Alfalfa in Kansas. 231 



come healthy, vigorous plants. Alfalfa more often fails in eastern Kan- 

 sas because the young plants are starved than from any other one cause. 



Alfalfa also requires for its growth an abundance of lime, and is 

 therefore very sensitive to sour or acid soil conditions. Consequently, 

 the best alfalfa soils in the state are those that have been derived from 

 limestone or that contain in them a large quantity of calcarous material. 



Alfalfa is not exacting as to the texture of soil upon which it will 

 grow, yet it does the best upon the loam, silt loam, and sandy loam soils. 

 While it grows best on soils of this texture, it will grow satisfactorily, 

 however, when once established on heavy clay soils, if they are well 

 drained. Because of the difficulty of working soils of this type for 

 other crops, alfalfa is often the most profitable crop that can be grown 

 upon them. It will also grow upon soils of a fairly sandy character. 

 The chief difficulty with the crop on soils of this kind is the uncertainty 

 of securing a stand, but when once established it usually grows well, and 

 if supplied with a top-dressing of manure occasionally, produces very 

 profitable yields. 



ALFALFA REGIONS OF KANSAS. 



The state of Kansas can be divided into four alfalfa regions, based 

 partly upon the formation of the soil and partly upon climatic conditions. 

 The accompanying map (Fig. 201) shows these regions. 



Region I is located in the northeast corner of Kansas, and is com- 

 posed of soils that were formed by ice. It is supposed that at one 

 time this region was covered by an immense glacier which moved down 

 from the north, carrying with it rock and soil material from the northern 

 states and Canada. This material which was carried in from the north 

 was mixed by the ice with fragments of the underlying rock of this 

 region. It is from this mixture of rock material that the soils of north- 

 eastern Kansas were formed. 



Due to the manner in which these soils were formed, they are usually 

 deep and rich in mineral elements or plant food, but deficient in organic 

 matter. Because of the deficiency in organic matter, and because the 

 mineral elements of plant food are not in a readily available condition, 

 it is often difficult to start alfalfa upon these soils unless they are 

 manured. It is advisable, therefore, when alfalfa is to be started, to 

 manure the field six months or a year before the crop is sown. Manure 

 applied in this way furnishes organic matter, which, after partially decay- 

 ing, will furnish the young alfalfa plants with plant food, especially nitro- 

 gen, that they need during the early stages of their growth, before they 

 are able to obtain nitrogen from the atmosphere. In this way a light 

 application of manure assures a stand of alfalfa which otherwise would 

 be difficult to' obtain. The soil in this region often contains too little 

 lime for the best growth of alfalfa, consequently lime must frequently be 

 applied before alfalfa can be successfully grown. 



While the soils of this region are usually of sufficient depth to grow 

 alfalfa well, they are frequently of too impervious a nature to permit 

 the alfalfa roots to penetrate the soil rapidly, and in some cases the 

 impervious layer of the subsoil holds water to such an extent that the 



