The La Jara chronicle., 1910-02-11
Seeding Alfalfa.

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 vaIde-
ties and endeavoring, by the syste-
matte selection of the best individual
plants, to develop a 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 all 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. Near,y all our ma
tive alfalfa, especially that from
California and the southwestern
states. has reached us by what
might be called the southern route,
l. 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 a great acquisi-
ton to our western agriculture, it
has lacked hardness to some extent,
and this probably accounts for the
extravagant recommendation for
planting twenty to thirty pounds of
seed per acre.
Usually it is the lack of proper con
ditions, rather than the lack of guam
ity of seed. that is responsible for
a failure in getting a stand OF alfalfa
A pound of alfalfa seed contains
about 225 900 seeds, and ten pounds
of seed per acre would give fifty or
illil Z SFtu 10 lOOL vi 6ASullNs
If the seed is hardy and vigorous and
the conditions favorable, ten pounds
of seed should insure a 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 a 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 a failure at Rocky Ford,
Colorado. On several occasions the
young alfalfa seedlings survived a
freeze of from five to ten degrees of
temperature below 80, and gave no
ev dence of injury. A fatal error is
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
in this way some of the seed is COW
cred about the right depth, by har-
rowing after the drill. But much of
| it 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
three-fourths of an inch in depth.
We are sadly in need of drill es-
pecially designed for sowing alfalfa
seed. If one has only small area
of two or three acres to SOW, it
might pay to take the pains to SOW
with a common garden drill, so as
to insure a uniform depth of Planting.
All the tests the writer has made
with the drilling of alfalfa in rows
have shown encouraging results in
both hay yield and in the production
of seed, as it allows better chances
to cultivate and regulate and con.
troll moisture. 1t also economies
seed, for in drills eighteen to twenty
inches apart, four to five pounds OF
seed per acre will give good stand
of alfalfa
p. X. BLINN,
Colorado Agricultural College, For,
Collins.