84 



Campbells 1902 Soil Culture Manual. 



the chapter under this heading, then sowing the seed the following spring, 

 taking care to loosen the surface soil the first opening of spring is best for 

 securing a good stand of alfalfa. The best results I have ever seen in 

 Western Kansas have come from seeding early in April on ground thus pre- 

 pared, with ten pounds of seed put in with a shoe drill with a chain cover. 

 At the time of seeding there was about two inches of loose, fine soil on the 

 surface made by the use of a common harrow, and the shoe set so as to put 

 the seed from one-half to one inch into the solid, fine, moist soil beneath. 

 The seed came up quickly and very even, and if there was any complaint 

 to be made it was the fact that it was too thick. With the prevailing price 

 of alfalfa seed the saving of a few pounds of seed is a great item, espec- 

 ially in putting in large fields. The further fact that when once sowed and 

 the crop established it is there for years to come, certainly is suflBcient 

 argument to support the demand for thorough and careful preparation of 

 the seed bed. The summer culture idea involving this storage of one year's 

 rainfall puts the soil in such condition for five or six feet down that the 

 tap root immediately pushes on down through this moist soil sending out 

 the little feeders on their way down, and the chances are that a good crop 

 may be harvested the first year, as was true in the case above referred to, 

 due only to the fact that the soil conditions were perfect for the rapid de- 

 velopment of roots, and ample moisture to produce this magnificient 

 growth. While it is true that much better results are attained from 

 alfalfa in valleys where sheet water is 8 to 12 feet from the surface, yet a 

 suflBcient number of experiments have been made and in some of them a 

 suflBcient length of time has elapsed, to warrant the statement that on the 

 majority of our high divides in the semi-arid belt as good or better yields 

 can be secured from this crop than are commonly harvested in the eastern 

 states on the average meadows of timothies and clovers. The value of 

 lands where the phenomenal crops or yields of alfalfa along some of the 

 valleys in Western Nebraska and Kansas has hardly come to be under- 

 stood, or fuU}^ appreciated even by the people who have raised them. We 

 are familiar with fields that for three successive years have turned ofiF in 

 alfalfa hay alone from §30 00 to 840.00 per acre net profit over and above 

 expense of harvesting, and where hay and a crop of seed has been har- 

 vested as high as $80.00 net profit per acre has been made. The value of 

 this plant for feeding hogs, cattle, and sheep is just beginning to be appre- 

 ciated. All experiments thus far carefully conducted have demonstrated 

 that there is no fodder plant so valuable. 



The fitting of fields for seeding to alfalfa on old ground cannot be 

 better explained than the instructions under the heading of Summer Cul- 

 ture for spring wheat. But if the reader must sow without giving the 

 year's cultivation and storage of water, then keep in mind two fundamen- 

 tal principles, viz.: plenty of stored moisture in the soil below and a fine, 

 firm seed bed. There is enconomy in these, as you can not only get a 



