Alfalfa

or Lucerne, a forage plant. It is a perennial, and is related closely to the clovers. Alfalfa is native to southwestern Asia, where it was in use centuries before the Christian Era. It followed lines of travel westward into the Mediterranean countries, reaching Spain with the Saracens in the eighth century. Alfalfa is a Spanish word, derived, in turn, from an Arabic word meaning, it is said, the best sort of fodder. The plant was introduced into the eastern part of the United States from Europe as lucerne, a name derived from the canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. Alfalfa, under the Spanish name, was introduced into California from Chile about 1854. The Spanish or western name is now universal.

Alfalfa is an upright plant with stems from one to four feet high. A cluster of these stems grows from a spreading crown. The flowers are usually purple, with petals shaped like those of the pea. The pods are coiled in two or three spirals. The seeds are kidney shaped. The roots penetrate from four to twelve feet, enabling the plant to grow in dry places. In practical farming it is found advantageous to split the crowns with a disk plow in order to produce finer stems.

Alfalfa prefers deep, rich, mellow, well drained soil;. but it has proved to be a plant of wonderful drouth-resisting powers. It may be raised on sandy or even gravelly soil, where ordinary forage plants die. Much attention has been given to improved varieties. Mr. N. E. Hansen, of the North Dakota Agricultural College, has been instrumental in the introduction of a hardy variety from the drier, colder parts of Turkestan. This variety has the power of withstanding severe frost. It has been found that seed matured in the semi-arid states, particularly Utah, without irrigation, produces plants capable of withstanding extreme drouth.

Professor Coburn, in his Book of Alfalfa, says: "Alfalfa is very long-lived; fields in Mexico, it is claimed, have been continuously productive, without replanting, for over two hundred years; and others in France are known to have flourished for more than a century. Its usual life in the United States is probably from ten to twenty-five years, although there is a field in New York that has been mown successively for over sixty years It is not unlikely that, under normal care, it would well-nigh be, as it is called, everlasting."

Alfalfa is a plant of growing importance. With fodder corn, timothy, and clover, Eastern farmers have had an abundance of forage. Like red clover, alfalfa has failed in many fields for want of inoculation with the bacteria necessary to the vigorous development of the plant. It has remained for the West to demonstrate that alfalfa is one of the great forage plants.

In the census reports of 1890 alfalfa did not appear at all in the returns from many states. In 1900 the total acreage for the United States was 2,094,011. Over five million tons of alfalfa were cut in that year. The acreage has increased rapidly during the past decade. In Kansas alone there are probably 700,000 acres. Alfalfa is now the chief forage plant of the Western States.

To get the best results, alfalfa should be cut just as it comes into bloom. It is important that it should not be allowed to dry until brittle. In that case the leaves, which contain about sixty-three percent of the value of the plant, are likely to be lost. Where alfalfa does well at all, it may be cut two or three times during the season. Professor Coburn says that "in California and elsewhere, it has produced in a season, under the most favorable conditions, with irrigation, six to nine cuttings, and, in Oklahoma, without irrigation, has allowed nine cuttings, averaging one and one-half tons per acre of cured hay."

The yield varies greatly, according to locality, soil, and season. From two to ten tons per acre are reasonable limits.

Alfalfa has high feeding value. Like clover and pea straw it is rich in protein. Of late mills have been established for grinding alfalfa hay into meal. This meal is put up in sacks and used extensively by careful feeders to make up a "balanced ration." Alfalfa meal is an excellent feed for milch cows and horses. It is the best substitute that has been found for green food for poultry.

Like other farm crops, alfalfa has its enemies. The golden, thread-like stems of the dodder suck the life out of it. Various fungi rot the leaves and stems. The army worm and grasshopper are particularly fond of alfalfa leaves. Striped "gophers" and prairie dogs do great damage. Thousands of acres of alfalfa have been destroyed completely in the Humboldt Valley by rapidly multiplying colonies of field mice.

See Clover