FORAGE PLANTS 75 



ration is an exact way of feeding, which is 

 most satisfactory. Bags of this alfalfa meal are 

 shipped more economically than the same hay 

 baled. 



I have eaten very palatable bread and cakes 

 made of alfalfa flour — the ground seed. It is 

 nutritious, but too dark colored to be popular. 



Records show that alfalfa was brought into 

 Greece from Persia in 480 B. C. It reached Italy 

 during the first century, and slowly spread over 

 Europe. From Spain it was carried to Mexico 

 and thence spread north and south during the six- 

 teenth century. New England got seed from Eng- 

 land about the same time. But the plants died 

 out the second season, and culture of the new plant 

 was generally ignored by farmers. Only recently 

 has it been restored to a place among agricultural 

 crops in the East by the discovery that soil inocu- 

 lation establishes the plant, and it becomes one 

 of the best crops for forage, and for building up 

 depleted farm land. 



In the West, alfalfa is the great forage crop, as 

 it is in southern Europe. Drought-resistant vari- 

 eties brought from Turkestan are grown in the 

 semi-arid regions of the Great Plains, and the 

 desert places become gardens. Hardier varieties 

 have. extended the range of the plant farther north. 



