The endurance of the plant will depend much upon its having a
chance to root deeply before the drouth comes on.
Inoculating Alfalfa.
Is it profitable to inoculate alfalfa seed before planting to increase
its yield? Can it be done by leaching soil from old alfalfa ground,
providing it has been plowed up and allowed to stand for a year? Are
commercial inoculants a safe thing to inoculate with?
Apparently alfalfa does not need inoculation in this State. Probably not
one acre in ten thousand now profitably growing alfalfa has ever had
artificial introduction of germs. You can make germ-tea, if you wish, of
the soil you describe; one year's exposure would not destroy the germs.
It is safe enough to use commercial cultures. You will have to decide
for yourself whether it is worth while.
Irrigating Alfalfa.
I am making parallel ridges for alfalfa, sending a full head of water
down to the end of the field between each ridge. Should I calculate the
lands to be mowed one at a time in even swaths? The mower being 5-foot
cut, would you count on cutting a 4 1/2 or 5-foot swath? This soil is
sandy, water percolating rapidly. The fall is 8 feet to the mile. How
wide, then, would you advise making the ridges to suit the mower, and to
flood economically, using from 2 to 4 cubic feet per second? The length
of the lands is across 40 acres.
Growing alfalfa in long parallel checks, to be flooded between the
levees, is the way in which much alfalfa is being put in at the present
time where the land has such a slope as you indicate.
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