CHAPTER XIX 

 ALFALFA 



470. Origin and History. Alfalfa has been cultivated 

 for forage longer than any other leguminous plant. Though 

 it is probable that both the cowpea and the soy bean were 

 grown at an earlier date for their seeds, their first use as 

 forage is much more recent than that of alfalfa. Alfalfa 

 is a native of Persia and other portions of southwestern 

 Asia, whence it was taken to Greece more than two thousand 

 years ago. It was cultivated by the Romans; for many 

 centuries it has been an important forage crop in southern 

 Europe. The Spanish introduced it at a very early date into 

 South America, Mexico, and what is now southwestern 

 United States. It was very successful in California and 

 elsewhere, but the earlier attempts to grow it east of the 

 Rocky Mountains were failures. It is now known that these 

 failures were due quite largely to the absence of the proper 

 bacteria, but it was long thought that other soil conditions 

 were not suitable. Finally it was successfully grown in 

 Kansas, and since the cause of the earlier failures has been 

 shown, it is now being grown in every state of the Union. 



471. Description. Alfalfa differs from the clovers, to 

 which it is closely related, in that the flowers are in short 

 spikes rather than in dense heads; the pods are coiled instead 

 of straight; and the third leaflet, instead of growing from the 

 same point as the other two, is on a short stalk of its own, 

 making the leaf pinnate instead of palmate. The genus to 

 which alfalfa belongs, Medicago, differs from another closely 

 related one, Melilotus, the sweet clovers, in that the sweet 



