CHAPTER XV 

 ALFALFA 



ALFALFA is at the present time the third most important 

 forage crop in America, being exceeded only by timothy and 

 red clover. Under irrigation in semiarid regions no other 

 perennial forage crop is known which will yield so boun- 

 teously. The future agricultural development of western 

 America will to a large degree be associated with the cul- 

 ture of this plant. Further, it may be safely prophesied 

 that alfalfa will become of increasing importance in the 

 east, as the peculiar requirements for its successful culture 

 become better known. 



369. Agricultural history. Alfalfa was cultivated by 

 the Greeks and Romans. According to Pliny, it was 

 introduced into Greece from Media at the time of the 

 Persian wars with King Darius ; that is, about 470 B.C. 

 Pliny's statement agrees with the earlier account of 

 Strabo. Perhaps both are based on the authority of 

 Greek writers on agriculture whose works are referred 

 to by Pliny, but which have been lost. Most writers 

 have accepted the statement of Pliny and of Strabo, but 

 Fee doubts its correctness. Media or Persia is in all 

 probability the region of its original culture. Confirma- 

 tion of this conclusion, is found in the fact that the wild 

 alfalfa of that region most closely resembles the culti- 

 vated. 



Alfalfa is therefore the oldest plant, so far as known, to 

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