The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1913-09-12
SEEDING ALFALFA
BY Lee Nj. Lampson. County Asricu;-
turiSt


lance IN getting a good stand with
out wasting seed. In deciding upon
a place for alfalfa this point should
be considered first: Alfalfa must
have soil that is well drained. Its
roots require good circulation OF
air. When the soil is saturated with
water there is no chance for the air
to circulate around the roots and
the plant soon dies. Look over
your own or your neighbours alfalfa
field and notice the patches of ground
that have been very wet most of the
time even though they may not
have been flooded over the surface,
and you will see that in those patches
the plants are very scattering or are
all gone. No further illustration is
necessary to show that it is useless
to seed alfalfa on ground that is not
well drained.
After picking out a well-drained
piece OF land the next question is
the preparation of the soil. No
special preparation of the soil is
necessary, at least in this country.
On the soil we have here thorough
and careful preparation of t b e
ground for alfalfa is not essential
as is the case for corn and some
other crops. This does not mean,
however, that the ground only needs
to be rooted up here and there as it
is when the pillow is in the ground
part of the time and sliding over
the surface part of the time or run
ming into the land so far that it
does not turn the soil in many places.
A reasonable preparation of the soil
will make agood seed bed for alfalfa.
Thus far we have found only one
place in Benton County where it
was evident that the soil needed to
be inoculated. However, if there
is any fear in the growers mind
that he will not get a good stand on
account of his soil not being inocu-
lated, he can very easily do this by
securing some surface coil from an
old alfalfa field and scattering a
bushel or more to the acre over the
field which is to be seeded. If this
soil is to be scattered for incubation,
a good plan is to scatter it just be-
fore the drill or harrow goes over
the ground-o that it will be worked
in right away. Otherwise hard
wind coming up may blow most of
the inoculated soil away.
The seeding can be done with a
hand seeder of some kind, followed
by harrow. But unless this is done
very carefully. better results will
usually follow seeding with drill.
Now we have come to the point
to which ninety per cent of the
failures in seeding are directly traces
able. This is the manner of proper
irrigation between the time the seed
starts to terminate and the time the
plant is well rooted in, the ground.
The writer is asked every few, days,
in going from farm to farm, how
much alfalfa seed should be sown
to the acre. Here are the facts of
the case. The grass will not grow
to reasonable heighth and mature
well if the crowns of the plants are
crowded together. About twelve
pounds to the acre will give you q
thick enough stand if it is properly
irrigated when the seedlings are
little. twenty-five pounds will not
give you thick enough stand if it
is not properly irrigated when the
seedlings are starting their growth.
Allowing the moisture to drop
below the seedlings, even for few
hours, will kill them. The mois-
ture must be kept right UP to the
surface of the ground until the seed
lings have gotten we'll rooted. The
safest way to do this in light soil is
to dig the bitches eighteen or twenty
inches apart and then drop out
every other ditch after the crop has
become esta blished. In reasonably
heavy soil the moisture can be kept
up to the surface by using only the