American variety. The original stock was brought from Spain to 

 Chile and from there it was introduced into California during the 

 gold-rush days, about 1854. Since then it has spread all through 

 the West and today it is the great commercial alfalfa of the United 

 States. 



It is an excellent variety a good producer fairly hardy, with a 

 desirable erect and upright growing habit. 



On the market the seed is offered as "Montana grown," "Kansas 

 grown," "Dakota grown," and so on, depending upon the state 

 in which it was produced. There is a preference for common alfalfa 

 seed from the Northern States, and in years of a big crop the North- 

 ern-grown alfalfa seed sells for two to four dollars more a bushel 

 than seed produced in Kansas and Nebraska, because it is claimed 

 to be hardier. 



Kansas as Good as Montana Seed 



I have tried out alfalfa seed from all these states, and in numerous 

 co-operative tests throughout Wisconsin I have found alfalfa from 

 Kansas and Nebraska seed as hardy and productive in every re- 

 spect as that from the common seed produced in the Dakotas or 

 Montana. 



As stated before, winterkilling is not due to extremely low tem- 

 peratures so much as it is to alternate freezing and thawing with 

 little or no snow covering for protection of the alfalfa. Surely al- 

 falfa in Kansas and Nebraska is put to the test of just such injurious 

 winter weather. * t -H 



Though I have not tried alfalfa seed from every seed-producing 

 county of the states mentioned, the matter of the locality in which 

 the seed was produced seems to be of far less importance than has 

 been previously supposed. The fact is that all common alfalfa is 

 liable to serious winterkilling, whether it be from Kansas or Mon- 

 tana 'grown seed, especially in those years when snow does not pro- 

 tect it. 



When Common Alfalfa Winterkills 



In June, 1914, I seeded sixteen separate plots with various strains 

 of alfalfa seed coming from Kansas, Nebraska, Montana and the 

 Dakotas. Excellent stands were obtained in 1915. But the winter 

 of 1915-16 took its toll. Only four of those plots came through in 

 excellent shape. 



Fifty-five per cent of the plants in the several Dakota and Mon- 

 tana plots were killed. Last summer (1916) those plots yielded in 

 two cuttings only 3842 pounds an acre of cured alfalfa hay. The two 

 Kansas and Nebraska plots winterkilled fifty-two per cent, but 

 yielded 4470 pounds of cured hay an acre in two cuttings. 



The four banner plots were seeded with seed of the variegated 

 varieties of alfalfa two with Grimm and two with Baltic. The 

 average winterkilling for these four plots was only twenty-seven per 

 cent and the remaining plants spread out so rapidly and so early in 

 the spring that this injury was not even perceptible. These four 

 plots averaged 6045 pounds of cured hay an acre in two cuttings 

 a ton more than the common kinds that had been seeded under 

 identically the same conditions. (See Pig. 48.) 



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