CLOVER CUI/TURE. 3 5 



it is better to allow, as in the case of the other clovers, a good 

 start before making any demands on the crop. While alfalfa,, 

 like all the clovers, is a fertilizing crop and increases the sup- 

 ply of nitrogen in the soil, while at the same time producing 

 an enormous quantity in the forage, it is not a suitable crop 

 for poor, wornout land. It requires good land to start with. 

 Arid and semi-arid soils nearly all have abundant fertility,, 

 (owing to the fact that they have not been subject to the leach- 

 ing process, so far as nitrogen is concerned , inseparable from 

 a sufficient annual rainfall,) to secure vigorous plant life, and 

 therefore the main consideration is a proper mechanical con- 

 dition of the soil and an abundant artificial supply of mois- 

 ture. In soils that are not capable of irrigation the growth 

 must be rapid in order that the roots may speedily reach per- 

 manent moisture and for this reason the land must be in good 

 heart. 



It is easy to see from the above statements what a veri- 

 table godsend alfalfa has been to the arid regions of America. 

 When the irrigated wheat lands have lost their virgin fertility ,. 

 which is only a question of time, its culture will be greatly 

 extended. It will then be used as a rotation grass, as well 

 as a source of hay and pasture, the rotation being of necessity 

 a long one, on account of the number of years required to se- 

 cure a crop that will give the best results. 



Of late years farmers in the semi-arid regions are begin- 

 ing to realize the value of alfalfa as a substitute for the clo- 

 vers usually grown on regions of sufficient permanent rain- 

 fall. It is not easy to locate on the map what, for the purpose 

 of this work, should be called the semi-arid region, using the 

 term as we do to describe the region west of the Missouri 

 where the ordinary clovers cannot be grown as a reasonably 

 reliable crop. We have in view that large region east of the 

 Rocky Mountains where the methods of farming followed 

 over the greater part of the Mississippi Valley, as for instance 

 in the states of Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and the eastern 

 portions of Kansas and Nebraska, cannot be followed with 

 success. This region may be said to be approximately bound- 

 ed on the east by a line which, on the southern border o 

 Kansas, begins near the 98th meridian of longitude west from, 

 Greenwich, and passing thence west of north crosses the Ne- 

 braska line near the 100 meridian arid continuing in the same- 

 direction some seventy-five miles into that state, it changes a. 

 little to the east of north and thence extends into the Dako- 

 tas. In this region the limitations as to what crops can and; 



