ALFALFA 
And Its Relation to Agriculture 
in the Semi-Arid Region 
Extracts from B. Byron Bobb’s Address Before 
Tri-State Convention in 1918. 
Rut to the proof. What will alfalfa do for us? 
First, it will maintain and increase the humus con- 
tent of the soil. Second, it will conserve and there- 
fore increase the moisture supply. Third, it will 
maintain and increase the nitrogen supply in the soil. 
Fourth, it will immeasurably improve the physical 
condition of the soil. Let us take these up in order. 
Alfalfa Makes Humus 
First, the humus. There is no other farm plant 
that has so extensive and far-reaching a root system as 
has the alfalfa. These great roots, sheared off by the 
plow, decay and add an amount of humus little 
suspected and appreciated less and add it in a dis- 
tribution most near the surface but extending many 
feet into the subsoil. Into the surface soil is also 
incorporated from the growing plant by the slough- 
ing off of leaves, stem and stubble a considerable 
quantity of vegetable matter. This humus now gotten 
into the soil begins its great work of preparing ancl 
storing food for whatever subsequent plant root may 
call for it. 
Alfalfa Conserves Moisture 
Second, tl r moisture supply. This is a direct 
result of first getting the humus into the soil and 
increasing its sponginess so that it can retain two. 
three, four times the amount of moisture it previously 
could hold. This moisture, dissolving the more readily 
by aid of humus and its acids, the minerals, the car- 
bon, the nitrates, becomes the rich soup food, stored 
and held in readiness for succeeding crops. 
Alfalfa Builds Nitrogen Supply 
Third, the nitrogen supply. That alfalfa is capable 
of transforming the free nitrogen of the air into 
soluble nitrates through the agency of the nodule- 
forming bacteria on its roots is now so well recognized 
that the mention of the fact would seem suflBcient. 
though to what an extent nitrates are used by all grow- 
ing plants and to what an extent the alfalfa will replace 
and store up nitrates in the soil is not sufficiently 
well appreciated. To give us an idea how important 
and costly nitrate is I wish to quote from the annual 
bulletin for 1917 of the International Institute of 
Agriculture. In 1916 the United States used in 
round numbers 1,. 350, 000 tons of nitrate at an average 
cost of $67.00 per ton. This was before the govern- 
ment used any considerable portion for war purposes, 
the bulk being used bv the eastern and southern 
states trying to pommel something out of their ex- 
hausted farms. Think of those folks first having 
to put $90,000,000.00 into the soil in the hope of 
getting a little more back! 
Why Not Nitrate Plants on Every Farm? 
The world considered it a great achievement when 
a few years ago Germany, cut off from her nitrate 
supplies in Chili, devised a manufacturing plant that 
distilled nitrates from the nitrogen of the air. But 
I tell you it will be a far greater achievement when 
every American farmer installs upon his farm a bil- 
lion of nitrate manufacturing plants — alfalfa plants 
— transforming, from that inexhaustible supply of 
45,000 tons of nitrogen above every acre an abundant 
and priceless fertilizer without one cent of cost. I 
want to give in this connection the results or effect 
upon the land of alfalfa growing from two viewpoints. 
First are the data obtained by a most painstaking 
investigator and authority on alfalfa — L. R. Waldron. 
He says that every ton of alfalfa grown on an acre 
if returned direct or in manure will put into that acre 
an amount of humus and of nitrogen equal to Ihe 
amount of humus and nitrogen that a 35-bushel wheat 
crop, or a 50-bushel corn crop, or a 60-bushel oat crop 
will remove. 
Second are the results obtained by a practical 
farmer, Herman Nelson, who lives near Williston, 
N. D. He planted corn on deeply plowed alfalfa 
sod and obtained a yield of 68 bushels of Northwestern 
Dent corn to the acre, or about three times the yield 
of adjacent fields not on alfalfa sod. Sowing Mac- 
aroni wheat the following spring in the corn stubble, 
he threshed out 42 bushels to the acre when the aver- 
age yield from other fields in that vicinity was but 
16 bushels. And the third year 200 bushels of po- 
tatoes to the acre was the reward over and above 
the normal production of .50 or 60 bushels. In these 
three years Mr. Nelson grew on alfalfa sod as much 
Grimm Compared with Common Alfalfa 
Picture Taken from Farm Crops, Published by the Ontario Department 
of Agriculture, Ontario Agricultural College, Toronto, Ont. 
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