One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture AnsweredWickson, Edward J. (Edward James)
Science
One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered
Wickson, Edward J. (Edward James)
Agriculture -- California
Alfalfa is grown all through the valleys and foothills of interior
California; also to a certain extent in coast valleys. On suitable
lands, three crops can sometimes be secured without irrigation, while
twice or three times as many cuttings are secured on irrigated lands
where the frost-free season is particularly long. According to the last
census, we are growing alfalfa on 19,104 farms with a total acreage of
484,098. The total value of the product is over $13,000,000. Corn is
widely grown, but is small as compared with alfalfa. It is grown in
alfalfa districts and in coast valleys where there is not much done with
alfalfa.
Sowing Alfalfa.
What is the proper time to sow alfalfa? Some advocate fall and others
spring sowing. What seasons are given for each sowing?
We shall undoubtedly soon get to sowing alfalfa all the year round
except in the short season of sharp frosts and cold wet ground in
November, December and January. If you can get a good start in September
and October, all right; if not, wait until February and March, according
to the season. Where it is never very cold or wet, sow whenever moisture
is right. There never can be any rule about it, for localities will
differ.
Foxtail and Alfalfa.
Will foxtail choke out and exterminate alfalfa? Some fields look as
though the foxtail had crowded the alfalfa out, but I hold that the
alfalfa died from some other cause and the foxtail merely took its
place.
Foxtail will not choke out alfalfa, providing, soil and moisture
conditions are right for the latter, and a good stand of plant has been
secured. If anything is wrong with the alfalfa, the foxtail will be on
the alert to take advantage of it. You will always have foxtail with
you, and considerable quantities of it, perhaps, in the first cutting,
because foxtail will grow at a lower temperature than alfalfa, and,
therefore, will keep very busy during the rainy season, while the
alfalfa is more or less dormant, but as the heat increases, if the soil
is good and moisture ample, the alfalfa will put the foxtail out of
sight until the following winter invites it to make another aggressive
growth. Therefore, we answer that alfalfa does not die from foxtail, but
from some condition unfavorable to the alfalfa, which must be sought in
the soil, or in the moisture supply, or traced back to bad seed, and a
poor stand at the beginning.
Which Alfalfa is Best?
I have in Stanislaus county ten acres of Arabian alfalfa, which was sown
the first week in April this year. It was clipped in July and irrigated.
It is now about 14 inches high, but looks sickly, turns white at the
tips, and some dies down. There are several places here with the Arabian
alfalfa on them and with the same trouble, while the ordinary variety is
looking fine by the side of it.
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