gh in the drained or undrained form, as the
case may be, and may be made to supersede them without breaking the
land, but more commonly on these it is sown after the natural sod has
been broken and has decayed somewhat, by growing on it some such crop as
rape or flax. On these lands it is usually grown in long rotations for
pasture and also for hay, and when the sod is again plowed, it is
followed by corn, potatoes, rape, and grains grown for soiling uses,
since such land has naturally high adaptation for these. Flax also is a
favorite crop to sow in such situations after alsike clover.

=Preparing the Soil.=--The preparation of the land for alsike clover on
ordinary soils is the same as for medium red clover. (See page 74.)
Usually, that degree of fineness in the pulverization which best
prepares the soil for the nurse crop with which alsike clover is sown,
will also best prepare it for the alsike. But there may be some
instances, as in strong clays, when a fine pulverization that would
suffice for the needs of the nurse crop would be advantageous to the
alsike. This finer pulverization can only be secured by the judicious
use of the roller and the harrow. In loose-lying soils, more especially
in areas where the precipitation in winter comes in the form of snow,
and, therefore, does not wash the land as it does when it falls as rain,
if the land on which alsike is to be sown is plowed in the fall, and
only harrowed in the spring, or cultivated and harrowed when preparing
it, the moisture will be better conserved than if it were plowed in the
spring. When thus managed, strong clays in the area under consideration
will usually have a much finer pulverization than can be obtained from
spring plowing. When the preceding crop has been given clean
cultivation, to plow land subsequently before sowing to alsike would
bring up many weed seeds to the surface, where they would at once begin
to grow. On slough lands, where water saturation is present during a
portion of the year, even to the extent of appearing for a short
interval over more or less of the surface, the seed may be sown without
any previous preparation of the land, and in some instances
successfully. In other instances it will fail should the following
summer prove adverse. The stand is rendered much more certain in such
instances by first burning off the grass, sowing the seed upon it,
covering it more or less with the harrow and running the mower over the
ground,