Title: The book of alfalfa; history, cultivation and merits. Its uses as a forage and fertilizer
Abstract: HAS ALWAYS BEEN KNOWNThere appears no record of a time when alfalfa was not in some portions of the world esteemed one of Nature's most generous benefactions to husbandry and an important feature of a profitable agriculture.Its beginning seems to have been contemporary with that of man, and, as with man, its first habitat was central Asia, where the progenitors of our race knew its capabilities in sustaining all herbivorous animal life, and where, possibly, it too afforded the herbage which sustained Nebuchadnezzar in his humiliating exile, and eventually restored him to sanity and manhood.It was carried by the Persians into Greece with the invasion by Xerxes in 490 B. C., utilized by the Romans in their conquest of Greece, and carried to Rome in 146 B. C. Pliny and other writers praise it as a forage plant and it has been in cultivation in parts of Italy continuously from its introduction.Some writers are disposed to aver that it was brought to Spain and France by the Roman soldiery under Czsar and early thereafter, but THE BOOK OF ALFALFA more probably it was not introduced into those counties until several centuries later.It is known to have been cultivated in Northern Africa about the time it was first brought to Italy; and the name "alfalfa" being Arabic the inference might be reasonable that it was introduced into Spain by the Moors from Northern Africa at the time of their conquest of Spain about 711 A. D., but this is of small consequence to the twentieth century.From Spain it crossed to France, and later to Belgium and England.It was highly spoken of by an English writer of the fifteenth century.AMERICA INDEBTED TO SPAIN But in those ages Europe was not so much interested in agriculture as in war.Land tenures were not well fixed and ownerships were uncertain.Spain, however, was to perform at least two important services for half the world, if none for herself.She was to reveal to civilization a new continent, and give to it the most valuable forage plant ever known.And so, in 1519, Cortes, the Spaniard, and his remorseless brigands carried murder, rapine and havoc to Mexico, but gave alfalfa.Less than a score years later Spain also wrote in Peru and Chili some of the bloodiest pages of human history, but left alfalfa there, where it has since luxuriantly flourished.If it was brought to the Atlantic coast of the United States in that century, it was not adopted by the Indian inhabitants, who were not an agricultural people, nor by the early European settlers.It was not until about 1853 or 1854 that it was introduced into northern California, the legends say from Chili, but it had been grown by the Spaniards and Seeds of the Weed Known as Buck-horn, Ribbed plantain, English plantain, or Rib-grass, (Plaxtago lanceolata).Nery commonly present in alfalfa seed, especially that of European origin.A bad weed.Magnification five diameters.Alfalfa Seeds Magnified Five Diameters Note the characteristic angular point at one end, typical of alfalfa.The kidneyshaped type, as in ''a'' is also characteristic.The rounded type ''b'' is rare, and resembles Sweet clover.Seeds marked ''c'' and ''d'' resemble Yellow trefoil in the projecting ''beak.''I4 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA W. R. Dodson, botanist of the Louisiana station, saysit is his firm conviction that nothing will contribute so much as alfalfa toward making the southern farm selfsupplied with feed for work animals, for the production of dairy products, and home raised meat."I doubt," he also says, "if alfalfa does better anywhere outside the irrigated regions of the West than it does in the alluvial lands of Louisiana.We have had as high as eight cuttings in one year, with a total tonnage larger than is had in Kansas or Nebraska, and our annual rainfall is sixtyfive inches, or more."From Ontario, Canada, comes a report of a yield of four tons to the acre in three cuttings, on a clay hillside; at far-off Medicine Hat, Northwest Territory, it makes a growth pronounced "phenomenal," and at the experimental farm at Brandon, Manitoba, three cuttings per year are harvested.On a gravelly hill in the District of Columbia, a field was sown in April, 1900.Two crops were cut from it that summer, three in 1901, and the first cutting in 1902 yielded three tons per acre.In southern Minnesota, some thrifty Germans, not knowing that "alfalfa will not grow in Minnesota," have been raising it since 1872, while others were declaring it 1mpossible.A half-score of men in the sagebrush wilds of Nevada decided to try it, and in 1872 they had 625 prosperous acres, without plowing and without irrigation.J. H. Grisdale, agriculturist of the Central experimental farm at Ottawa, (Bul.No. 46) says, "it is grown in Canada more or less extensively from the Atlantic to the Pacific.It is the staple forage plant for winter in the dryer part of British Columbia, and it has been grown in UNIVERSALITY OF ALFALFA I5 YIELDS AND COMPARISONS WITH OTHER CROPS 23 a May crops, 30 tons at $12......... eee $360Seas nishels Of seed at $6.....