58 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
mineral fertilizers. It may be the uncertain weather 
of British hay-making times has had a deterrent 
effect to the alfalfa growers, though it would seem 
more probable that the mere lack of knowledge of 
the subject was tlhe main factor responsible for the 
fewness of alfalfa fields there. The writer has seen 
as thrifty alfalfa in Kent as he has seen anywhere 
in the world, and has marvelled at its small extent 
till he was told that the entire crop was fed green to 
the work horses. 
In America a number of men wrote enthusiastic- 
ally of the lucerne plant. It is certain that George 
Washington grew it at least to some extent, and 
Thomas Jefferson, on a kindlier soil, grew it so well 
that in one of his letters he mentions the joy that 
contemplation of his fields of lucerne gave him. To- 
| day no alfalfa is grown on either of these farms, nor 
in their neighborhood. Is it that eastern farms are 
less fertile now, or is it that their owners are less 
prudent, enterprising and careful? 
In New York Robert Livingstone wrote of it and 
many men experimented with the plant, some with 
success, some without. In few localities in the east- 
ern states, however, did it gain a permanent foot- 
hold. There were several reasons for that. One 
principal reason was that alfalfa does not mature 
seed along the Atlantic seaboard except during very 
dry summers; thus it was necessary to import fresh 
seed from Europe constantly at considerable trouble 
and expense. Then the plant’s nature was not un- 
derstood, its lime requirement was not known, much 
