RESEEDING
If it is a question of reseeding the whole field, the problem is simple. In that case disk and harrow the ground and sow half as much seed as was sowed at first. But to restore bare spots is more difficult; the young plants from the reseeding in these spots will be shaded by the larger growth about them, and such reseeding seldom gives the desired results. There is no doubt that very many fields are given up as failures and inferior crops planted in them, when a thorough disking would have renewed the growth, saved a crop, and, what is more important, a stand of alfalfa. Many reports have come to the writer of fields that had little sign of life the first of March, yet when thoroughly disked, cross-disked and harrowed, surprised the neighborhood by showing in two weeks a strong growth.
Some wishing to be on the safe side, have sown a little seed after this heavy disking and harrowing, but many of them have reported an entire loss of the seed, as the plants from the previous sowing came up so thick as to choke out those from the later seeding. In some states a common plan of thickening a stand is to let the third crop ripen seed, and then about the last of September disk and harrow the seed into the ground where it grew. This frequently saves the stand and adds many years to its life. But where a field begins to fail after a third year it is usually better to plow it up and raise one or two crops of corn, a crop of oats or of millet, and then reseed.