36 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



are about fifty species of plants known as "medicks" or, 

 scientifically, Medicago; but it so happens that the only 

 perennial species among them is alfalfa which goes under 

 the botanical name of Medicago sativa. Other species 

 such as Yellow trefoil {Medicago lupulina) and 

 Bur clover {Medicago denticitlata) , while they 

 possess some forage value and are useful to a lim- 

 ited extent, lack, for the most part, the lush, abun- 

 dant growth of alfalfa itself, and are notably inferior 

 through the fact of their annual habit. It is because 

 of its perennial nature, therefore, as well as on 

 account of its rank, succulent growth, that no species of 

 annual leguminous plant can hope to compete with alfal- 

 fa for a moment in importance. This means, then, that 

 any substitute for alfalfa seed, or adulteration of it with 

 the seed of another related species, such as Yellow tre- 

 foil or Bur clover, is distinctly a fraud of serious char- 

 acter, despite the fact that the adulterants are plants that 

 make fair pasturage and have some forage value. They 

 are merely annuals, ending their life with the season, 

 whereas a field of alfalfa should live twenty years or 

 more, under right conditions. 



THE CHIEF ABULTERAKT. 



"At present, as stated. Yellow trefoil is the chief adul- 

 terant used in American alfalfa seed. A number of cases, 

 indeed, of complete or almost complete substitution of 

 Yellow trefoil for alfalfa seed have come to the writer's 

 attention within the past year. It is important, there- 

 fore, for farmers to know the characteristic marks of 

 distinction between the seed of alfalfa and of its chief 



