The Holly chieftain., 1899-11-10
FLOWING Foa ALFALFA.
Eettsr Results From Doing It In the Fan
Than In the spring.

Estter Results From Doing II In the Fan
Than In the spring.
The question Is shall the land be
plowed In the fall or spring for spring
sowing? From practical experience
fall sowing is preferable. Let the
plowed ground lie over winter and
pack, and then harrow 1t well in the
spring, and when severe freezing Is
past SOW the seed with n drill; broad
casting VIII do also. The point In fa-
vor Of the drill is that five or six
pounds of seed can be saved to an acre.
from the fact that 1t Is put in at
more uniform depth. When broadcast
ed it will probably not all be harrow
ed down and some will be narrowed In
too deep. That lying on the surface
the birds Will take, while that which
is buried too deep will never come up.
We had a patch Of twelve or fourteen
acres, spring plOwed. We hired a
man to drill the seed in, but he was
not careful enough to set the drill at
the right depth. and the seed was prob
ably sowed two inches deep and very
little Of 1t came up.
/ would say where spring plowing is
done roll the ground, make 1t nice and
mellow, and whether the seed Is sowed
WIFI IL uFlil OF bTotuCliSt, dbOul istil
an inch is ample. In our dry land farm
ing believe it good plan to plow In
the fall, because the ground will be
more compact and is better able to re-
tain the moisture. Another point, is 1t
best to SOW alfalfa In the fall? We
have tried this to a considerable eX-
tent, and have came to the conclusion
that 1t is better to sow in the fall than
In the spring, provided there are favor
able weather conditions. 1t is difficult,
however. to get the weather elements
in our favor for fall sowing. If we
can get good stand early in the fall,
it is much better than sowing in the
spring. We had three or four-acre
patch that was plowed in the spring.
About the first of September it was
sowed and the rain happened to come.
The seeds sprouted. and came up, and
that stand was away ahead in the
spring.
Twice after that we sowed in the fall,
but the rain did not come until the lat
ter part of October. and then the frost
came. and the natural consequence fol-
lowed. Anything that freezes expands
n little; freezing seems to raise the top
soil from the rest and breaks the roots
off. So that when a plant has n good
start the roots will not break off so
easily. but when weak 1t nips them Off
A good plan where there is irrigation is
to wat"r the crop early in the fall so
that 1t Will get n good start. In Aug
ust. 1897, after n crop of fall wheat
had been harvested we plowed twenty
acres and after narrowing and proper
ly smoothing the land we drilled In
| fifteen pounds of seed an acre and ini-
mediately irrigated the tract. The seed
| sprouted, came up, and the plants were
three inches high before the frost came.
In the spring of 1898 we plowed fifteen
acres adjoining, prepared the seed bed
drilled in fifteen pounds Of seed al
acre as n nurse crop.
| We raised twelve bushels OF whea'
an acre, and the alfalfa stand was nj
right, but did not make near the pro
gress that the adjoining fall-sowet
twenty acres did. This twenty-acrt
patch produced ten bushels of wheat
an acre. rs well as the sowed land ad
joining because it had been planted tc
wheat the year before. and by plowine
after harvest and watering the land
caused the shelled wheat to volunteer
nurse crop will do with irrigation
We have also tried it without irrigat
ing. We sowed barley on dry land
patch of ten acres, and on the adjoin
ing ten acres we didn't sow any bar
ley. The result was that the barley
killed the alfalfa. but in the patch with
| out barley and with sunflowers seven
feet high there was good stand of al
falfa, though there We're thousands OF
| sunfiowers. From that 1t would seem
that 1t does not pay to sow nurse
crop with dry-land alfalfa.-John II
Holmgren, in Field and Farm.