THE MONTHLY BULLETIN 



ALFALFA. 



Address, State Fruit Growers' Convention, San Jose, California, December 2-4, 1913. 

 By A. J. Cook, State Commissioner of Horticulture, Sacramento, Cal. 



If, as is stated, the word "alfalfa" signifies "best fodder," it is truly 

 an apt term, as alfalfa is indeed a wonderful forage crop. For both 

 pasture and hay it is without a rival. Its great root system, often 

 pushing down to a depth of thirty feet or more, secures from the soil a 

 wealth of nutritive food material that no other plant is able to obtain. 

 This accounts for its marvelous growth and production. Think of eight 

 or even nine or ten crops a season and twelve tons per acre in a single 

 year, and you have a conception of what alfalfa can do. On my own 

 alfalfa farm, alfalfa sown in April produced a crop of hay that same 

 year that staggers belief. If there is any other crop comparable with 

 this, I have not learned of it. Indian corn at its best is a marvel, pro- 

 ducing fifteen or twenty tons per acre in a season, but this only in the 

 uncured state. As dry, or cured forage, it is far eclipsed by alfalfa. 

 Alfalfa yields four or five times the quantity of food in pounds that 

 the red clover of the East produces, and surpasses timothy hay to even 

 a greater extent. 



The deep rooting of this wonderful forage plant lias other significance. 

 The pushing down of the tap root acts as a cultivator and permits air 

 and moisture to reach down deeply into the earth, and makes the soil 

 more alive ; it also utilizes potash and phosphates, which would otherwise 

 be beneath the feeding rootlets. This with the ability of alfalfa to com- 

 bine the free nitrogen of the air explains why alfalfa is indirectly a 

 complete fertilizer. Its deep and ample root system explains why it is 

 grown successfully without irrigation in some arid regions with a rain- 

 fall of only fourteen inches, and gives remarkable crops in the Gulf 

 States wnth an annual rainfall of over sixty inches. 



Alfalfa is also peculiar and unique in its chemical composition. Its 

 nitrogen content makes it comparable with bran as a valuable food. 

 Eleven pounds of alfalfa is equal in food value to ten pounds of bran. 

 For both beef and butter it is a very superior food. It is asserted that 

 a ton of alfalfa leaves contains as much protein as do 2,800 pounds of 

 bran. It leads all forage crops in its large amount of digestible pro- 

 tein. We know that protein, so abundant in cheese and the muscle of 

 meat, is the most expensive food element. Analysis shows that 10.000 

 pounds of alfalfa contain as much protein as do 9,016 pounds of wheat 

 bran and as much as do 16.176 pounds of red clover hay. Though so 

 rich and valuable a food, alfalfa is not in itself a well balanced ration. 

 It is too rich in protein and lacking in carbohydrates. By adding corn- 

 meal, or other starchy grains, it becomes a most excellent food, with no 

 other addition. 



From the above statement we see that alfalfa must also be a good 

 manurial crop. Doctor Hilgard says it is worth $8.00 or more per ton 

 F imply to plow under. Dr. C. G. Hopkins told us at Santa Barbara 

 that it might very likely pay the California orchardist to raise alfalfa 

 to use solely as a fertilizer — that it might pay as well to use it to give 



