DISKING
The foremost method of cultivation is with the disk harrow, one of the most excellent farm implements ever invented. Alfalfa sown in the fall is almost invariably helped by disking the following spring, with the disks set quite straight, so as not to cut the crowns but to split them. It is usually well to follow this disking with a tooth harrow, with its teeth set straight. Occasionally in a dry summer the disk may be used to great advantage after the second, and possibly the third, cutting also. Many disk their alfalfa field every spring, and some after each cutting, others do so only once in every two or three years, owing to weather conditions and the conditions of the alfalfa. In some instances the common harrow is used instead of a disk.
The disking has several beneficial effects. It splits and spreads the crowns, causing more and consequently finer stems to spring up, affording hay of the most delightful quality, easily cured; it loosens the soil about the crowns, conserves moisture and destroys the weeds. There need be no fear of killing the plants if the disks and the harrow-teeth are set straight and weighted or otherwise adjusted to give direct and steady forward movement. As an implement for the cultivation and invigoration of an alfalfa field the disk harrow has no equal, and its frequent use is by those who know it best deemed quite indispensable.