FORAGE CROPS 99 



clover is often sown on lawns with blue grass. It is also often 

 sown for the benefit of bees, which draw upon it as a honey plant. 



Alfalfa. The value of alfalfa for hay and forage purposes has 

 been known from very early times. It was introduced into Greece 

 about 476 B.C. from Media and was afterwards grown extensively 

 by the Greeks and Romans. Alfalfa is adapted .to a warm climate, 

 but is grown over a wide area in the United States. It grows 

 better in soils that are alkaline than in those that are acid. Its 

 roots penetrate to great depths and thus enable the plant to resist 

 the blighting influences of ordinary dry weather and prolonged 

 droughts. It is not an uncommon thing to find the roots descend- 

 ing from ten to twenty feet in the ground, and cases have been 

 known where alfalfa roots have been found at a depth of more than 

 fifty feet. 



Before alfalfa is sown the ground must be properly prepared. 

 The ground should be plowed deep and should be well drained and 

 well ventilated. 



Fifteen to thirty pounds of seed are sown to the acre. Alfalfa 

 may be sown any time during the year from April to October, 

 according to the climate, season, and location. Farmers in the 

 Northern States usually do their sowing in the spring. From three 

 to five cuttings may be made, according to the season and state of 

 the weather. This fact makes alfalfa one of the most valuable 

 crops that a farmer can raise. It takes up nitrogen from the air 

 and at the same time enriches the soil by bringing up vast stores 

 of plant food from the depths of the earth to the surface of the soil. 

 Alfalfa makes splendid pasturage for horses and hogs, but is not so 

 satisfactory for cattle and sheep unless mixed with dry roughage. 

 Alfalfa does not reach its prime until the third or fourth year after 

 planting. The first sowing usually keeps the soil stocked for ten 

 to fifteen years without further sowing. 



Vetches. There are some fifteen or twenty kinds of vetch, but 

 only two are grown in this country to any great extent. These 

 are the spring vetch, widely used as a soiling crop in England, and 

 the winter vetch, which is grown for hay in Washington, Oregon, 

 California, and in some of the New England States. The latter is 

 a winter annual with trailing stems which grow from three to nine 

 inches in length. 



