The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-02-01
Seed Of High terminating Power
Should be Planted-Lime
Sour Soil
INAOCULATION MADE EAS)
Spring Sowing Shoud be Done
May lis, Fall by Aug. IS
Summer Following
prepared Especially for this News
paper by the Editors of NATION
AL ALFALFA JOURNAL.)

w I'LL luc SeSu D6u III proper COu
r dition the farmer is ready to proceed
with his seeding. Just a word first
! as to the seed itself. The injunc
, ton, plant only northern grown
, seed," will bear repeating right
here. Let those words sink in
and heed them. Buy only seed OF
known high termination. Be sure
the seed has been tested. Seed
that shows 80 per cent or better is
the only kind to SOW.
There are different ways of SOW
ing the seed. Some use special
alfalfa and clover seeding machin-
cry. The ordinary grain drills with
special grass attachments are much
used And then there is the good,
oldfashioned method of broadcast
! ing. Here again each man must
make his choice-put your seed in
by the method that is handiest for
you.
Spring Seeding, May 1 to Is.
Now comes that important word,
Caution again. Look out every
minute for the depth at which you
plant the seed. One inch is the
proper depth-don't go any deeper,
under any circumstances, than II
| inches. Best results are reported
from seeding Is pounds to the acre,
where no nurse crop is used. The
seed should be covered at once by
light narrowing.
For spring seeding the best time
is around May 1 to Is, for the
northern latitudes-the Dakotas,
Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska
and Wisconsin. Seed planted then
without a nurse crop and kept clean
will yield moderate crop of alfalfa
hay by September 1, and the plants
will get. sufficient growth between
that date and the freeze-up to be
able to withstand the winter. If
it is desired to SOW nurse crop,
about 5 pounds of alfalfa and three
pecks of oats or barley should be
sown to the acre. A yield of grain
of any considerable value cannot
be expected.
Sometimes no crop is sown, but
for four months the soil is fire.
quently cultivated in order to keep
down the weeds and conserve mois-
ture. This amounts to summer fall
lowing, and is very successfully done
n sections where the land is foul
The land is plowed when the weeds
are several inches high and then
persistently narrowed until August.
One reason for fall sowing is that |
it enables the farmer to gather one |
full crop from the land before |
planting to alfalfa. Flowing for |
fall sowing should be done in July |
as soon as the crop is off the ground. |
The seed should be put in not later |
than the middle of August. If as
much as five or six weeks will |
elapse between blowing and seeding
time the furrow may be about six
inches deep.
How To Inoculate.
AS with spring blowing, the near
er the blowing time to the seeding
time the shallower the blowing
should be. AS with spring sowing,
the soil should be well conditioned.
1t should be smooth and firm and
mellow and pulverized to a depth
of an inch. Methods of sowing are
identical with those for spring.
With fall rains the plant gets a
good start before freezing-up time,
and the next summer is ready to
produce it's two or three crops
The same as the spring planted seed
produces the second season. in no
case should fall sown plants be cut
he first year
Pull up a healthy alfalfa plant and
you will find "grape-like" looking :
punches or clusters on the roots.
inside of each of these grapes"
re millions of bacteria. They are
necessary to the life of alfalfa.
they gather the nitrogen from the
.ir and aid the plant in assimilating
hat nitrogen into it's tissues. Gen.
rally the soil does not contain these
acteria, so they, as we'll as the seed,
ave to be planted. This process
) what is called INCUBATION.
Is absolutely necessary for sue
essful alfalfa raising. :
To inoculate you can gather soil
rom a successful alfalfa or sweet
lover field and mix it with the
oil of the proposed alfalfa field.
his is the "soil method" The work
lust be done on cloudy day. Be- 4
ween 400 and 500 pounds to the
ere are required A better way
the pure culture" method. From
lie government or from a manufac-
lrer secure the culture-each can
3ntains an amount for given
lumber of acres-pour this on the =
ed, mix thoroughly and SOW the
fixture at the rate of Is pounds
the acre. That is all there
to ''inoculation"-a thing which
long has mystified people.
Sour Soil Must be LINED. 2
A sour, that is, an acid soil kills
ese bacteria. If a piece of blue
mus paper, which you can buy y
the drug store, turns red when i
fried half an hour in the soil 1t
a sure sign that that soil is sour.
nelly ground limestone to the
mount of one to three tons to the
re must be applied after the plow-
G and thoroughly narrowed in, 1t
ay be spread with a shovel or
aced on the top of thin coating n
straw or fine manure and scatter
with manure spreader. Never
Y to grow alfalfa on sour land