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Wickson, Edward J. (Edward James), 1848-1923

"One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered"

What seasons are given for each sowing?
We shall undoubtedly soon get to sowing alfalfa all the year round
except in the short season of sharp frosts and cold wet ground in
November, December and January. If you can get a good start in September
and October, all right; if not, wait until February and March, according
to the season. Where it is never very cold or wet, sow whenever moisture
is right. There never can be any rule about it, for localities will
differ.

Foxtail and Alfalfa.

Will foxtail choke out and exterminate alfalfa? Some fields look as
though the foxtail had crowded the alfalfa out, but I hold that the
alfalfa died from some other cause and the foxtail merely took its
place.
Foxtail will not choke out alfalfa, providing, soil and moisture
conditions are right for the latter, and a good stand of plant has been
secured. If anything is wrong with the alfalfa, the foxtail will be on
the alert to take advantage of it. You will always have foxtail with
you, and considerable quantities of it, perhaps, in the first cutting,
because foxtail will grow at a lower temperature than alfalfa, and,
therefore, will keep very busy during the rainy season, while the
alfalfa is more or less dormant, but as the heat increases, if the soil
is good and moisture ample, the alfalfa will put the foxtail out of
sight until the following winter invites it to make another aggressive
growth.


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