PREFACE. 



NOWHERE are conditions more favorable to the profitable production 

 of alfalfa than in Kansas. The rise in importance of this legume 

 is one of the wonders of our agriculture. Its advent was epochal in the 

 state's history. That it has contributed handsomely to the present-day 

 affluence of the Kansas farmer can not be gainsaid; that it will be more 

 largely depended upon in the future is certain. Appreciating the ad- 

 vantages of alfalfa, the husbandmen of Kansas confidently look forward 

 to broader expansion in the possibilities of our agriculture, to increased 

 per capita wealth and enhanced land values, to better homes and 

 greater comforts. 



While the plant is now held in universal esteem, the fact is recalled that 

 during the first years of its introduction there was much diversity of 

 opinion as to the real value of alfalfa. New and strange to our agri- 

 culture, its entrance to Kansas quite naturally was not met with a spon- 

 taneous and unanimous welcome. It had, to be sure, its staunch advocates, 

 but there were many who deemed it of doubtful worth and by some it 

 was promptly rejected. So late as 1887 one of the correspondents of the 

 State Board of Agriculture, a keenly observant farmer-scientist of Rooks 

 county, wrote: 



"It is a plant having many warm friends and also a squad of bitter 

 enemies. I have read much in favor of it, and much condemning it in the 

 severest terms." 



Some persons believed alfalfa to be poisonous, doubtless because of the 

 tendency to bloat ruminants when they were allowed to graze on it at will, 

 and many reports were to the effect that stock refused to eat it. An ex- 

 ample of the latter is given by a pioneer settler of Geary county, now 

 living in Shawnee, who wrote: 



"My neighbor in Geary county, along in the early seventies, tried 

 alfalfa. The seed was sown on sandy soil and grew vigorously. When 

 it had attained a height of about sixteen inches an armful was cut for 

 the horses, but they would n't even taste it. The grower concluded, there- 

 fore, that it was a noxious weed." 



Because of diverse opinions and experiences such as these the progress 

 of alfalfa was slow in the years immediately following its introduction. 

 Skepticism, however, was banished and mistaken beliefs rectified as the 

 merits of the plant became better known through more extensive and 

 intimate acquaintance. Those who early recognized its value persistently 

 urged its growing, and their estimates of its worth have been more than 

 justified by subsequent events. 



A careful search of the records discloses that alfalfa was first men- 

 tioned in the reports of the State Board of Agriculture in 1877, when 

 Alfred Gray was the Board's secretary. He observed that: 



"In the West in fact, throughout Kansas alfalfa promises to be 

 eminently successful. Especially in the West, where rainfall is variable 



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