CULTURE OF ALFALFA OR LUCERNE. 187 



CULTURE 



OF 



ALFALFA OR LUCERNE, 



(Medicago sativa.) 



(Written by Peter Henderson for the United States Agricultural 

 Report for 1884.) 



IN a country so wide spread and diversified as the 

 United States, it is not to be wondered at that a crop 

 that is valued in some localities is unknown in others. 

 But it is somewhat surprising that, in many of the South- 

 ern States, where the want of forage is so much felt, the 

 culture of a plant so admirably adapted for their soil and 

 climate has so long been neglected. In a visit to Florida 

 in February, 1883, I was impressed, as every Northern 

 man must be, with the utter dearth of forage plants, and, 

 as a consequence, the hungry and meager, starved-look- 

 ing cattle. To my inquiries everywhere, the same reply 

 was given, that no good grass or clover could be found 

 to stand the heat and drought of their long summers. 

 Fortunately, in alluding, to the subject, while in the 

 company of Mr. R. Bronson, of St. Augustine, Florida, 

 he promptly showed a practical solution of the difficulty, 

 by taking me to a patch of Alfalfa, about twenty-five feet 

 by one hundred, or only about the one-sixteenth part of 

 an acre. From that little patch, Mr. B. assured me that 

 he had fed a cow during the summer months, getting as 

 fine milk and butter as he ever got North; and further 



