UNIVERSALITY OF ALFALFA 1 5 



Southern Alberta for many years. It is not much known 

 in Manitoba, but is possible of easy propagation in almost 

 all parts of Ontario. It is, and has been grown long and 

 successfully in Quebec, and is not unknown in Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick." In Cape Colony, South 

 Africa, "lucerne can be cut from four to six times in 

 summer and from once to twice in winter, and is the 

 greatest forage plant in the world." In 1901 the Brit- 

 ish consul at Buenos Ayres reported alfalfa as covering 

 "an enormous area in Argentina, and every year becom- 

 ing more important." 



NOT PARTICULAR AS TO SOIL 



While experts have been declaring that alfalfa would 

 only grow in certain soils and in certain climates it has 

 proven adaptability to nearly all climates and almost all 

 soils. It produces with a rainfall as scant as 14 inches, 

 and in the Gulf states flourishes with 65 inches. It gives 

 crops at an elevation of 8000 feet above sea level, 

 and in southern California it grows below sea level to a 

 height of six feet or over, with nine cuttings a year, ag- 

 gregating ten to twelve tons. An authenticated photo- 

 graph in possession of the writer, reproduced opposite 

 page 231, shows a wonderful alfalfa plant raised in the 

 (irrigated) desert of southern California, sixty feet 

 below sea level, that measured considerably more than 

 ten feet in height. Satisfactory crops are raised, but on 

 limited areas as yet, in Vermont and Florida. New York 

 has grown it for over one hundred years in her clay and 

 gravel ; Nebraska grows it in her western sand hills 

 without plowing, as does Nevada on her sagebrush 



