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Show p I Devoted, vcl. m. to tfeelVogr ess Development o EOOSEVELT, DUCHESNE Agriculture in ifie Qre&i Uinkah Basin COUNTY, NO. 3. UTAH, EEBEUAEY 15, 1926. Alfalfa , Its History, Habits and Varieties By JOHN W. CARLSON , B. S., Supt, Alfalfa Seed Experiment Farm i- (Note) This article Eas been written at the supestion of E. Peterson, County Agent of Uintah county. It is an attempt to disemminate knowledge, of the history of the hardy alfalfas, among the growers of the Uintah Basin. - iy 13 lU nt m ill li en ;rs If ,ir- - ,lot le- - fm- - on ite on 3. ey 11s nd l?rs. . Alfalfa is the oldest plant known to man, there appears no record of a time when it was not in some portions of the earth esteemed as one of natures most generous gifts. Its first habitat was in central Asia, and its beginning seems to have been contemporary with that of man. It was carried by the Persians into Greece with the invasion by Xerxes in 490 B. C., utilized by the .Romans in their conquest of Greece, and carried to Rome in 146 B. C. It is known to have been cultivated in North Africa about the time it was first introduced into Italy. Its name alfalfa being Arabic the inference is somtimes made that it was brought into Spain by the Moors in 711 A. D., at the time of their conquest of that country. From Spain it crossed to Francve and later to Belgium and England. Alfalfa was also introduced into America from Spain, being taken into Mexico by Cortez and his followers at the time of the conquest in 1519. Less than a score of years later Spain wrote in Peru some of the bloodiest pages of human history, but left alfalfa there, where it has since so luxuriantly flourished. If alfalfa was brought to the Atlantic sea coast in that century, it was not adopted by the Indian inhabitants, who were not an agricultural people, nor by the early European settlers. About 1853 or 1854 it was introduced into northern California, the legends say from Chile, but it had been grown by the Spaniards and Indians in southern California for probably one hundred years before this, having had a gradual migration from Mexico. There is also evidence to show that it .had been grown for a similar length of time, although to a very limited extent, in the eastern states. Its success there was never such as to attract more than ordinary attention. From California it spread eastward through Utah and other states of the Southwest. In the climate of these states and In Mexico, alfalfa is a Fields in Mexico, it is and productive. wonderfully long-live- d have been told, continuously productive without replanting for two hundred years, while in Utah and California some of the fields planted by the earlest settlers are still yielding good crops. In Utah alfalfa yields three or four crops of hay a year, in Texas four or five, while in California where they never have any frost they cut it eleven times in a year. Alfalfa is also the richest hay food known; eleven pounds of it is worth as much for feeding purposes as ten pounds of bran. It is this wonderful yielding power and feed value that has caused alfalfa to be so much desired by the fanners in all parts of the United States where it can be made to grow. c Its introduction and acclimatization to conditions prevailin the eastern states has been slow and beset with much difing ficulty, largely through a lack of knowledge of the requirements of the plant as regards soil and bacterial organisms. An incident from the history of its introduction into Ohio may be interesting in this connection. It is told by Joseph E. Wing, commonly known as Alfalfa Joe because of his unbounded enthusiasm for alfalfa. As a young man he had come to Utah in 1886, and soon thereafter became the manager of cattle ranch near the junction of the Price and the Green rivers. In' the enthusiasm of his first experience with the alfalfa plant, he had sent home a small package of seed by mail and asked his father to give it space and soil and care on his farm. Some two years later the boy took a vacation and returned to his old home for a visit. Soon after his arrival he asked his father, Where is my alfalfa? Did you plant the seed that I sent you? Why, Yes, I planted it but it did not amount to anything. This is no country for alfalfa. It may do for you in the West, but it is of no use here; Back of the garden his but come and see what there is to father had spaded a square rod of good clay loam and sown the seed. He led the way and pointed accusingly to the stunted little plants scattered thinly over the ground: there dont you see His father turned away and this thing is no good for Ohio left him- He stood studying the situation when along came a flock of his mothers chickens; they had come to the alfalfa patch One by one they plucked and began an eager search for leaves. them off till nearly every plant was stripped bare, then walked away. Aha, cried the boy; I see a light now, he went to the well for water which he emptied carefully down by one of the strongest roots he could find. To keep the chickens away, he took an old barrel, knocked the ends from it and placed' it over his little plant. In a little more than three weeks he was to his already to return to his ranch and came to say good-by- e falfa patch. To his delight the plant had grown for its wetting and protection, and had come out through the top of the barrel. Joyfully the boy called his father,come here; see what my alfalfa The sire, amazed and bewildered at first, stood there has done. scratching his old grey head smiling an amused puzzled smile. Finally, he turned and said: Son, do you suppose that I want to grow a crop that wont grow until you put a barrel over it? The boy remembered the one stalk of alfalfa that succeeded saying, I know that alfalfa can be grown in Ohio, if one stalk grew as that one has why cant a man grow a thousand, or even millions. This was the beginning of alfalfa growing in the great state of Ohio. it. - Botanical Eelations of Alfalfa. Alfalfa belongs to the botanical family Leguminosae, or the legumes of which there are thousands of species. The peas, beans, vetches, locust and numerous wild plants are all thus There Closely related to alfalfa. Its generic name is Medicago. are some fifty species of this genus, but ony three or four are of practical use as fodders. Medicago sativa, or common alfalfa, as alit has come to be called, is the common blue or purple-flowere- d falfa. It is by far the most important of all the species of Medd alfalfa originally icago. Medicago falcata is a found growing wild over large areas in Europe and Asia. It differs from common afalfa not only in the color of its flowers, but in the shape of its seed pods which are sickle-shape- d hence its name falcata which means sickle. The stems are also decumbent or prostrat, with a tendency to "be also somewhat woody at the hase when old. It is very hardy and is able to resist great1 extremes of cold and drought. In fact. Professor Hanson found a specimen of it growing in the extreme northern limits of cold, remains permanently frozen. Its yeild of hay where the sub-so- il and seed is very light, but it forms an important grazing plant for the reindeer and hardy cattle of northern Siberia. Medicago falcata is important in America chiefly because i3 it thought to be the parent from which Grimm, Baltic, Canadian Variegated, Cossack, Cherno and other hardy alfalfa have received their qualities of cold and drought resistance, and it is now used in breeding work in an attempt to develop new varieties yellow-flowere- (Turn to page 7.) G. f |