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Show THE MANAGEMENT OF ALFALFA IN THE FIELD A good stand of niralfa Is a varluble nuimtlty as legaids the number of Plants required per unit area, lu a now!) -seeded Held, where plenty of seed has been sown and the conditions have been favoiable to start the young Plants, as many as 120 plants per square foot have been counted As rew as ten ntiong joung planiB per squaiefoot. fahlj ,.vol distributed may be considered a fair stand thick enough to leave It s questionable whether a voiy U.lrk stand Is as good ns a thin or medium stand. Those 7 "tocate sowing a small amount or seed claim that the thinner sown uiruira staits stionger and will be more productive and remain a good stand longer than that whleh Is sown t Ucker One advantage perhaps of tho bicker seeding on fertile land is the less com so growth of stem, which" produces pro-duces a finer qnullt of ha.v thnn tho arger. couiser growth lesulllng fioin thin seeding Alfalfa plants giadually die out, so that ii very ililrk stand may show a much smaller number of plants per unit area iwo or tlnee ,., nfu.r One Type of Alfalfa Harrow. seeding. Some notes have been taken on this point at the Kuiisiih expeil uient station In the spring of 1903 an area of ten feet squuro wns stuked out In an alfalfa field seeded In tho fall of 1902. On June 18, 190J, 1,133 plants weie counted In this plot, or an average of 11.33 plants per square foot. It will bo observed Hint this count was made some six months after seeding. On June 29, 190C, a ie-counting ie-counting of tills field showed only G70 plants, or G.8 plants per square foot. On August 9 1907, Ihe number of plants counted wbb 403, or 4.03 plnnts per squaie foot. This field was plowed up In tho fall of 1907. Tho decrease In the number of plants between tho first and last countings, n period of SO months, wns 730 per 100 square feot, which Is a loss of CI. I per cent. Another plot seeded In Ihe spring of 1901 contained 1,130 plants on .liuiu 20, 1901, on an area fle feet square, or 45 2 plants per square foot. On Mn 1, 1905. i lie number of plants in the plot bad been leiluced to 403, or 1G I plants pei square lout. On May 20. 190S, the pint contained mil) 148 plants, or nn average of six plants per squuie foot Onl) 13 per tent, of the plants counted lu the original seeding suivived four j ens after seeding Although Al-though the iiuinbei of plants as slnwti by those counts was greatly leduced, vet those Holds did not deciosiho In production anil tho stand of alfalfa was, uppaicutly, as good ns eei This Is explained lu this wa As the plants deciease In iniuiboi, those thai te-iiialu te-iiialu Ipcionso In sUe. sending out more shouts or stems, thus occupying the space In time, however, as the Held grows old. the stand of alfalfa becomes too thin to pioduce a maximum maxi-mum oi op, when It Is usually advisable advisa-ble to break up the old Hold after seeding down a now Held attempt to thicken up n thin stand of alfalfa on an old Held, since the JoutiRor plants, even If they cull bo started, wll hardly Biirvlve the season In competition with the old, well established estab-lished plants Tho old Held which has become weedy or full of grass had bent bu broken and totaled with corn or othci crops for a jear or so befoio icseedlng In fact, the pieferablo plan Is to seed down other Ileitis, using the alfalfa lu lotutlon with coin and other crops, lather than attempt to keep the same Holds lu alfalfa continuously. In tho opinion of the writer throe-fourths throe-fourths of the fullutcs to grow alfalfa successfully bine been due to lnck of soil cultivation and to wiung methods of piopailng the seedbed and sowing the alfaira. The cultivation of nlfnlfa after the plants uiu well established may also beiiellt the ciop It pajB to cultivate alfalfa Just as It pa.vs to cultivate coin and other crops. The next season aflei seeding, a heavy stialght-tooth hariow may be used In the spring to loosen tho stirfncu soli and, as soon as the alfaUu has become well established, the Hold may he disked or cultivated with the Bplko-tooth Bplko-tooth disk-harrow regularly each spring and perhaps during the season after each cutting. Ily thorough cultivation culti-vation late In the boason, after tho third or fourth cutting, It Is often possible to destioy many weeds biicIi as ci ah glass nnd roxtall, the groat weed enemies or alfalfa. The samo cultivation!! were ie-pouted ie-pouted on each plot for tho yenra 1904 and 1903, Another Held was used the ttrst season, 1903. Tho fluids disked had been Beeded several years and tho alfalfa was a good stand nnd In thrifty condition. Cultivation by disking has apparently apparent-ly not given Increased yloIdB of ulfalfn on these Holds. The snmo results may not follow under other conditions of soil und climate and should not bo considered ns disproving tho bono- IK v 2 I Crowns of Alfalfa Roots Showing Effects of Disking. It Is sometimes possible und advisable advis-able to thicken up a thin stand of noivl) seeded alfalfa b legeodlng This mn.v best be accomplished by hui -rowing eail) lu the spring tho Held which was iVeded the previous fall or spring, sowing a llitlo seed, and cov eilng It with the hariow. The curlier this work can bo done the bettoi The dlftlculiy in starting now plants among the older ones Is that the plains which me well started will exhaust the soil moisture nud plant-food and shade the younger, more feeble plants, often destroying them, especially If u period f dr, unfavorable weather should occur. oc-cur. v It Is not advisable or practicable to flts. described above, which may be derived fromo cultivating alfalfa. |