Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-04-01
ALFALFA.
An Exhaustive Description Of This
Greatest Of All Forage Plants,
With lis History.
The Length Of It's Rests-Tbe Eum-
Der Of Inches 1t Wall Grew
In Season.
Where It Originated md where AZ Il,
Grown-Th,re 10 no Other Plant
go Valuable.
Written for the Gazette.

Written for the Gazette.
By request from THE GAZETTE, which
is Argus eyed on oil subjects of public in
ierest, 1 sh,il say Of aliafs that its his
'ory can he traced over 1000 years. Says
DR.. SoI9ier, Bloomington, H.: "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. II is q feast
for cows, horses and sheep. Thsre is no
better food for mich COWS than lucerne. 1t
makes plenty Of rich milk and horses aud
sheep get fat and lively. Since my forty
wears In America l have often wondered
why our o. her1ise wide-awska people did
not raise lucerpe." Truly, it is wonder
hat 1t has not b Ell more Generosity plant
ed for many yesrs past. Old enough to
be many times very great-erest grand
mother TO Caliiornia-many call it &C ali
forni1 clover" Il was iutrc duced into
California from Coii, from California to
| Colorado. There II is held 10 the highest
esteem. Il Is the states st
| friend next to the intelligence.
pluck and push of her people
Alfalfa seems TO be native If the south
o. Europe where II has existed 50 long
that its history Is lost in antiquity. 1t is
naturaiz4d in paris # Britain, most sue
cessfullV cultivated In the south of Fog
lsut. Il is Dot too C Id In Scotland fog
IL. France, Italy, Germany, have long
had 1t. In South America it grows
grandly. Finaliy it Is marching into
| favor over the most blessed parts of
North America. 10 the south, west, and
southwest 1t has come to stay, boon to
the country that can produce 1t. sum
mary Ct the question has been given by
! Scotch writer, for his country. He
wrote in 1864: "Tne different results ob.
tanned by persons who have tried it, seem
10 depend on differences OF soil and man.
agenent." It grows wonderfully In
Peru, In the tropical climate OF the coast,
where it does best In the moist seasons,
also on the mountains m )re than IL 600
| feet above the sea. No valuable forage
plant caa so Withstand a drouth. It's
roots penetrate the earth from ten to
thirty feet. Hence it should be planted
loo soil that II can strike through, II one
4 wants 20 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
creek, through an alfslfs meadow
| The f0ots were seen 10 have penetrated
! to - depth of twenty feet, to the water
| line. A friend recently told the writer
! that he knew of an instance showing the
same astonishing f,ct. A cistern wa.
sunk near SOM alfslfa, and the roots Of
the wonderful medck were traced down
over twenty feet. While we read of
! fields in Cali over 400 years old, We are
| 1stonished that We cabnoG point to some
Ia our country at least fitE years OLD
! But II is gratifying to know thst the next
lgeuelation will. A captious writer in
Country G ntleman attacked this plsnt
| about FIVE years ago. Professor
A. E Blount, State Agricultural
College, Font Collins. Colo, and
Others, gave him the "most audacious
Iau bsstipg" TDere are Thousands OF
acres 10 DAY in Colorado. Prof B. s.id:
''Ia COLORADO alfafs is the leading hsv
crop John Sheldon has 500 acres bin
ing these college grounds and raises the
tioest hsy crops grown anywhere. H
cuts his crops tnree times, averaging two
tons to the acre at 6 cutting. Ga The
Platte river, near Denver, T. B. Walker
| mas 250 acres which he cuts three times
s'Phe SIetd Is from five to eight tons every
wear, end he sells the hay at Sl4 to $50 "
Europe, Asia and South America give re-
ports OF eight to fifteen tons per acre
Snnually; CsliforDis, making her own sea-
sons at considerable expense, ten tons
st five or SIX cuttings; Georgia, ten IL
twelve tons, cutting SIX or eight times. A
writer from Hastings, N4b., said four
years sg SIT is, Lnly necessary to say
that alfalfa will grow in North west Iowa
10 the complete satisfaction Of the En-
glish farmers wh5 colonz ed part OF
thst country" J. W. C, Lamars, lows,
sowed on rich, second-oottom lsni, on q
creek valley, in Plymouth county, qnsn-
'ity Of lucerne SEED, esIl3 in April. 1882
He says: The winter Of 1882 8 Was
long and severe, well Edspted TO tiY the
endurance Of any forage crop. Ll king
at the lucerne on the 10'h day ii
next April L found there was
Z goou stand, with no spnt-
killed out. The plants were becoming
green, ready for strong snd rapid
growth" In Nevada and Nebraska 1t
has grown on sage brush land where
nothing of value ever grew before and
made SIX tons Of good hav, with seed
enough from forty acres to put $4,000 in
the pockets OF The owner. L. II doing
we'll in Tarrant county, Tex. In 1883
good reports were sent from Dallas
c. unity about 1t. l live in Wise county,
twenty-five miles from Fort Worth. L
drilled small plat last April. about the
18th, Flushing 10 NAV. Ga March IA.
this month, stalks were numerous twelve
TO eighteen inches high. I have q fine
stand from end to end Of rows, except
a spot destroyed by red ants, when the
plants we're quite small, and the ends of
rows convenient to neignboring chickens.
The chickens have not killed the plants
that got start, but they eat 1t to the
ground. l am native Kentucsiap,
familiar with the entire state and It's pro.
ducts. l have seen thousands Of sores OF
red end white clover, and much sapling
and Japanese clover. 1 resided nire 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 supar-
Tor to alfalfa. I shall offer s me
proof OF its claims to front rank, in thus
limited article, not forgetting red clover
ondrst-clsss 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 mad sudden