Semi-weekly herald., 1909-04-19
SEEDING ALFALFA.

oGGDtfNS NLF aIF a.
Hardly mail comes to the Colo
rado Agricultural college that does
not contain an inquiry in regard to
the sowing of alfalfa. the varieties
best adapted to particular localities.
the quantity of seed required per
acre, and the conditions and methods
necessary for good results.
The Colorado experiment station
has been testing the different varie-
ties and endeavoring, by the syste-
matte selection of the best individual
plants, to develop superior type of
alfalfa for hay and seed production.
The results of the work have been :
very promising, indeed; but at pres
ent there is no seed available for
distribution, although efforts TO pro
duce seed sufficient for wider tests
are being put forth. The varieties
that have given the best results in
nearly alyi the tests have been the
northern grown types. Some of the
Turkestan strains, the Grimm alfalfa,
and the varieties that have been in
\ troduced under the name of Sand
| Lucerne, are the most hardy and Wig
orous types. The Arabian variety has
not been hardy even in southern
Colorado. and the same has been
| found to be true of all the seed from
| the hot countries. Nearly all our ma
tive alfalfa, especially that from
California and the southwestern
states, has reached us by what
might be called the southern route,
/. e.. it was brought over by the
| Spaniards into South America; then
across into Chill, and thence north
into the southern and southwestern
part of the United States.
While it has been great acquisi-
ton TO our western agriculture. it has
lacked hardness to some extent and
this probably accounts for the extrava-f
giant recommendation for planting 90
TO 30 pounds of seed per acre.
Usually it is the lack of proper con.
ditions, rather than the lack of guam
tity of seed, that is responsible for
failure in getting a stand of alfalfa.
A pound of alfalfa seed contains
about 225,000 seeds, and ten pounds
of seed per acre would give fifty or
more seeds to a square foot of ground
If the seed is vigorous and hardy and
the conditions favorable, ten pounds
of seed should insure stand of from
three to five good stools per foot.
which is sufficient.
Alfalfa is as hardy as clover. and
should be sown early in the spring
to get good start and to have the
, spring rains, which will insure its
growth. For twelve years we have
sown alfalfa seed the last of March
or the first of April, and we have
never had failure at Rocky Ford,
Colorado. On several occasions the
young, alfalfa seedlings survived
freeze of from five to ten degrees of
, temperature below 80, and gave no
evidence of injury. A fatal error ~
often made by sowing the alfalfa
seed too deep in the drills with grain
three to four inches deep; alfalfa will
seldom reach the surface under such
conditions. The usual method is to
broadcast the seed just ahead of
the grain drill, either with an at
, tachment on the drill or by hand:
in this way some of the seed is COW
cred about the right depth, by har-
, rowing after the drill. But much of
II is so near the surface that it will
not survive; therefore, much seed is
wasted. The ideal method would be
to have a drill that would accurately
regulate the amount of seed and SOW
uniformly by drills not much over
threefourths of an inch in depth.
We are sadly in need of a drill es.
pecially designed for sowing alfalfa
seed, If one has only a small area
oil Two or three acres TO sow, 1t
might pay to take the pains to sow
with a common garden drill, so as
t. insure a uniform depth of planting.
All the tests the writer has made
with the drilling OF alfalfa in rows
nave shown encouraging results in
both nay yield and in the production
OF seed, as it allows better chances to
cultivate and regulate and control
moisture. II also economies seed.
for in drills eighteen to twenty inches
apart, four to five pounds of seed
per acre will give good stand of al
falfa.
P. X. BLINN,
Colorado Agricultural College, Fort
| Collins.