which is very plenti- 

 ful farther ea>t in the State, and is found growing in many localities 

 throughout the -and hills, is inoculated with bacteria usually under- 

 stood to he the same as those which produce nodules on the roots of 

 alfalfa. It is known that if a crop of sweet clover is grown on the 

 soil prior to the seeding of alfalfa, the ground will be thoroughly 

 inoculated. Sweet clover is more adaptable to different soil and 

 climatic conditions than alfalfa and not only supplies the ground 

 with bacteria but also adds a large quantity of vegetable matter 

 in the shape of roots which decay very promptly when the plant dies. 

 It would therefore be advisable to use sweet clover as an aid to the 

 establishment of alfalfa fields throughout the sand hills. 



When beginning a field on ground which has not been inoculated 

 by the method just described, it is highly important and usually 

 very profitable to secure soil from an old alfalfa field which is 

 already inoculated, or from a patch of sweet clover, and scatter this 

 soil at the rate of 500 pounds per acre over the ground which is to be 

 sown to alfalfa. 



The soil is best applied through a fertilizer drill, but as very few 

 farmers in the sand hills possess a drill of this kind the application 

 must generally be made by broadcasting the soil with the hands and 



[Cir. 80] 



