The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1911-11-30
THE SEEDING OF
ALFALFA.
By ALVIN KEYSER, Professor
of Agronomy, Colorado
Agricultural College.
Preparation of the Land.

Of the seed bed is the most important
single operation in the process of gett-
ing stand of alfalfa and keeping it.
On tn" irrigated lands the plowing
should ba deep, 5 to i2inches. The plow-
ing. if done in the spring, should be
done as long before seeding as possible.
For -pring blowing the lard should
be thoroughly double disked
Til, shout! be done especially on the
loans and heavier lands. If not done
, there Is strong tendency for more or
less Of a crust to form. The result is
a considerable loss Of filth or proper
physical condition. Often this can be
restored 10y Il season of winter when the
freezing ard thawing will break down
the ciois formed. In order to thorough
iy compact and puIvcrize the soil, the
| plnw should be followed the same half
day with the disk harrow and the spike
10th harrow This treatment, if well
| carried out, viii produce a deep seed
! bed we'll pGlvprizcd and compacted be
| lo% the surface and loose at the i'm
media" surface. Such scedbcd has q
suh--ur'ara free from the air spaces
Tb"r" Is no compacting agecy as good
! rs ratf.r and tire, so if such q sccdhcd
can stand for month or six weeks
prior to seeding, it will be in even
better condition for planting than wher
frs; prepared. Ia the event of heavy
beating rains which form a crust prior
| to sr-i.4g time. the surface should be
a@aIa putin coalition by disking and
narrowing.
Il the supply of soil moisture is not
/ su.i. .:e'.. for proper termination, the
land may pe irrigated prior to seeding
Is soon after irrigation as the condi
tioa Of til" surface permits, the land
I should he G-&,d and narrowed to pre-
v"Ht H. Iprmation of crust ard to
! prodIra a soil mulch which will retain
the soil moisture and conserve the sur
fac r!tl
TIE Seed On such a bed good seed
/ Only z'o1t b, planted, To have good
seed il is necessary to take into ac-
/ counl n, 'arrty, the purity of the seed
and v.",j.ity or terminating power.
/ Variety The variety and locality
from whence it came are Of very great
importance. We have two large types Of
. aifa'fs.. tn" Southern and the Northern
, TIL Southern type originated and devel-
opa.. - 4 warm climate. Consequently
| it GD"s not stand winters very we'll
Our .aumoa alfalfa belongs to the
/ Soutityp.. Seed from southern
points a. Texas, Arizona, New Mexico
! and Southern California will not stand
Colorado winters. Seed of the com
mon alfalfa, which has become adapted
/ to oaI conditions By being grown locally
or a. more northern points is all right
/ if otherwise good, for our conditions.
( Sa"I from the Northern type is bet
ter J.. l.. caa be obtained OF the North
ern ty.", the Grimm alfalfa has proved
generally 10 be the best, producing more
and better hay, more seed tfor re. seed
! ing). resisting disease better ard TO be
hardest. L would pay the grower to
! get q srna! quantity of this variety t.
stats seed patch. in order to produce
the seed for eventually putting his en-
| tir. acreage into this variety. Seed of
this variety may still be obtained from
Mr. A. b. Lyman, Exceso Minnesota.
| Tn" Purity of the Seed The seed
should Be all alfalfa. The presence of
inert matter such as dirt, urdevcloped
and immature seed weed seed and 9th
| er foreign materials i. ,r say the least
undesirable. One sho gli object TO pay
ing alfalfa prices for ~" impurities.
Besides noXious weed D'ca-ionaiiv ap-
pear. Seed should uos-as, a purity above
95 per cent.
To be continued