and area to those much superior feed-producing crops, alfalfa, clover 

 and corn. 



Roots That Resist Drought 



Lecturers on alfalfa spend half their time on alfalfa roots, which 

 seem to grow deeper and deeper. Some enthusiasts are not satisfied 

 until they have them reaching clear through to China and involving 

 us in international difficulties! Of course, this could occur only 

 with very old fields! 



Fig. 7. Alfalfa Enriches the Soil. 



Tall corn, average growth on alfalfa sod. Short corn, average growth 

 on timothy sod. Both the timothy and alfalfa sods of this field were three 

 years old, plowed and planted to corn at the same time and in the same way. 

 Photo taken in July. 



But the feeding system of the alfalfa plant is wonderful. Why 

 is it that alfalfa grows so fast often an inch a day? Why is it that 

 alfalfa produces three crops a season and in the long-seasoned climate 

 of the Southwest five or six crops? 



It is because the plant is equipped with a root system equaled by 

 no other crop. I have seen plants in an alfalfa field in its second 

 year with roots that averaged four feet long. Plants in same field 

 when three years old had a root growth of more than seven feet. It 

 is claimed that out West roots have attained depths of more than 

 fifty feet, but the subsoil was loose. 



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