ALFALFA 



181 



ALFALFA 



legumes are of special value to agriculture, 

 because they draw free nitrogen from the air 

 and store it in the soil. No other group of 

 plants can do this; it is accomplished by cer- 

 tain bacteria found in nodules, or little rounded 

 lumps or knots, on the roots of the plants. 

 The leaves have three-toothed leaflets; the 

 flowers are purplish, with petals like the flow- 

 ers of the pea; the small seed pods are coiled 

 or twisted into two or three spirals, and the 

 seeds are kidney-shaped, about one-twelfth of 

 an inch long. 



The plant is a strong, deep-rooted peren- 

 nial. In no other farm crop do the roots pene- 

 trate so far into the earth; ten to twenty feet 

 is not an uncommon depth, therefore it can 

 resist severe drought. Up to the present time 

 it has been most extensively grown in semi- 



land, due probably to the large storage of 

 organic matter in the soil. The very deep 

 roots also bring up mineral matter from depths 

 below the roots of ordinary plants. However, 

 it is to be remembered that the alfalfa hay also 

 contains large amounts of minerals, and when 

 the hay crop is constantly removed, exhaustion 

 of the soil results, though temporarily the land 

 will be improved in productivity. 



Comparative Value as Fodder. Not only is 

 alfalfa very productive, but ton for ton is more 

 valuable in feeding qualities than any other 

 common hay plants. This is illustrated by 

 comparing the digestible nutrients in 100 

 pounds of the common hays and wheat bran; 

 the figures were prepared by the United States 

 Department of Agriculture and published in 

 Farmers' Bulletin No. 339, p. 28: 



arid regions, where ordinary forage grasses do 

 not succeed, but it will grow even better in 

 humid regions. It grows with remarkable rapid- 

 ity, and will produce a crop about every 40 days 

 during the growing season; it can be cut from 

 three to seven times a year, dependent upon 

 th length of the season. The usual time for 

 cutting is just as the plant is coming into 

 bloom, when not more than one-fifth of the 

 flowers have appear 



Effects on the Soil. Alfalfa will not grow 

 unless the bacteria whirl) live in tin- nodules 

 on its roots are present. In most soils these 

 bacteria must be introduced in some way when 

 alfalfa is sown for the first time. Usually this 

 is done by scattering over the new field soil 

 from a field in which alfalfa has been growing, 

 is called artificial inoculation. Since 

 alfalfa requires a soil rich in lime, when not 

 of natural limestone formation soils must be 

 artificially limed in order to secure a successful 

 growth. When well established under favor- 

 able conditions, alfalfa will continue to produce 

 good crops for a long tmx ; fields have been 

 productive for as long as fifty years. 



Alfalfa also improves the productivity of the 



It will be noted that alfalfa is almost as 

 valuable a feed for the same weight as wheat 

 bran, and more valuable than timothy and 

 clover. 



Other Uses. The yield of honey is largest 

 where bees have the range of alfalfa fields, and, 

 because the plant blossoms several times a year, 

 bees can gather from this source several crops 

 of honey. For poultry alfalfa is valuable; 

 fowls may be given access to the field or fix 

 plant may be cut and fed to them. In Okla- 

 homa a manufacturer has used alfalfa in a 

 finely ground state to make candy, and his 

 success has inspired others to still further 

 I> nments along unheard-of lines. 



Growth in the United States. About ninety- 

 five per cent of the alfalfa crop of the United 

 States is grown west of the Missouri River, 

 but at present the acreage is rapidly increasing 

 in the eastern half of the country, also. Its 

 slow development in the eastern states is prob- 

 ably due partly to the fact that the crop was 

 not readily grown, requiring inoculation of 

 the H>il. while it grew quite readily in most 

 soils west of the Missouri River. The eastern 

 states already had good forage crops in timothy 



