The management of the spring-sown crop the first season requires careful attention in areas where the hazard exists in any considerable degree that the plants may take serious harm at that season, or, indeed, fail altogether. In Western areas, from Canada to Kentucky and Missouri, it is important that the stubbles of the grain shall be cut high, amid which alfalfa grows when it is sown with a nurse crop. When not thus sown, it is of prime importance that the plants shall stand up several inches above the surface of the ground before the advent of winter. This is specially important in States west of the Mississippi River. The objects effected are three-fold. First, the snow is arrested and held for the protection of the plants, and to furnish them with moisture when the snow melts. The extent to which the stubbles and the erect young alfalfa plants will hold snow is simply surprising. On the exposed prairies, the snow usually drifts so completely from unprotected lands, that during almost any winter a large proportion of the area will be quite bare. The melting of the snow thus held is also of much value to the crop in the moisture which it brings to it, especially in areas where the rainfall is less than normal. Second, the plants are thus protected from the sweep of the cold winds which blow so much of the season in the unprotected prairie, and which are frequently fatal to various winter crops. Third, they are also protected from the intensity of the frost, which may in some instances kill young alfalfa plants in areas northward. In the Northern States east of Minnesota, the New England States, and the provinces of Canada east of Lake Huron, the considerable covering on the ground is not so important, relatively, to protect the plants against the coming winter, but it is also of considerable importance, as sometimes the early snows melt so completely that the fields are left bare in midwinter. The warm temperatures which melt the snow may be followed by a cold wave, which may be greatly injurious to the plants. There may be instances, as where the snow usually falls very deeply, in which the covering left would prove excessive, and so tend to smother the plants; hence, sometimes it may be necessary to guard against too much covering. If the plants should lack age or vigor on entering the first winter, a top-dressing of farmyard manure will render great service in protecting them. This, however, is only practicable with comparatively limited areas. It is sometimes practiced in the North Atlantic States, where the manure thus applied will prove greatly helpful to the growth of the alfalfa during the following season. These precautions to guard against the severity of winter weather are not nearly so necessary in the Rocky Mountain States where irrigation is practiced. In these, alfalfa spring sown is sometimes pastured during the following winter, and without any great harm to the crop. Thus greatly do conditions vary.