52 BULLETIN 428, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
BROADCAST SEEDINGS. 
A serious difficulty was encountered in obtaining a satisfactory 
stand in tests where broadcast seeding was employed, owing primarily 
to the high percentage of hard seed and the slow early growth of 
the seedlings. Reasonably good stands were obtained, however, at 
Brookings in May, 1909, as the result of sowing on well-prepared 
land at the rate of 10 pounds per acre without a nurse crop. One 
of the plats had a thin stand for the first two years, but as the plants 
became older the low crowns spread sufficiently to produce a thick 
stand. (Fig. 20.) Such a condition rarely, if ever, obtains in the 
case of Medicago sativa. A stand of this species, thin at the outset, 
usually becomes thinner as time elapses. While the individual plants 
Fic. 20.—A plat of Medicago falcata, Brookings, S. Dak., sown broadcast in the spring 
at the rate of 10 peunds to the acre. 
become larger with age, the mortality in common alfalfa is sufficient 
to seriously deplete the stand. 
In broadcast seedings the procumbent forms of Medicago falcata 
are inclined to be more nearly erect than in hills or row plantings, 
but even where good broadcast stands are obtained, the procumbent 
tendency is still sufficient to occasion considerable loss in harvesting. 
(Fig. 21.) In plats where Bromus inermis had volunteered, the 
loss in harvesting was appreciably diminished and a material increase 
in total yield was obtained. (Fig. 22.) 
So far as may be determined from preliminary investigations, it 
would appear that although more difficulty is experienced in ob- 
