THE SEED-BEARING HABIT. 99 



the fertilization of alfalfa blooms. The honey bee 

 helps, no doubt, where it is plentiful, and also many 

 other sorts of insects help butterflies, millers, ants 

 and various small insects that swarm in alfalfa 

 meadows. Whether honey bees are useful in fer- 

 tilizing alfalfa blooms is at present a disputed point, 

 many men affirming that they secured as large crops 

 of alfalfa seed before bees were introduced into their 

 regions as they do since. However this may'be, it 

 is certain that bees pay large profits in the western 

 alfalfa-growing states. Alfalfa honey is of excellent 

 quality and it is most doubtful if the bees ever 

 gather any of it without unwittingly assisting in the 

 fertilization of the alfalfa flower. 



Where Seed is Grown. -The alfalfa plant has 

 whims and peculiarities not well understood. Parts 

 of California produce seed, other parts are said to 

 make too little seed to be worth troubling with. 

 Nevada is a good seed-producing region, perhaps 

 because of the extreme dryness of the state. Utah 

 produces much seed of high quality and Utah is a 

 dry land. Colorado produces good seed, so does 

 Montana in lesser amounts. The Dakotas produce 

 some seed and large amounts are threshed in 

 Nebraska and Kansas. East of the Missouri Eiver 

 little seed is grown; east of the Mississippi River 

 hardly any alfalfa seed is saved. Stray plants in 

 Ohio, on dry banks or along roadsides will load 

 themselves with seed, while fields saved for the seed 

 make not enough to be worth considering. Texas 

 produces a good deal of seed. It has been found 



