VARIETIES OF ALFALFA 353 



somewhat kidney-shaped, though the coils of the pod may 

 compress them into other forms. They are about the same 

 size as red clover seeds, but are much less variable in color, 

 being quite uniformly bright olive green. 



463. Varieties. The ordinary grower gives little atten- 

 tion to varieties of alfalfa, and few really distinct ones have 

 been developed. One which is prominent in Minnesota, 

 North Dokata, and other northern states on account of its 

 hardiness is the Grimm alfalfa, introduced into Carver 

 County, Minnesota, by WendeUn Grimm, an early German 

 settler. Other strains of alfalfa have recently been intro- 

 duced which are quite similar to the Grimm in many respects. 

 The most noticeable difference in Grimm alfalfa from the 

 ordinary type, in addition to its extra hardiness, is the wide 

 variation in the color of the flowers, ranging from white 

 through yellow and greenish to the purple of the ordinary 

 strain. Other varieties are named largely from the locali- 

 ties from which they have been imported, including the 

 Turkestan, Peruvian, and Arabian. Large quantities of 

 seed of ordinary alfalfa have been sold as Turkestan, which 

 was claimed to be remarkably resistant to drought and cold. 

 The true Turkestan alfalfa does possess these qualities to 

 some extent, but it is better than the common varieties only 

 in limited sections in the semiarid West. Both Peruvian 

 and Arabian alfalfa are marked by a long growing season 

 and a lack of hardiness. They are a success only in the South- 

 west, as in Arizona and southern California. 



464. Production in the United States. The area in 

 alfalfa, as reported by the Census of 1910, was 4,702,000 

 acres, the largest acreages being in Kansas, Colorado, 

 California, Utah, and Idaho, though the crop is widely 

 grown in all the states from Nebraska and Kansas west- 

 ward, including Montana, Oklahoma, and portions of 

 Texas. While it is more naturally adapted to warmer cli- 

 mates, it is grown as far north as Canada and in altitudes as 



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