2 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



more probably it was not introduced into those counties 

 until several centuries later. It is known to have been 

 cultivated in Northern Africa about the time it was first 

 brought to Italy; and the name "alfalfa" being Arabic 

 the inference might be reasonable that it was introduced 

 into Spain by the Moors from Northern Africa at the 

 time of their conquest of Spain about 711 A. D., but this 

 is of small consequence to the twentieth century. From 

 Spain it crossed to France, and later to Belgium and 

 England. It was highly spoken of by an English writer 

 of the fifteenth century. 



AMERICA INDEBTED TO SPAIN 



But in those ages Europe was not so much interested 

 in agriculture as in war. Land tenures were not well 

 fixed and ownerships were uncertain. Spain, however, 

 was to perform at least two important services for half 

 the world, if none for herself. She was to reveal to 

 civilization a new continent, and give to it the most 

 valuable forage plant ever known. And so, in 15 19, 

 Cortes, the Spaniard, and his remorseless brigands car- 

 ried murder, rapine and havoc to Mexico, but gave 

 alfalfa. Less than a score years later Spain also wrote 

 in Peru and Chili some of the bloodiest pages of human 

 history, but left alfalfa there, where it has since luxu- 

 riantly flourished. If it was brought to the Atlantic 

 coast of the United States in that century, it was not 

 adopted by the Indian inhabitants, who were not an agri- 

 cultural people, nor by the early European settlers. 



It was not until about 1853 or 1854 that it was intro- 

 duced into northern California, the legends say from 

 Chili, but it had been grown by the Spaniards and 



