24 
BULLETIN" 1306, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Table 20, — Yields of hay per acre from alfalfa seeded by different methods at the 
Sheridan Field Station during the six years from 1918 to 1923, inclusive 
Yields per acre (pounds) 
Crop, method, and year of seeding 
1918 
1919 
1920 
1921 
1922 
1923 
Aver- 
age 
Second-year crop: 
35-inch rows 
4,180 
3,200 
2,620 
1,430 
760 
490 
1,720 
800 

4,420 
4,080 
3,200 
2,040 
2,000 
2,320 
2,200 
3,360 
2,640 
2,343 
1,690 
1,358 
2,353 
Third-year crop: 
35-inch rows 
440 
80 
40 
7-inch drill 
2,507 
7-inch drill with barley 
1,960 
4,180 
440 
2,400 
610 
1,430 
3,220 
4,420 
1,720 
2,360 
2,640 
2,200 
2,040 
2,202 
35-inch rows, seeded 1920 
2,830 
35-inch rows, seeded 1921 
1,960 
35-inch rows, seeded 1922 
2.040 
Average 
4,180 
440 
2,400 
1,020 
3,120 
2,310 
2,245 
7-inch drill, seeded 1917 
3,200 
80 
2,380 
230 
760 
3,160 
4,080 
800 
2,220 
3,140 
3,360 
2,000 
1,878 
7-inch drill, seeded 1920 
2,660 
7-inch drill, seeded 1921 
2,080 
7-inch drill, seeded 1922 
2,000 
Average . . .. .. . ... 
3,200 
80 
2,380 
495 
2,680 
2,680 
1,919 
7-inch drill with barley, seeded 1917 
2,620 
40 
2,760 
610 
490 
3,980 
3,200 

3,040 
3,140 
2,640 
2,320 
2,175 
7-inch drill with barley, seeded 1920 
2,277 
7-inch drill with barley, seeded 1921 . 
1,320 
7-inch drill with barley, seeded 1922 
2,320 
Average 
2,620 
40 
2,760 
550 
2,393 
2,785 
1,858 
The row seeding showed an undoubted advantage for the second 
year, the average yield for the years available for comparison being 
2,343 pounds of hay per acre, as compared with 1,690 pounds for 
drilling alone and 1,358 pounds for drilling with a nurse crop. For 
the third year, however, the drilled seeding without a nurse crop had 
the highest average yield, over 2,500 pounds of hay per acre. This 
was about 150 pounds more than the yield from the rows and nearly 
550 pounds more than from the seeding with a nurse crop. 
Taking the average yields for the entire period, the rows averaged 
326 pounds per acre more than the solid plantings sown without a 
nurse crop. The average difference between the yields from alfalfa 
drilled alone and that seeded with a nurse crop was only 61 pounds. 
The small extra yield from the rows can hardly be considered suffi- 
cient to warrant seeding the crop in this manner except for seed pur- 
poses. Seeding with a nurse crop almost invariably causes a lower 
yield of alfalfa the first year following seeding, but the yields there- 
after seem to show little or no difference. 
SWEET CLOVER 
Sweet clover has not been an unqualified success as a forage crop. 
Heavy yields were secured in some years when there was a good 
stand, but in two years when growth probably would have been very 
good no crop was obtained, because dry weather the year before pre- 
vented a stand. 
White sweet clover {Melilotus alba) seeded in rows 35 inches apart 
averaged 343 pounds per acre more than when drilled without a 
nurse crop. In two of the four years in which a crop was secured the 
