Author: Laurence Frederick Graber

Publisher: Rarebooksclub.com

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 9781230039503

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ...blus grass was cut the previous fall (1914) on October 12. The alfalfa on the right was not cut after August 30, in 1914 and came through the winter uninjured. In the northern states cutting or pasturing after the first week in September is poor practice. Fig. 38. Turkestan Alfalfa Makes a Scant Fall Growth. Perhaps this is one reason for its hardiness. Fig. 39. Transplanting in this test gave very poor yields of hay in comparison with the broadcasted plots. Alfalfa Needs a Reasonably Fertile Soil Because alfalfa is a great soil enricher and can be grown on a wide range of soils, all the way from heavy clays to sandy loams, it is often tried out on the poorest and most worn-out part of the farm. If the soil happens to be well supplied with limestone the crop will do fairly well on rather poor land, but there is such a thing as a Fig. 41. The corrugated roller breaks coarse lumps, firms the seed bed and leaves the surface loose. table is only two feet below the surface is best avoided. The old "alfalfa-won't-stand-wet-feet" theory holds pretty well. Other conditions being favorable, tile-drained land is satisfactory, but occasionally trouble is reported because the alfalfa roots clog the drains. Though the danger is slight and seldom serious it is well worthy of mention. A Firm Settled Seed Bed Necessary Three years ago I observed a forty-acre field of alfalfa that had been seeded the year previous with one bushel of barley to the acre as a nurse crop. The land was heavily limed and manured and inoculated. Climatic conditions were very favorable. Yet the alfalfa was a miserable failure. Why? A loose seed bed. The soil was plowed just one week before the seeding of the alfalfa and barley. It did not have time to become firm. The...