6 Kansas State Board of Agriculture. 



As illustrative of the effect the introduction of alfalfa had on our 

 agriculture, it may be cited that before its advent tame-hay plants were 

 limited practically to the counties of the eastern third of the state. At 

 that time Jewell, a north-central county, for example, had no tame hay; 

 to-day Jewell is the leading tame-hay county, with more than fifty 

 thousand acres of alfalfa alone. Other counties of the central and west- 

 ern portions have shown decided increases in their tame-hay acreages, 

 as have the counties in the eastern part, for even where the clovers 

 prosper the areas in alfalfa have been greatly widened. In 1891, alfal- 

 fa's statistical birth year, the state's hay yield, mostly clover and timothy, 

 was about 700,000 tons, worth $3,500,000 ; while in 1915 it was 5,000,000 

 tons, worth $32,000,000, of which approximately $28,500,000 represented 

 alfalfa. In this time, also, the annual value of the products of live stock 

 more than doubled, an increase which is largely attributed to alfalfa. In 

 fact, alfalfa has grown in importance until its acreage is exceeded by 

 only three cultivated crops, namely, wheat, corn, and oats, and the margin 

 of oats is scant. Alfalfa has been a potent factor in the development and 

 prosperity of Kansas' farming industry, and as a tame-hay plant it stands 

 supreme in longevity, yields, feeding value, soil building and economy, 

 and in adaptability to wide variations of soils and climate. 



At the Kansas City hay market, preeminently the market of Kansas 

 hay, alfalfa was a stranger until 1898, and the first quotations there were 

 $6 to $6.50 a ton, or about the same as prairie hay, and with little demand. 

 It was not, however, long available at such prices, because feeders, es- 

 pecially dairymen, outside the principal alfalfa-growing territory, were 

 quick to recognize its merits, until in 1900, two years later, "choice" 

 alfalfa reached the $10 mark, and since then it has sold above that, all 

 the way up to $25 or more. Notwithstanding annual receipts of alfalfa 

 at Kansas City have quadrupled in the past ten years prices have 

 steadily held high. 



No other state has so large an area devoted to alfalfa as Kansas. The 

 following diagram, based on the United States census of 1910, which 

 affords the latest available comparable figures, showing the six leading 

 states in alfalfa acreage, strikingly portrays the state's enviable position 

 with respect to alfalfa growing: 



KANSAS. 



NEBRASKA. 



COLORADO. 



ACRES. 

 956,962 



685,282 

 508,892 



CALIFORNIA. ^^^^i 484,134 



IDAHO. MBHBHHBH 308,892 



UTAH. 'BBI^HBB 284,183 



Since 1910 there have been substantial gains the result of the hus- 

 bandmen's constantly growing appreciation for this premier farm forage 

 crop and valued fertilizer. 



