Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-04-06
An Exhaustive Description of This
Greatest Of All Forage Plants,
With Its History,
The Length of It's Reots-The Num.
bar Of Inches IL Will Grew
In . Season.
where 1t Origin ated and where 1. Is
Grown-There il NO Other Plant
SO Valuable.
Written for the Gazette.


DR.. ShJe Ter, Bloomington, ILL.,: "This
leads me back over sixty years to my boy
hood and the garden spot Of Germany,
near Msgdeburg, where have seen thou
sands Of acres In lucerne. It is q feast
for COWS, horses and sheep. There is no
better food for mich cows than lucsrne. 1t
makes plenty of rich milk and horses and
sheep get fat snd lively. Since my forty
wears in America + have often wondered
why our Otherwise wide-aTske people did
not raise lucerIe." Truly, 1t Is wonder
that 1t has not been more generally plant
ed for many years past. Old enough to
be many times very rest-srest-graud-
mother to Czlitor1ia-manY cell it &C ali
forbi4 clover" It WIS introduced into
California from Chill, from California to
Colorado. There Il is held In the highest
esteem. [. is the states b st
friend next to the intelligence,
pluck and push of her people.
Alislta seems to be native of the south
OF Europe where it has existed SO long
inst its history 15 lost in antiquity. 1t is
naturaliz ed in parts of Britain, most sue
cessfullY cultivated in the south of Eng
land. l. is not too Id In Scotland for
1t. France, Italy, Germany, have long
had 1t. II South America it grows
grandly. Finsliy 1t is marching into
favor over the most blessed parts Of
North America. In the south, west, and
southwest 1t has come to stay, q boon TO
the country that cGn produce it. A sum-
msry Ct the question h6s been giyea by q
Scotch writer, for his country. He
wrote in 1864: "The different results co.
tanned by persons who have IL, seem
to depend on differences of soil and man
agenent." Il grows wonderfully in
Peru, 10 the tropical climate OF the coast,
where II does best in the moist seasons,
also on the mountains more than IL 900
feet above the sea. No valuable forage
plant can so Withstand drouth. It's
roots penetrate the earth from ten to
thirty feet. Hence it should be planted
on soil that II can strike through, If one
wants to plant for the next generation.
A late writer In THE GAZETTE refers to q
freshet in California in 1872,
which Gu. sway the bank of
g creek, through sn alfalfa meadow.
The roots we're seen to have penetrated
to depth of twenty feet, to the water
line. A friend recently told the writer
that he knew Of sn instance showing the
same astonishing fact. A cistern was
sunk near some sifslfa, and the roots OF
the wonderful medick were traced down
over twenty feet. While we read of
fields in Chill over 400 years old, we are
sstonished that We cannot point to some
in our country at least fft' years old.
But il is gratifying 10 know that the next
ge9erstion will. A csptious writer in
Country G sntleman attacked this plsnt
about five years ago. Professor
A. E. Blount, State Agricultural
College, Fort Collins, Colo, and
others, gave him the "most audacious
lsmbssting." There are thousands of
acres to dsy in Colorado. Prof. B. s.id:
"In Colorado alfalfa is the leading hsV
crop John Sheldon has 800 acres join-
ing these college grounds and raises the
finest hay crops grown anywhere. He
cuts his crops three times, averaging two
tons to the acre at cutting. On TIE
Platte rver, near Denver, T. B. Walker
has $50 acres which ne cuts three times
The yield is from five to eight tons every
year, and he sells the hay at Sli to $40"
Europe, Asia and South America give re-
ports Of eight to fifteen tons per acre
annuslly; California, making her own seo-
sons st considerable expense. ten tons
at i've or six Cuttings; Georeii, ten to
twelve tons, cutting six or eight times. A
writer from Hastings, Neb., said four
years ago: SIT is only necessary to say
that alfalfa will grow in Northwest Iowa
to the complete satisfaction Of the En-
gliSh farmers whS colonised part OF
that country" j. W. c., Lamsrs, lows,
sowed on rich, second-oottom land, on q
creek valley, in Plymouth county, guam
tity of lucerne seed, early in April, 1882.
he says: THE winter of 1882 was
long snd severe, well adapted to try the
endurance Of any forage crop. Looking
at the lucerne on the 10th day Of
next April found there wss
s good stand, with no spots
killed out. The plsnts were becoming
green, ready for 8 strong and rspid
growth" In Nevada and Nebraska it
has grown on sage brush land where
nothtLg of value ever grew before snd
made six tons Of good hGv, with seed
enough from forty acres to put $4,000 in
the pockets Of the owner. II 1t doing
well in Tarrant county, Tex. In 1888
good reports were sent from Dallss
county about it. l live In Wise county,
twenty-five miles from Fort Worth. l
drilled small plat last April, about the
18th, finishing In May. Ga March IA,
this month, stalks were numerous twelve
TO eighteen inches high. 1 have a fine
stand from end to end Of rows, except
spot destroyed By red ants, when the
plants we're quite small, and the ends of
rows convenient TO neigaboripg chickens
The chickens have not killed the plants
that got 8 start, but they est it to the
ground. l an 8 native Kentuckisu,
yfamiliar with the entire state and its pro-
ducts. l have seen thousands Of ceres OF
red and white clover, and much sapling
and Japanese clover. resided nine years
under the glorious sun of Mississippi in
her most priced, richest lands; have
travelled extensively in our own country,
and can say truly, have yet to read about
or see the forage plant that deem super
Tor to aifslfs. l shall offer me
proof of Its claims to front rank, in this |
limited article, not forgetting red clover
on hrst-class blue grass land In Kentucky
with liberal supply of manure or land
plaster on It. love that land, too, better |
than any on earth. We have had sudden |
changes and freezes. The mercury
touched zero one night the past winter. |
AT no time during the winter did my al |
lalfa fail to show green above ground. |
twice within the past few weeks 1t has
been covered by third of an inch OF |
sleet. A few days since from four
to six inches of snow fell on 1t, i
NAT Il a