ALFALFA 
31 
disking. If plowing is done on hot days, it 
should be followed immediately with a 
harrow to break up clods before they 
harden. Then the soil should be pulverized 
with a drag, disk, and smoothing harrow. 
For spring sowing it is not so necessary to 
have a perfect seed bed; the plants have 
a long start by winter. 
Seeding alfalfa in irrigated regions re¬ 
quires an entirely different procedure. In¬ 
oculation is unnecessary; so is fertilizer. 
It is well to level the land, plow deeply, 
follow with the disk and harrow imme¬ 
diately, and let stand a month. It is advis¬ 
able to irrigate before and after seeding, 
and to irrigate again if the young plants 
seem to be suffering for lack of water. 
They should be watered after each cutting. 
Upon the irrigation of alfalfa Mr. Kezer 
of the Colorado Experiment Station writes 
as follows: 
Different soils, different climates, and dif¬ 
ferent sources of water supply would all be 
causes of different methods. In some sec¬ 
tions it is necessary to irrigate two or three 
times for each cutting; in other sections, one 
irrigation to the cutting is sufficient, in 
which case the best practice is to irrigate a 
week or ten days prior to the cutting or the 
expected time of cutting, and then cut as 
soon as the ground is settled enough to bear 
the weight of the haying machinery. This 
water puts the soil in good condition for the 
succeeding crop and causes it to start for¬ 
ward more quickly and more vigorously. Ir¬ 
rigation practice varies quite widely and 
must vary quite widely because of the di¬ 
versity of conditions. A complete statement 
covering the most of the known conditions 
would require several pages. Suffice it to 
say, that in some regions best results are 
obtained by a flooding method, in others by 
a furrow method, and in some regions the 
basin methods give the best results. Climat¬ 
ic and soil conditions chiefly govern. 
The amount of seed to the acre likewise 
varies with the locality. For honey produc¬ 
tion in the West 10 pounds gives a good 
stand; in the Atlantic and southern States, 
24 to 28 pounds; between the Appalachian 
Mountains and the Mississippi, slightly less 
than this. Wing estimates 15 to 20 pounds 
under ordinary circumstances and with or¬ 
dinary soils. One plant to the square foot 
is enough under the best of conditions, but 
they must stand more thickly as a rule. 
Since more come up than can exist, only 
the strongest plants survive. 
Alfalfa may be sown either broadcast or 
with a wheelbarrow seeder or a drill. Broad¬ 
casting requires more seed than drilling, 
and must be followed by a harrow or 
some other implement to cover the seed 
almost an inch deep. In arid lands it is 
covered about an inch and a half. In drill¬ 
ing it is advisable to sow across field in one 
direction and then at right, angles. No 
further treatment need he given the rest of 
the year except for the appearance of dod¬ 
der. Wagons and stock should be carefully 
kept off the field. 
After seeding in the late summer, the 
stand will usually be eight or ten inches 
high by fall. With the spring sowing a 
clipping may need to be given in the late 
summer, but no hay can be taken off until 
the next season. Should the plants show a 
lack of vitality or trace of disease, cutting 
them will often prove salutary, and in the 
East a top dressing of nitrate of soda is 
effective. In a great portion of the West 
this would not be beneficial. If weeds are 
troublesome, the field may be disked with 
the disks set upright. This hinders the 
growth of weed and grass and lets air and 
water into the soil. 
Alfalfa is seldom successful with a nurse 
crop except in irrigated land, for the reason 
that the nurse cr’op often chokes out the 
young plants just as weeds do. Barley 
grown for hay, and hay only, can be made 
a success with spring, sowing of alfalfa, 
and gives a larger return to the acre, but 
to let it grow until it is ready to harvest as 
grain seriously injures the forage stand. In 
irrigated sections with good water rights, 
alfalfa is usually successful with a nurse 
crop, altho more vigorous growth can usu¬ 
ally be obtained without it. Mixtures of 
alfalfa with certain of the grasses are suc¬ 
cessful, the grasses being seemingly more 
vigorous than when alone, and the alfalfa 
almost as good. 
ALFALFA AS HAT. 
Alfalfa is one of the most palatable and 
highly nutritious of all forage crops, either 
green or as hay. One estimate gives alfalfa 
hay slightly more than double the food 
value of timothy. No other forage crop is 
so rich in digestible protein. Wheat bran 
which runs $25 to $30 a ton is about as 
rich, tho more easily fed. While protein is 
hard to get and expensive, it is the one 
