VARIATE, YET UNIFORM
In this double title we have a case of the widest variations and the most positive and rigid uniformity. Alfalfa may be grown in almost every possible kind of soil and under almost all soil conditions (save two), but omitting these the seeding, including the tilth of the ground, is based, so far as any future success is concerned, on perfect cultivation. The dictum, “Alfalfa must have a dry, warm, sandy loam, very rich” has become obsolete, as already pointed out.
There are just two soil conditions that seem absolutely against the growth of alfalfa. The first is a soil constantly wet. The common remark, “Alfalfa will not stand ‘wet feet’,” seems to be the expression of a law. It does not do well where the water is nearer to the surface than six feet, or where in winter water will stand on the ground for over forty-eight hours. This invariably smothers the plants; in fact it usually kills any crop. If water flows over the field for some such time, due to a freshet, the alfalfa is often found uninjured if too much soil has not been deposited on and around the plants. Even in such instances fields have been saved by a disking once or twice, but it is wholly unwise to sow on a field subject to overflow, or one where water rises to the surface in winter or spring; likewise on a field so flat that water will not run off in time of a heavy rain or promptly drain out through the sub-surface. The time is rapidly coming everywhere when the intelligent farmer will not try to raise any crop on such a field, undrained. The alfalfa roots will find their way to moisture if given the right surface conditions. There are profitable alfalfa meadows in parts of Kansas where it is eighty feet to water, but there has not yet been found one that is prosperous where water comes close to the surface, or where it stands on the ground in winter.
Three General Types of Alfalfa Seed
The right-hand column, kidney-shaped, a characteristic form, but not so common as the type in the central column. The left-hand column approaches more nearly the rounded type of Sweet clover. Magnification five diameters
Dodder Seed Magnified
Alfalfa Seed Magnified
The other kind of soil where alfalfa refuses to grow is that in which there is too much acidity. This is often the case where corn and wheat have been raised for many years, thus robbing the soil of much lime; a condition that may be remedied by an application of lime to the land just before sowing the alfalfa, harrowing it in beforehand or, if the seed is to be broadcasted, the lime may be applied just before sowing, when once harrowing will suffice for both, or it may be sown with a drill—500 to 1000 pounds per acre.
A simple test for acidity is to make a deep cut in the ground with a knife, pressing the earth slightly apart; then push a piece of litmus paper into the opening and press the earth together. Leave the paper there for a few hours. If upon examination the litmus paper has a pink appearance it is proof of acidity, and this, as already said, may best be remedied with lime.