HISTORY, DESCRIPTION, VARIETIES AND HABITS 7 



diate Lucerne or Medicago media, the Yellow Lucerne 

 or Medicago foliata and Turkestan alfalfa or Medicago 

 sativa Turkestanica. None of these have such unquali- 

 fied value as the ordinary alfalfa ; in fact the first two 

 are properly regarded as weeds when found with Medi- 

 cago sativa. In 1898 when there had been reported 

 many failures in the alfalfa districts of the extreme 

 North and the extreme Southwest, the United States 

 Department of Agriculture sent Prof. N. E. Hansen of 

 South Dakota to Russia, especially the cold, arid and 

 semi-arid portions of northern Turkestan, to discover if 

 possible a more hardy strain of alfalfa than that grown 

 in America. He brought back from there several hun- 

 dred bushels of seed which was distributed to govern- 

 ment stations and individual experimenters in forty- 

 seven states and territories. The reports of its behav- 

 ior varied greatly, some growers being enthusiastically 

 in its favor, while most reported results below or not 

 above the average from other sorts, and some practically 

 a failure. It would appear from the consensus of opin- 

 ion at this time that the Turkestan alfalfa has not dem- 

 onstrated in America any such superiority as to justify 

 its general adoption, even in the dry and warm regions 

 of the Southwest, in our colder states, or in Canada. 



Among other claims for Turkestan alfalfa by the gov- 

 ernment officials in charge of its introduction and 

 exploitation have been that ''its seed will germinate 

 much quicker and the plants start into growth earlier 

 under the same conditions than common alfalfa. The 

 plants are more leafy, grow^ more rapidly, and have a 

 stronger, more vigorous root system. Another advan- 



