Alfalfa in New York. 395 



some good men have condemned alfalfa because of their contempt 

 for western irrigation schemes. 



The alfalfa which we are growing in New York is Medicago 

 Sativa: Lncern or Purple Medick. The name alfalfa is probably of 

 Arabic origin, and came to Mexico with the plant with the Span- 

 iards, and later this name followed it up and down the Pacific 

 coast. The name Lucern is evidently of Prench derivation, and 

 has nothing to do with the province of Lucerne in Switzerland as 

 the plant is of but recent introduction here, and the gentlemen 

 who brought the seed to the eastern coast of America 100 to 150 

 years ago all called it lucern. It is difficult to decide what section 

 of the world alfalfa is a native of. It is found in Persia (Media), 

 in fact in all parts of western Asia, it is found growing wild in 

 roadsides, abandoned fields and out-of-the-way places, just as sweet 

 clover grows here. There is no doubt, however, that it was 

 introduced into Greece as early as 500 to 450 B. C, during some 

 of the early Persian wars. It seems evident too that the grand 

 Iioman meadows, from which slaves used to weed the " wild 

 grasses " were of lucern. Pecords of these are found dating as far 

 back as the first and second centuries. 



Columella in writing of the methods of these old Pomans says: 

 * " They chose out the best land, that was both Pinguis and Putris; 

 they dunged it, and tilled it to the greatest perfection and laid it 

 out in beds, as for asparagus, and sowed the seed very thick for 

 the miserable reason of enabling the plants by their thickness to 

 better kill the grass. 



" The beds being harrowed very fine, before sowing which was 

 at the end of April, the seed required to be speedily covered, lest 

 the sun's heat should spoil it, but not with an iron tool, for the 

 place must not be touched with iron. Medica seed must be covered 

 not with the plow, but with little wooden harrows. Some lime af- 

 ter it came up, this scratching was repeated with the same wooden 

 instruments. This was called Sarrition; then by Runcation they 

 weeded it over and over: Ne aUcrius generis herba invalidam 

 medicam pcrimat, lest other grass should kill it whilst it was weak. 

 The first crop they let stand 'til some of the seed scattered, to fill 

 the ground yet fuller of plants. After that it could be cut young, 

 as they pleased, but they must be sure to water it often after cut- 

 ting. This was done largely by slaves as was the weeding. The 

 weeding was repeated after each cutting, and by these methods 

 four to six crops were cut each year for 10 years." 



