KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 
7 
j -s 
INOCULATION COST IS SMALL 
Lack of inoculation has caused many alfalfa failures. The 
cost—about 10 cents per acre—is too small to disregard. Sweet 
Clover will not inoculate or prepare soil for alfalfa unless the 
Sweet Clover is inoculated first. 
__ r 
• do not kill 
its start 
Do not pasture your alfalfa the 
first season, and do so only lightly 
the second. Don't let stock graze it 
down so closely as to injure crown 
or new shoots, nor turn stock into 
it when ground is wet or frozen. 
Spring sowings usually may be cut 
once with safety so long as the cut¬ 
ting can be made 8 to 10 weeks be¬ 
fore first frosts are expected. 
• fighting the 
CRAB GRASS 
If traces of crab grass are no¬ 
ticed, a cultivation after each mow¬ 
ing will help keep the grass down 
and will not injure the alfalfa in 
the least. Use a spike-tooth or 
spring tooth harrow, but not a disk 
harrow. Do not cultivate at all as 
long as stand is satisfactory and 
plants are growing good. 
ALFALFA 
not suited to 
sowing in 
MIXTURES 
Because of its ability to produce 
two or more cuttings in a season, 
alfalfa is not generally well suited 
to sowing in mixtures with grasses 
and clovers. In humid districts 
where more or less difficulty is en¬ 
countered in curing alfalfa the pres¬ 
ence of some grasses may be of ap¬ 
preciable value in hastening the 
process, and, furthermore, some 
feeders prefer mixtures to alfalfa 
alone. Grasses are sometimes sown 
with alfalfa for pasturing to reduce 
the danger from bloat. Timothy is 
probably used in mixture with al¬ 
falfa more than any other grass be¬ 
cause of its wide popularity. It 
is used to some extent in the East 
and to a considerable extent in 
parts of the Northwest, where al¬ 
falfa is grown under irrigation 
There are quite a number of farm¬ 
ers who make a regular practice of 
sowing a little timothy with alfalfa 
on the theory that when the alfalfa 
dies out the timothy will fill up the 
vacant spaces and check the growth 
of the weeds. Orchard grass and 
meadow fescue are better suited 
for sowing with alfalfa than is tim¬ 
othy, as they mature more nearly 
with it. 
' Field Seed Reference Table 
on back page of this book 
should be preserved by 
every planter. 
