Alfalfa in Kansas. 185 



for Arizona and the southwest, where it grows through the winter months, 

 which have a mean temperature of a little above 50 F. Here we have the 

 strange fact that a plant which will not survive cold winters will grow in 

 a climate with mild but cool winters so cool as to check growth entirely 

 in other varieties of alfalfa. The Peruvian alfalfa is hairy, like the 

 Arabian, has taller and more succulent stems than common alfalfa, and 

 is more productive. 



The leaflets are long, and the leaves frequently have four and five 

 leaflets, instead of the three of ordinary alfalfa. 



Chilean Alfalfa. 



This may be taken as the type of our alfalfa commonly grown in the 

 United States, the seed of which was originally brought from Chile, in 

 the early fifties of the last century, by gold seekers who sailed around 

 Cape Horn to California, and which has spread from California eastward 

 across the country. This type of alfalfa is the kind commonly grown in 

 Kansas, and is too well known to need description. It is a fact, however, 

 that this alfalfa is by no means of a uniform type, but that differences 

 in yield, winter-hardiness and drouth-resistance exist, which are made 

 use of by the breeder. It is generally known, for example, that northern- 

 grown alfalfa seed, where the seed comes from an old stand of northern- 

 grown alfalfa, produces plants that are hardier than those which come 

 from the southern-grown seed. (See "Varieties," in index.) 



ALFALFA BREEDING. 



Generally speaking, five principal results are to be sought for in alfalfa 

 breeding, viz: (1) winter-hardiness, (2) resistance to drouth, (3) in- 

 creased forage yield, (4) increased seeding capacity, (5) immunity from 

 disease. These ends, of course, are not all to be sought for to the same 

 degree in all regions. For the most part the different strains of the 

 ordinary American alfalfa, which, from its origin, we have called Chilean, 

 is capable of adaptation to all parts of the United States, except the most 

 northern portions. 



Breeding for Winter-Hardiness. 



North of central Nebraska the ordinary American or Chilean alfalfa 

 tends to winterkill more or less completely, and with one or two exceptions, 

 the only alfalfa that has proven absolutely hardy in Minnesota and the 

 Dakotas is the Grimm variety. Peruvian alfalfa is the variety best 

 adapted to the hot, irrigated lands of the Southwest, but it usually winter- 

 kills even as far north as Kansas. In the semiarid West generally, where 

 alfalfa is grown without irrigation, and under limited rainfall, Turkestan 

 has given good results. 



In breeding alfalfa the first thing to be done is to select, as a founda- 

 tion stock, a "regional variety" of alfalfa that carries some of the 

 characteristics desired. For example, in the preliminary experiments in 

 breeding alfalfa for North Dakota, experiments were made with sixty- 

 eight such varieties of alfalfa, which were grown in drill and in hill 

 rows at Dickinson, N. Dak. 



The effects of the winter of 1908-'09 upon these different varieties were 

 very striking. All of the alfalfa strains imported from Arabia, the 



