Alfalfa
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A Clean Seed-bed
Much failure with alfalfa is due to summer grasses and other weeds. The moisture in our eastern states favors plant-life, and most soils are thoroughly stocked with the seeds of a large number of weeds. The value of blue-grass and timothy would be com... Adaptation To Eastern Needs
The introduction of alfalfa into the eastern half of the United States will prove a boon to its depleted soils, encouraging the feeding of livestock and adding to the value of manures. It will affect soils directly, as does red clover, when farmers a... Clean Seed
Care should be exercised to secure seed free from impurities. If one is not a competent judge, he should send a sample to his state experiment station for examination. The practice of adulteration is decreasing, but the seed may have been taken from l... Climate And Soil
The experimentation with alfalfa by farmers has been wide-spread, and the percentage of failure has been so large that many have believed this legume was unfitted to the climate and soil of the country east of the Missouri River. Successful experience... Crimson Clover
Wherever crimson clover is sufficiently hardy to withstand the winter, as in Delaware and New Jersey, it is a valuable aid in maintaining and increasing soil fertility. It is a winter annual, like winter wheat, and should be seeded in the latter half ... Fertility And Feeding Value
Vivian says that "the problem of the profitable maintenance of fertility is largely a question of an economic method of supplying plants with nitrogen." The greatest value of alfalfa to eastern farming lies in its ability to convert atmospheric nitro... Fertilization
The ability of alfalfa to add fertility to the farm, and directly to the field producing it when all the crops are removed as hay, does not preclude the necessity of having the soil fertile when the seeding is made. The plants find competition with gr... Free Use Of Lime
The conditions requisite to success in alfalfa-growing are not numerous, but none can be neglected. Alfalfa should be given a calcareous soil when possible, but an acid soil can be made favorable to alfalfa by the free use of lime. There must remain ... Inoculation
The necessity of inoculation has been discussed in Chapter IV. Eastern land would become inoculated for alfalfa if farmers would adopt the practice of mixing a little alfalfa with red clover whenever making seedings. Some alfalfa plants usually make g... Seeding In August
Much land is infested with annual grasses and other weeds, and in such case seedings should be made in August, as described in Chapter VIII. ... The Seeding
When alfalfa has become established on eastern farms, the difficulties in making new seedings will be smaller. The experience of growers will save from mistakes in selection of soils and preparation of the ground, and the thorough inoculation with the... Varieties
There is only one variety of alfalfa in common use in this country, and the western-grown seed sold upon the market is known simply as alfalfa. Bound up in this one so-called variety are many strains differing in habit of growth, and their differentia...