CLOVER CULTURE. 33 



diversified agriculture and of which the red and mammoth 

 cloverfe are so integral and essential a part. It cannot endure 

 cold winters in soils saturated with water or covered with ice 

 during the winter season, and hence, while having a wider 

 range than the ordinary clovers, it is almost as rigidly exclud- 

 ed from their domain as they are from the domain of alfalfa. 



Alfalfa then has two leading uses, one, and the main one 

 as a forage crop in the regions where irrigation is possible, 

 and the other as a substitute for the ordinary clovers where 

 they fail from lack of summer moisture. It is the peculiarity 

 of arid soils and to a certain extent of the semi-arid, that the 

 conditions under which they are deposited prevent the forma- 

 tion of heavy clays, thus removing one of the main obstacles 

 to the growth of alfalfa. These soils have also comparatively 

 rainless summers and therefore provide the conditions for 

 curing with dispatch this clover which seems to have been 

 designed especially for their benefit. The discussion of the 

 growing of alfalfa naturally divides itself into two parts, its 

 culture under irrigation and its culture as a substitute for 

 other clovers, on soils and in climates where irrigation is not 

 practicable and where the latter are not a reliable crop. 



When it is remembered that over more than one third of 

 the United States perennial grasses can be grown only by ir- 

 rigation the importance of the position sustained by alfalfa 

 will be readily recognized. It will grow steadily in popular 

 favor when irrigated lands lose their virgin fertility, as they 

 will in time, and when therefore it becomes necessary to find 

 some method of restoring the wastes of the soil robber. The 

 farmer on the plains and mountain valleys and on the Pacific 

 coast will then be compelled to call on alfalfa to do for him 

 what red clover does for the farmer in the Eastern states and 

 on the prairies. 



In the Pacific states and in the mountain valleys it is 

 possible, by irrigation, to produce, on suitable land, from ten 

 to fifteen tons of alfalfa hay per annum. This alfalfa hay has 

 a higher feeding value than that made from any other known 

 grass grown in the United States. This immense yield is se- 

 cured in the southern sections by four or five cuttings dur- 

 ing the season; the first crop is taken off early, the land being 

 flooded immediately afterward and soaked to the depth of sev- 

 eral feet. The alfalfa then grows with wonderful vigor and 

 in a few weeks is ready to cut again, the extreme dryness of 

 the atmosphere and freedom from summer rains rendering it 

 possible to handle the crop and secure it in. the best condi- 



