TRANSACTIONS OF STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 99 



careful selection. In the writer's opinion it is as near perfect a forage 

 plant as it is possible to obtain for this valley. 



Growth. — Alfalfa is a deep feeder and sends its roots to a depth of ten 

 or twelve feet if moisture is not sooner reached, provided the subsoil is 

 permeable. It will grow in any favorable soil from sea level to 7,000 

 feet elevation. It grows best in sandy loams, such as comprise the bulk 

 of the soils of this valley. It will not thrive in soils which contain an 

 excess of iron. It feeds most heavily on lime, potash, magnesium, and 

 phosphoric acid. Of these elements, lime is the most essential, and 

 when it becomes exhausted in the soil the fact is shown in the decreased 

 yield of alfalfa. Where surface irrigation is practiced, this condition is 

 often reached by the lime being leached out by the abundance of irriga- 

 tion water used, rather than by the plant taking it from the soil. As 

 soon as the field shows the lack of lime by decreased yield, the remedy 

 is gypsum, which is sulphate of lime, and is in the market at a reason- 

 able price, being mined and brought from the mountain range bounding 

 the valley on the west, where large quantities are known to exist. 



Gypsum should be sown over the field during the winter so that the 

 rains may dissolve and wash it into the soil. Do not use stable manure 

 for alfalfa. It will stimulate the growth, but is worth too much for the 

 peach orchard to waste in this way. Gypsum is better, and a person 

 never having used it will be surprised at the results of the first applica- 

 tion. 



A Manure Plant. — From the preceding remarks it must not be under- 

 stood that alfalfa is a crop that is exhausting to the soil. On the 

 contrary, it is a soil-renovator or soil-builder. It belongs to that class 

 of plants known as nitrogen gatherers, as the following extracts show: 



The legumes, to which family alfalfa and all the clovers belong, are able to draw 

 nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. Other families of plants, for instance the true 

 grasses, are unable to take up any nitrogen, except such as may be in soluble form in 

 the soil. Hence alfalfa and its relatives are the best plants that can be grown by the 

 farmer, for they manufacture large quantities of this most valuable and expensive 

 fertilizing element. 



By raising alfalfa the farmer not only provides an excellent quality, as well as a 

 large quantity of forage for his domestic animals, but he is at the same time enriching 

 his fields, and doing it with a fertilizer which, if purchased in the market, would cost 

 a great deal of money. When this crop is plowed under, or is fed to stock, and the 

 manure returned to the land, it supplies a large quantity of nitrogen which is especially 

 valuable for small grains, grasses, and root crops, and which the latter are unable to 

 obtain for themselves. 



Fruit After Alfalfa. — No better preparation for an orchard or vineyard 

 can be made than to sow the land for a year or two in alfalfa. In addi- 

 tion to the nitrogen which is added to the soil, the roots open deep holes 

 or channels from the surface to moisture, which the tree or vine roots at 

 once follow down, which gives a deep-root system not so well attained 



