In many parts of the country Crab grass (_Panicum sanguinale_) is the plant or weed that most persistently interferes with the prosperity of alfalfa during its first year, and frequent mowing is the remedy most recommended and resorted to, but there are growers who maintain that such treatment is not best. An extensive and very successful grower in southern Kansas tells the author repeated experience has demonstrated to his satisfaction that the advice to mow alfalfa frequently during the first summer may under some circumstances be quite wrong. If the season happens to be wet, and there is a rank growth of Crab grass, frequent mowing causes the Crab grass to set in a close sod and smother out the alfalfa. He says: “My practice has been, under these conditions, to let the Crab grass grow with the alfalfa until matured, before mowing. The young alfalfa will usually keep its head out sufficiently to breathe, and will survive until the Crab grass is matured and all is cut. If allowed to mature, the Crab grass will not start a second time, and the alfalfa immediately springs up and occupies the ground. Where the Crab grass is very rank it may sometimes be blown down in spots and smother out some alfalfa, but even under these conditions one will have a much better stand than is possible by repeated mowings. This is not mere theory, but has been proven correct by frequent experience and close observation of the other method during the same seasons.” Something similar may be said of Witch-grass (_Panicum capillare_), which, however, is less obnoxious than the Crab grass, because of not having the habit of rooting at the joints. In many parts of the country Crab grass (_Panicum sanguinale_) is the plant or weed that most persistently as to make burning in the spring seem the most feasible means of getting rid of them, and fire is resorted to. Prof. A. M. Ten Eyck says he has seen this done a number of times without injury to the alfalfa crowns. He, however, recommends disking after burning, to loosen the exposed soil and leave the surface generally in a better condition. Sowing additional seed on the ground before such disking may do much to improve and thicken the stand. The editor of the _Nebraska Farmer_ has been collecting information on alfalfa culture from every section of the United States for the past ten years, and as a result of this work unhesitatingly advances the opinion that “nine-tenths of the failures with alfalfa have been due to failure or neglect to cut it as should have been done when young. This is the law of alfalfa culture; it must be cut down. And the man who has not the courage, morally and physically, to use a mowing machine persistently had best pass by alfalfa culture. It takes moral courage to cut baby alfalfa; but it must be cut down to save it.” MANURING