INTRODUCTORY 



It is safe to say that in America the increase of 

 interest in alfalfa has been equaled by that in no other 

 agricultural produdl during the past ten years, and of 

 no other has there within the same period been such a 

 ratio of increase in acreage. 



This statement, however, is chiefly applicable to the 

 region west and southwest of the Missouri River, as in 

 the states farther east — and especially where clover is 

 a reliable crop — alfalfa is yet but little known or grown, 

 although reports of its great worth and yields in the 

 semi-arid country are rapidly attradling attention to its 

 possibilities in a vast territory where red clover has 

 occupied undisputed the premier position both for 

 forage and for soil renovation. 



The best illustration of quickly appreciating alfalfa 

 is afforded in Kansas, where the increase in area sown 

 has been from 34,384 acres in 1891 to 276,008 acres in 

 1900, or more than 800 per cent. The enlarged and, 

 in fadl, new horizon which a proper utilization of 

 alfalfa, along with some othtr plants of like recent 

 introdudlion, opens up to farm and animal husbandry 

 on milhons of acres of our domain, before of uncertain 

 utility, is difficult of conception. That its adaptability 



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