HISTORY, DESCRIPTION, VARIETIES AND HABITS 3 



Indians in southern California for probably a hundred 

 years, having had a gradual migration from Mexico. 

 Strange to relate, while it is even now on the Atlantic 

 coast discussed as a new plant, there is good evidence 

 that it has been in cultivation on a small scale in the 

 Carolinas, New York and Pennsylvania for probably 

 one hundred and fifty years. Certainly there are small 

 fields in those states that have been producing for over 

 sixty years, and there are to be found articles and letters 

 written far earlier showing that it was then known and 

 had been proven. One Spurrier, in a book dedicated to 

 Thomas Jefferson, and written in 1793, spoke highly 

 of alfalfa, called 'Uucerne;" told how it should be 

 cultivated, and that three crops of valuable hay could 

 be cut annually. In the "Transactions of the Society 

 for the Promotion of Agriculture," published at 

 Albany in 1801, it was favorably mentioned, and in the 

 "Farmers' Assistant," printed in Albany in 18 15, 

 alfalfa was praised and the statement made of its 

 yielding 6 to 9 tons of hay per acre "under the best 

 cultivation and plentiful manuring." Yet its cultivation 

 did not spread. The inertia of farmers, or perhaps their 

 indifference to new ideas, in the early days must have 

 been marvelous. According to Spurrier the difficulties 

 were not considered greater than now ; he said one plant- 

 ing would survive many years and the yield was three 

 times as great as that of any other forage plant. The 

 seed was no doubt introduced there from England or 

 France; it was probably scarce, and difficult to secure 

 from growings in this country. 



