74 ALFALFA 



alfalfa was killed, while this variety from the heart of 

 Asia came through unharmed. 



" One of the main instrudtions of Secretary Wilson 

 in sending the writer on his trip in 1897-98, of nearly 

 ten months, was to secure, if possible, a hardy drouth- 

 resisting, leguminous forage-plant from the elevated 

 table-lands of Asia. Upon reaching Russia the gov- 

 ernment agricultural authorities at Moscow and St. 

 Petersburg told me of this plant. It is distindl from 

 common alfalfa, which has come to us largely from 

 Spain. Botanically the difference is expressed by 

 Russian authorities in naming Turkestan alfalfa Medi- 

 cago sativa Turkestanica, while common alfalfa is called 

 Medicago sativa. 



" Prince Massalaski, of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture at St. Petersburg, writes : * I/Uzeme clover (^Medi- 

 cago sativa, var. Turkestanica') is the chief forage in 

 use throughout Central Asia, and to the settled popu- 

 lation of Turkestan is of the highest importance, 

 since during the summer it forms the chief, and in the 

 winter, prepared in the shape of hay, the only fodder 

 for cattle. It is of all the greater importance because 

 within the region populated by settled inhabitants 

 there are no meadows. Soft herbs and other grasses 

 that grow up in the early spring in certain parts of the 

 steppes are quickly dried up by the hot sun, and give 

 place to coarse prickly stubble, or in any case to less 

 nutritious grasses, that are in general unfitted for 

 sheep, camels, or steppe cattle, and still less fitted for 

 horses or the cattle of those who are settled in the oases, 

 and are thus closely confined to the foreland or rivers, 

 and in most cases are far removed from the steppes.' 



"Massalaski describes the native methods of culti- 



