91 



Afew extracts from various agricultural papers and other publications 

 are here inserted. 



Southern Live Stock Journal : 



The value of alfalfa iu California is inestimable. The plant is eminently adapted 

 to the soil and climate of that State. It is wonderfully productive. It is grown with 

 success in Colorado and some of the Territories, and now and then an isolated report 

 comes up from the great State of Texas that it is fulfilling the highest hopes of those 

 who have given it their attention. Here and there from the Carolinas, Georgia, 

 Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana come favorable reports, but these in- 

 stances are few and far between. The fact is, alfalfa has never yet had a fair trial 

 in Southern agriculture. Our people, as a people, have never appreciated its value 

 as a worthy addition to southern grasses and forage plants. 



The failures that have been made with this plant in the South are doubtless due to 

 the fact that (1) the weeds are allowed to choke it out the first year, or the stock to 

 graze it too closely and bite off the crowns of the plants before the roots were firmly 

 established ; (2) the land was not rich enough it requires very rich land ; (3) that 

 the land was not suitable to its growth, or that it held too much water and ought to 

 have been underdraiued. 



Tulare County (California) Begister : 



Alfalfa is the foundation of prosperity in Tulare County. It begins to yield the 

 very year it is sown, and increases its yield many years afterward. It will grow 

 where nothing else will, and sends its roots deep down into the moist strata which 

 ninderlie the top soil all over the country. Alfalfa not only furnishes food for horses, 

 cattle, and sheep, but hogs and poultry thrive upon it as upon nothing else until fat- 

 tening time comes, when a little Egyptian or Indian corn must be fed to make the 

 flesh solid. In Tulare, alfalfa yields from 6 to 10 tons of hay per acre each sum- 

 mer, besides supplying good pasturage the rest of the season; when it goes to seed 

 it often yields a return of $40 to $60 per acre in seed alone, besides yielding nearly as 

 valuable a hay crop as when not permitted to go to seed. Upon alfalfa and stock, 

 Tulare is building a great and assured prosperity. 



George Tyng, in Florida Dispatch : 



Sow in any month when the ground is moist and at least four to six weeks before 

 heavy frost or before the season of heat and drought. Less seed will be required if 

 it is soaked before sowing. Put the seed into any convenient vessel and cover with 

 water, not boiling but too hot to be comfortable to the hand, and keep in a warm 

 place for eighteen to twenty-four hours, until the seeds swell enough to partially 

 rupture their dark hulls. When the seeds are ready for sowing drain off all the 

 water through a sieve or bag and dry the seeds with cotton-seed meal, land plaster,, 

 or other material, increasing the bulk to a bushel and a half or two bushels for every 

 20 pounds. If the ground be dry, cultivate just before sowing and sow in the after- 

 noon. Cover as soon as possible, and guard against covering too deeply. The best 

 convenient thing for this purpose is a light drag made of the bushy branches of 

 trees. 



Prof. E. W. Hilgard, in the Keport of the Department of Agriculture 

 for 1878, page 490, says : 



Undoubtedly the most valuable result of the search after forage crops adapted to 

 rthe California climate is the introduction of the culture of alfalfa, this being tli.- 

 name commonly applied to the variety of Lucerne that was introduced into Cali- 

 fornia from Chili early in her history, differing from the European plants merely in 

 that it lias a tendency to taller growth and deeper roots. The latter habit, doubt- 

 less acquired in the dry climate of Chili, is of course especially valuable iu Cali- 

 fornia, as it enables the plant to stand a drought so protracted as to kill out even 



