The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-04-19
"GIVE ALFALFA
SQUARE DEAL"
CONTINUED From Page 4One)


CONTINUED From Page .One)
thing to the Professors statement,
and put it this way: "Sow alfalfa
seed adapted to your locality and
give it a square DEAL"
Whether you are going to use a
nurse crop with your alfalfa or
seed it alone, to get the best
stand is dependent great deal up
on the facts set forth in the open
ing paragraph. In certain soils
there isn't enough plant food Or
sufficient moisture to take care
of the needs of growing a full
sized nurse crop and ripening it
ready for harvest, and at the same
time supply the necessary plant
food and moisture for tie alfalfa
plants. They have to send their
roots down deep enough into the
ground SO that they can get mois-
ture in sufficient amounts to sup
ply the need when the nurse crop
is removed and the sun shines d.
rectly on the little alfalfa plants
during the hot, sunsniny period of
harvest time.
/ Of all the nurse crops that have
proven successful under all condi-
tions is the seeding of early oats
at the rate of from two pecks to
one bushel per acre with the al
falfa and then cutting this oats
green or in the dough stage for
hay. You will see at once that
this will bring about ali the aids
that a nurse crop should give to the
young alfalfa plants. 1t gives
them sufficient shade in their early
weeks of growth, and it keeps
weeds and grass from starting and
crowding out the alfalfa. Also by
removing it before it ripens, the
moisture that would be needed to
ripen the grain is conserved and
not passed off into the air by the
evaporation process.
Oats as a Nurse Crop
A light seeding of about two
pecks of oats to the acre is a good
protection for the little alfalfa
plants from the blowing sand.
DdTlcy as d Nurse crop
Barley seeded at the rate of one
bushel to the acre on soils suited
for barley, has proven to be an
excellent nurse crop. As a rule,
it does not lodge as easily as oats,
ripens early and excellent yields
have been secured of from rs to
81 bushels on different farms
where only a bushel of barley was
used and seeded on a farm seed
bed.
Flax as a Nurse Crop
Flax on fairly new or rich, fer
tile soil, has proven to be an ex-
cellent nurse crop for alfalfa, be-
cause when the flax ripens, it
stands up straight and the leaves
fall off, permitting the sun to shine
down and thus strengthen the al
falfa plants before this nurse crop
of flax is removed. The fact that
the flax is seeded later than most
other grains has proven an ad-
vanIageous point on some soils be-
cause it permits better preparation
of the seed bed before seeding.
Wheat and Rye
Wheat and rye have both proven
very satisfa Glory where conditions
are right. The main trouble with
the rye is that it might stool out
too much and shade the little al
falfa plants so that they will not
grow as strong as they should,
and some of them are smothered
out.
This is a little late in the sea-
son for seeding alfalfa with rye or
wheat in many sections. However,
Mr.. John Clover in Isanti county
found that winter rye proved sue
cessful on, sandy soil for him as a
nurse crop. Early in May he went
in with a spring tooth drag and
thinned out the stand of rye. Then
he broadcast his alfalfa seed, which
he had inoculated. by the way, he
had lined the soil the fall before
He then narrowed the alfalfa seed
in and went over it with a CORFU
gated packer. What rye there was
left acted as a shade to the little
alfalfa plants from the hot sun
S1uu hcpI UIle SdIlu lrOl1 uflIClnS so
much, and he was very well pleas
ed with his results.
Over south of Princeton in Mile
Laos county, so acres of alfalfa
were put in on piece of ground
that had been spring plowed, rolled
and narrowed, keeping dust
mulch and firming down the seed
bed. Two tons of limestone were
spread per acre, and the alfalfa
was seeded during rainy spell
about the 26th of June. The field
after the alfalfa (which had been
inoculated with the bacteria from
a commercial inoculation) was
seeded, was gone over with a har-
row and a corrugated roller, and
this field developed, an extra good
stand of alfalfa, with the excep-
ton of a few spots where it seem
ed the lime had not been on long
enough to react with the acidity in
the soil because the sandy soil was
tl.,xr ~, %bo Iva w..