42 HINTS ON RAISING FARM CROPS 
such as oats or barley (the latter being cul 
for grain or hay), thus getting a crop from 
the land the same year. Probably the most 
practical method for the farmer who does not 
want to waste his alfalfa ground the first year 
would be to sow the alfalfa seed in the spring 
with oats, and cut the oats for hay, rather than 
to allow the oats to ripen into grain. Wher 
oats or barley are used as a nurse crop, and 
cut for grain, rather than hay, there are strong 
possibilities that the alfalfa will be robbed oi 
a considerable amount of moisture through the 
ripening process of the grain. This is about 
the time that alfalfa needs the moisture the 
most; therefore, unless the nurse crop is cut 
green for hay, the young alfalfa plant is quite 
liable to suffer for lack of moisture, unless 
the season happens to be a wet one. 
After alfalfa has been sown under propei 
conditions, there is little left to be done until 
the crop is ready to harvest. Sometimes the 
weeds get a start on the young alfalfa, and 
when this condition prevails, it is well to go 
over the field with a mower, and cut the weeds 
as high as possible from the ground, so that 
they cannot reproduce themselves by seed. 
This clipping will not harm the young alfalfa 
plants, as they will leaf out again quite read¬ 
ily after this treatment. 
There is a diversity of opinion as to the 
proper time for cutting alfalfa for hay. Where 
three cuttings are made in a single season, 
it is the custom to cut each crop just as the 
plants are commencing to bloom, so that the 
following crop will not be retarded. But in the 
