AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 117 



15, 1858, when it was officially visited by a committee 

 of the State Agricultural Society, was three feet 

 high and in bloom. The alfalfa was not irrigated; 

 the previous year a freshet had washed the bank, 

 showing the roots twenty feet below the surface. 

 "While all other grasses and clovers under similar 

 circumstances are perfectly dry and yellow, the 

 alfalfa exhibits most luxurious green/' is the report 

 of the committee. Soon after its introduction it was 

 given its Spanish name "alfalfa/' and after a longer 

 interval it was recognized to be the old-world plant of 

 historic renown, known popularly in Europe as 

 "lucerne" and to the botanists as Medicago sativa. 



All lands do not have water at twelve to twenty 

 feet; some have water only at hundreds of feet; 

 some do not have soil open to the water at any depth 

 but are shut off from it by impenetrable hardpans 

 or layers of alkali; some lands have water which 

 will not remain at a proper depth but will rise too 

 near the soil surface or above it. Therefore, it was 

 soon learned that alfalfa could not be the universal 

 summer-verdure plant by rainfall on all lands because 

 natural conditions sometimes gave it too high a 

 water-table which caused its fleshy roots to decay and 

 sometimes sank so low that moisture fell below even 

 its surprisingly great powers of penetration. 



Alfalfa is profitable only when its demands are met 

 by adequate irrigation. It will accept soil of great 

 variation in quality and depth if irrigation is wisely 

 administered so that it is never either desiccated or 

 drowned. Thus alfalfa, which the pioneers hoped 



