ALFALFA, 



CHAPTER IV. 



While the red and mammoth clovers are justly regarded 

 as the sheet anchor of the farmer in the sections of country to 

 which they are adapted, there is a point westward where, 

 by reason of deficient rainfall, their cultivation ceases to be 

 practicable or profitable. There is also a southern limit be- 

 yond which, by reason of the deficiency of lime in the soil and 

 of the long continued summer heat, they cease to be reliable. 

 We have before noted so important does she seem to consider 

 the clover family to the welfare of the race that Nature 

 provides some member of the family to meet the wants 

 of almost every soil and climate adapted to either tillage or 

 pasturage. This want is met to a very great extent, on the Paci- 

 fic coast of America, in the mountain valleys, on the great 

 plaius, and on the Southern and along the Eastern Atlantic 

 coasts round to where it meets the red clover, by the alfalfa. 

 While not belonging to the same species as the ordinary clo- 

 vers, it has the same general characteristics and economic 

 values. It has the same three-cleft leaf and characteristic 

 pea blossom, as will be seen by the illustration on the follow- 

 ing page, the same power of assimilating nitrogen from the 

 atmosphere, an even higher ratio of albuminoids to carbo- 

 hydrates and therefore a similar feeding value. It is not a 

 trifolium but a medicago and belongs to the same class as the 

 bur clover of Calitornia and the western plains. 



In its origin it antedates history. It has been traced 

 back to the ancient kingdoms of Media and Persia and we 

 have no doubt that when Nebuchednezzar was testing the 

 value on Daniel and his companions of the legumes or "pulse," 

 as food for young statesmen, alfalfa was growing luxuriantly on 

 the royal farms on the banks of the rivers of Babylon. It was 



