212 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



TIIK BOTANICAL HISTORY OF SAND LUCERNE. 



(Medicago media, 1'ers.) 



'There has been a difference of opinion, among European botanists, in regard to 

 the relationship of sand lucerne to other lucernes or alfalfas, viz.: Mcdicago sativa, 

 ordinary alfalfa, and yellow lucerne, Mcdicago falcala. Alefcld and other botanists 

 unite common alfalfa, sand lucerne, and yellow lucerne into a single species. Some 

 botanists look upon alfalfa and yellow lucerne as distinct species and consider sand 

 lucerne as a hybrid between them. Others regard them as distinct species. The three 

 forms differ so widely in agricultural value and other characters that they cannot 

 bo treated together." 



The ordinary characters between alfalfa and sand lucerne are easily recognizable 

 when the two are grown side by side. 



The stiff habit of alfalfa differs from the more spreading habit of sand lucerne. 

 The flowers of the former are bluish to violet-purple, while those of the latter range 

 from bluish and purple to lemon yellow, with many intermediate shades. The pods 

 of alfalfa are coiled in about two turns, while those of sand lucerne are in three-fourths 

 of one coil. The seeds of the sand lucerne are lighter than those of the alfalfa. Eive 

 hundred seeds of sand lucerne weigh from 0.8 to 0.9 grams, while the same number 

 of seeds of common alfalfa weigh from 1.0 to 1.037 grams. 



Owing to the extremely close resemblance of the sand lucerne to our common alfalfa, 

 not only in its manner of growth and botanical characters, but in its chemical and 

 physical characteristics, the author has employed a few references to results from the 

 culture and feeding of alfalfa in discussing the sand lucerne, fully realizing that the 

 further study of these two closely related plants may reveal many differences not yet 

 known. 



As a honey crop alfalfa is regarded as particularly valuable. Hunter, in Contrib. 

 Ent. Lab. Univ. Kansas, 1899, No. G5, gives testimony as to the excellence of the quality 

 of honey obtained from alfalfa, and in return for the honey, records an experiment 

 where the honey bees increased the seed crop by G6% per cent over fields not visited by 

 the bees. To grow it, however, as a honey crop would be practical only where the crop is 

 to be used later for seed, for in the growing of lucerne hay, the crop is harvested before 

 tlie blossoms are out sufficient for the bees to secure nectar. 



Like the alfalfa the sand lucerne is a deep-rooted perennial plant, sending its tap 

 roots to distances of twelve, fifteen, or even more, feet into the ground, with numerous 

 large branching roots which seem to increase and multiply as the plant grows older. 

 In the fall of 1899 some two-year-old plants were traced in light sandy soil to the 

 depth of seven and one-half feet, where the tap root was one-eighth of an inch in diameter. 

 Like the alfalfa, it prefers the loose sandy sub-soil and seems to thrive best where the 

 water is a considerable distance from the surface. It has the special advantage over 

 al f;il fa of being able to withstand the severe winters of Michigan climate, while the 

 alfalfa is very easily killed out. It is said of the alfalfa, too, that it is liable to be 

 crowded out by June grass, sorrel and other weeds. So far no difficulty of this nature 

 has been noticed with the sand lucerne seedings. It is quite probable that instead of the 

 weeds running out the alfalfa, the alfalfa has been killed during the severe winter and 

 the weeds have simply taken its place. It makes a somewhat slow growth, similar to 

 the red clover, during the first season, and is not to be depended upon for a crop until 

 the second year. Some plants from seed sown at the Experiment Station farm at 

 Chatham, Alger county, Upper Peninsula, on June G, 1901, produced plants with tap 

 roots over eighteen inclies long, and the stems thirty-six inches above the ground when 

 they were harvested on August 31 of the same year. On the Experiment Station farm 

 at the College the growth for a similar period was twenty-three inches of stalk, the 

 roots were not measured. 



In the successful growing of the lucernes, aside, from furnishing the necessary mineral 

 elements to the soil, the plants must have access to a liberal supply of water, but in order 

 to insure the thorough establishment of the root system in a deep volume of soil, it is 

 especially important that the water table be not nearer than one or two feet from the 



* The Best Forage Plants, Steblev and Schroeter, p. 147. 



