FOR HORSES: Seed grasses with not over 10 to 20 per 
cent legumes. 
KNOW WHAT YOU SOW: Too much stress cannot be 
placed on the quality of seed to be sown. The best source of 
supply is a reliable, established seed dealer. Labels and tags 
should be examined and checked for variety, strain, purity, 
weed content and germination to procure the best seed avail- 
able. Seed of high germination usually produces stronger and 
healthier plants than those of low germination. Weeds are 
costly boarders in irrigated pastures; don’t invite them in as 
guests. Ask your dealer for Volkman seeds and know what 
you sow, 
SOIL PREPARATION FOR IRRIGATION: There are 
four methods of irrigation: (1) Strip check, (2) Contour 
flooding, (3) Wild flooding, (4) Sprinkling. The last two 
require little soil preparation for water distribution. In con- 
tour flooding the contours are on an even grade at from .1 
to .4 foot intervals depending on the topography of the land. 
Water is usually spilled from each check to the one below 
with adequate drainage at the bottom to avoid swamping. 
Strip checking is the most prevalent method. Here it is im- 
portant to have a level grade between checks so that there 
will be an even distribution of irrigation water. Where there 
are fills of any depth the grade should be settled by pre-irriga- 
tion and then regraded. This eliminates “pot holes’ in which 
water will stand and scald out the pasture plants. Good drain- 
age is essential to carry water off the lower end of the checks 
and avoid swamping there. Adequate soil preparation pays 
good dividends in higher yields and longer-lived stands. 
SEEDING PRACTICES: Most pasture seeding is now 
done by broadcasting using hand or power seeders or sow- 
ing by airplane. There should always be a firm seed bed and 
a light covering over the seed. A seedbed suitable for Alfalfa 
will give best results with irrigated pastures. Slight corru- 
gations produced by light toothing or cultipacking are de- 
sirable. After seeding it is best to cultipack the soil to firm 
the seed into it. (There may be exceptions in very heavy soil.) 
With this in mind it is good practice to do the whole job with 
a double cultipacker-seeder when that tool is available. 
BLENDING: Some airplane seeders prefer to seed grasses 
and legumes separately; others do a good job planting all at 
one flight. With a breast seeder or small hopper, the whole 
mix may be sown at once. With a large hopper sowing blend- 
ed grass and blended legume seed separately is advised to 
avoid shakedown of fine seeds. 
Excessive seeding is costly and wasteful. Wide experience 
has demonstrated that the best eventual stand can be had 
from moderate amounts of seed sown on a well prepared 
seedbed. 
