Strange as this title may seem it suggests a very important means of securing a satisfactory stand. In fact in some parts of the South, where the land has become very foul, it is occasionally recommended to sow the alfalfa in rows, eighteen inches apart, for regular cultivation the first season. After the second year the crowns will have sent up so many stems that the surface of the ground will be well occupied. Spurrier, in his work referred to in Chapter I, recommended drilling in rows and cultivating the first year. But it is better to get rid of the weeds before trying alfalfa. The cultivation here recommended is clipping, manuring, disking and harrowing. Frequently when alfalfa is sowed in the spring it comes up weak and spindling. In such case clip it just before ready to bloom, having the mower sickle set rather high. If the growth is not very heavy, leave this cutting on the ground; if quite heavy, remove it. The field may need to be clipped again during the summer, but the farmer can feel reasonably assured that he will have a good stand the following spring. If the leaves turn yellow, mowing is the remedy. If there is any sign of the “spotted leaf” disease, the mower should be used forthwith. Of course if alfalfa comes up strong, vigorous, and free from weeds, it should stand until blossoming is well begun and then be mown for hay.

It should not be supposed that the purpose in clipping and allowing the clippings to remain on the ground is primarily to make a mulch. It is to retard the weeds, and as no other way equally convenient and economical has presented itself, the young growths are mown and left on the ground.

In many parts of the country Crab grass (Panicum sanguinale) is the plant or weed that most persistently interferes with the prosperity of alfalfa during its first year, and frequent mowing is the remedy most recommended and resorted to, but there are growers who maintain that such treatment is not best. An extensive and very successful grower in southern Kansas tells the author repeated experience has demonstrated to his satisfaction that the advice to mow alfalfa frequently during the first summer may under some circumstances be quite wrong. If the season happens to be wet, and there is a rank growth of Crab grass, frequent mowing causes the Crab grass to set in a close sod and smother out the alfalfa. He says: “My practice has been, under these conditions, to let the Crab grass grow with the alfalfa until matured, before mowing. The young alfalfa will usually keep its head out sufficiently to breathe, and will survive until the Crab grass is matured and all is cut. If allowed to mature, the Crab grass will not start a second time, and the alfalfa immediately springs up and occupies the ground. Where the Crab grass is very rank it may sometimes be blown down in spots and smother out some alfalfa, but even under these conditions one will have a much better stand than is possible by repeated mowings. This is not mere theory, but has been proven correct by frequent experience and close observation of the other method during the same seasons.” Something similar may be said of Witch-grass (Panicum capillare), which, however, is less obnoxious than the Crab grass, because of not having the habit of rooting at the joints.

In many parts of the country Crab grass (Panicum sanguinale) is the plant or weed that most persistently as to make burning in the spring seem the most feasible means of getting rid of them, and fire is resorted to. Prof. A. M. Ten Eyck says he has seen this done a number of times without injury to the alfalfa crowns. He, however, recommends disking after burning, to loosen the exposed soil and leave the surface generally in a better condition. Sowing additional seed on the ground before such disking may do much to improve and thicken the stand.

The editor of the Nebraska Farmer has been collecting information on alfalfa culture from every section of the United States for the past ten years, and as a result of this work unhesitatingly advances the opinion that “nine-tenths of the failures with alfalfa have been due to failure or neglect to cut it as should have been done when young. This is the law of alfalfa culture; it must be cut down. And the man who has not the courage, morally and physically, to use a mowing machine persistently had best pass by alfalfa culture. It takes moral courage to cut baby alfalfa; but it must be cut down to save it.”

MANURING

A light top-dressing of manure after sowing, or, in case of fall sowing, any time during the winter, helps to conserve moisture as well as to give the growing plants some nitrogenous food. Applying a top-dressing of stable manure at least every second or third winter is certain to prove profitable. If it contains coarse straw or other litter, this should be raked and hauled off later, but before the alfalfa grows too high, especially if the hay is intended for the city market. Many successful growers in Kansas, who claim to cut from five to seven tons of alfalfa hay per acre in a season apply a top-dressing of manure every winter. The highest yields reported from eastern states are where this practice is followed. Some experiment station men believe that where this is not done the crop will after eight or ten years tend to impoverish the land instead of further improving it.

DISKING

The foremost method of cultivation is with the disk harrow, one of the most excellent farm implements ever invented. Alfalfa sown in the fall is almost invariably helped by disking the following spring, with the disks set quite straight, so as not to cut the crowns but to split them. It is usually well to follow this disking with a tooth harrow, with its teeth set straight. Occasionally in a dry summer the disk may be used to great advantage after the second, and possibly the third, cutting also. Many disk their alfalfa field every spring, and some after each cutting, others do so only once in every two or three years, owing to weather conditions and the conditions of the alfalfa. In some instances the common harrow is used instead of a disk.

The disking has several beneficial effects. It splits and spreads the crowns, causing more and consequently finer stems to spring up, affording hay of the most delightful quality, easily cured; it loosens the soil about the crowns, conserves moisture and destroys the weeds. There need be no fear of killing the plants if the disks and the harrow-teeth are set straight and weighted or otherwise adjusted to give direct and steady forward movement. As an implement for the cultivation and invigoration of an alfalfa field the disk harrow has no equal, and its frequent use is by those who know it best deemed quite indispensable.

RESEEDING

If it is a question of reseeding the whole field, the problem is simple. In that case disk and harrow the ground and sow half as much seed as was sowed at first. But to restore bare spots is more difficult; the young plants from the reseeding in these spots will be shaded by the larger growth about them, and such reseeding seldom gives the desired results. There is no doubt that very many fields are given up as failures and inferior crops planted in them, when a thorough disking would have renewed the growth, saved a crop, and, what is more important, a stand of alfalfa. Many reports have come to the writer of fields that had little sign of life the first of March, yet when thoroughly disked, cross-disked and harrowed, surprised the neighborhood by showing in two weeks a strong growth.

Some wishing to be on the safe side, have sown a little seed after this heavy disking and harrowing, but many of them have reported an entire loss of the seed, as the plants from the previous sowing came up so thick as to choke out those from the later seeding. In some states a common plan of thickening a stand is to let the third crop ripen seed, and then about the last of September disk and harrow the seed into the ground where it grew. This frequently saves the stand and adds many years to its life. But where a field begins to fail after a third year it is usually better to plow it up and raise one or two crops of corn, a crop of oats or of millet, and then reseed.

ALFALFA UNDER IRRIGATION

The greatest yields of alfalfa are produced by irrigation. Reported yields of six or more cuttings, aggregating eight to twelve tons per acre each year, are almost invariably, yet not always, from districts where irrigation is practiced. It is claimed by experiment station experts from the irrigation states that the tendency is to use too much water; too much at a time and too often. The general recommendation is to irrigate thoroughly before the ground is plowed or disked, and not again till the alfalfa is about four inches high. Then again a week before each cutting. It has been found that old alfalfa fields do not need as much water as new fields, the alfalfa roots seeming to find moisture and bring it to the surface.

It is insisted that the surface must be perfectly smooth to keep water from settling into low places and smothering the plants. Some farmers do not irrigate for the second crop if as much as two inches of rain falls after the first mowing. Others claim that old fields do not need flooding for the second crop even if there has been no rainfall after the first cutting.

Wilcox in his “Irrigation Farming”[3] says: “The critical time with alfalfa is the first six weeks of its growth. Flooding during this period is quite certain to give the plants a backset from which they seldom fully recover before the second, and sometimes not before the third year, and it is not often in the arid states that rain falls with sufficient frequency to dispense with the necessity for irrigating the plants while small. By soaking the earth from thirty-six to forty-eight hours before seeding, however, the plants will make vigorous growth until they are ten to twelve inches high, after which they may be irrigated with safety.

“When alfalfa has become established, a single copious irrigation after each cutting will ordinarily be found sufficient. Irrigation before cutting is undesirable, because it leaves the earth so soft as to interfere with the movement of machinery and loads. It also makes the stalks more sappy, and, while they will retain the leaves better, there is more difficulty to be experienced in the curing at harvest time; and taken all in all, we much prefer to irrigate after each cutting. In Colorado we cut alfalfa three times and often four times in a season, hence the stand gets as many irrigations. Some people irrigate very early in springtime, before the crowns have awakened from their hibernal rest, but this practice is not right. The chill of the water in very early spring is not conducive to quick growth and may often retard the plants in getting an early start. We do not irrigate prior to the first cutting unless the season is particularly dry and the plants seem to actually demand water. We irrigate late in the fall and apply a top-dressing of light barnyard manure, which is found to be of great service in several ways.”

INFLUENCE OF IRRIGATION UPON COMPOSITION

I find no report of experiments published by any station in which the influence of irrigation upon alfalfa hay is made a special study, but Bulletin No. 80 of the Utah station contains a great deal of information along this line relative to grain crops, potatoes, and mixed grasses. In summing up the results of the experiments, the following conclusions are

“Heavy irrigations increase the percentage of weight of the heads of plants; light irrigations increase the relative weight of leaves.

“Irrigation modifies definitely the composition of plants and plant parts; the seeds are affected more than any other plant part.

“The percentage of protein in corn kernels was increased from 12.05 to 15.08, as the amount of irrigation decreased; in oat kernels from 14.07 to 20.79; in wheat kernels from 15.26 to 26.72. In all these seeds the fat and nitrogen-free extracts were increased by liberal waterings.

“Increased irrigations increased the starch content and decreased the protein content of potatoes.

“The water in plants is somewhat dependent on the water in the soil.

“The proportion of ear corn to stover increased regularly with the increased application of water.

“The percentage of grain in the wheat crop increased with increased irrigations.

“The yield of wheat increased up to thirty inches of water.

“Crops in an arid district require a greater number of pounds of water for one pound of dry matter than in humid climates.”

The experiments cited do not include alfalfa, yet the results with other crops would indicate that the percentage of protein in alfalfa hay may be less where the crop is grown by irrigation than where it is grown by dry-land farming. The composition of the hay, however, will depend upon the quantity of water supplied to the crop and not upon the method; that is, alfalfa which receives as much natural rainfall as other alfalfa would receive by irrigation, would be similarly affected in composition, and from the experiments with grains reported in the bulletin noted, it would appear that with the application of large quantities of water the percentage of protein is decreased; yet, the yield is increased, and although the feeding value of the crop may be a little less, the quantity may be greater, due to large applications of water.

WIDE VARIATIONS IN CONTENT

Professor Ten Eyck compiled from their station bulletins the following figures on the composition of alfalfa hay in four different states:

On this showing he remarks:

“Although it was not definitely stated, I take it that the Colorado and Utah hay were grown by irrigation, while the New Jersey and Kansas hay received no irrigation. It will be observed that while the percentages of protein and fat in the Utah samples are low, the percentage of carbohydrates is high; yet the Colorado samples grown under irrigation show a larger percentage of protein and fat than the Kansas samples grown without irrigation. The crude protein often varies in quantity according to the stage of maturity of the alfalfa when it is cut for hay, as shown by experiments at the Kansas station, and described in Bulletin No. 114.

“The general conclusion may be that the protein content of alfalfa hay will decrease to some extent, according as the supply of water furnished the crop is increased; that is, by supplying the right quantity of water, a better quality of hay may be grown by irrigation than is often grown in humid climates in soil which receives only the natural rainfall. From what I know of the Colorado and Utah stations, I would judge that the quantity of water supplied at the Utah station was much larger than that supplied at the Colorado station. At the Colorado station the supply of irrigation water is often limited, and hence, the larger percentage of protein and fat which appears in the samples of hay grown and analyzed at that station.”

The annual report of the secretary of agriculture (1904) says that at the Utah station a series of co-operative experiments is in progress to determine the water necessary, and the most favorable method of application, to insure a maximum yield of alfalfa, and also experiments to determine the minimum application of water required to secure a crop. “It has been found that abundant irrigation throughout the season, 61 inches of water being applied, gave a yield of 6.2 tons per acre, while four irrigations in the early part of the season with only 25 inches gave five tons per acre, showing that beyond a certain supply the excess is wasted.”

A. S. Hitchcock, in United States Farmers’ Bulletin No. 215, speaking of the Utah experiment just mentioned, says that where the supply of water is limited a much less quantity than is ordinarily used will produce paying crops. The minimum quantity to produce a crop of alfalfa, and the time at which the water should be applied, depends upon the soil and climatic conditions. Below are results of experiments in 1903, by the Utah station:

WATER REQUIRED BY ALFALFA; QUANTITY AND DATE OF APPLICATION

DATE OF HARVEST AND YIELD OF HAY

“It will be observed that the maximum crop was produced by applying plenty of water throughout the growing season. However, it is also to be noted that a much less quantity of water, when applied at intervals of three or four weeks, produced a fair crop. Fifteen and 17 inches of water applied in this way produced more than half as much as 61 inches applied at frequent intervals. Furthermore, three irrigations of 15 to 17 inches produced about the same results as the same amount applied at four irrigations. In applying irrigation water to fields it is necessary to saturate the soil to a reasonable depth. All the water that drains off beyond the amount required for use is lost to the crop. It is not necessary to apply water again until the crop has removed a large part of the available supply.”