CHAPTER V 

 ALFALFA 



The plant. Alfalfa is an ideal forage plant. It belongs 

 to the legume family, to which cow-peas, soy beans, and red 

 clover belong. It was grown in southwestern Asia many cen- 

 turies ago and came to California by way of South America 

 at a very early date. Later it was successfully grown in 

 Kansas, and since we have learned its requirements it is now 

 being grown in every state of the Union. 



Why should the farmer who has forty acres of land buy 

 the forty adjacent acres, when he can utilize the forty lying 

 beneath and the forty lying above his present holdings by 

 growing alfalfa? When we remember that the alfalfa root 

 reaches down and draws much of its food from lower levels 

 untouched, and that it utilizes large quantities of nitrogen 

 occupying so fully the air above, than we can see that this 

 reference to the forty below and the forty above is not alto- 

 gether a myth. Since millions of dollars' worth of nitrogen 

 is present over every acre of land, the farmer who grows 

 alfalfa is literally a millionaire. His millions are in the air. 



Alfalfa is a perennial plant with purple flowers. The 

 numerous stems which are produced arise from a crown ; they 

 grow from fifteen to twenty-four inches long, and are erect 

 or spreading. The long taproot penetrates to a great depth, 



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