But it is not alone in the areas named that alfalfa has proved so helpful to agriculture. In Central Asia and northward it has for long centuries furnished the Tartars with the principal forage crop grown. In Turkestan and other places it will grow under conditions so dry as to forbid the vigorous growth of many hardy grasses. In Southern Asia, from India to Arabia, it has lost none of the popular favor accorded to it long centuries ago. In Southern Russia it is extensively grown, and up and down the basin of the Danube. In the Mediterranean provinces of Southern Europe it is still one of the leading forage crops. In France it stands high in the popular estimate, and also in some parts of Germany. And even in humid England it is grown more or less freely on dry, calcareous soils. And the day is doubtless near when in many parts of Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Eastern South America this great fodder plant will be found capable of yielding abundant harvests. In some parts of Argentina it has been claimed that it grows like a weed.
It is believed by many that alfalfa if exposed to very low temperatures will perish and that it cannot stand as much winter exposure as medium red or alsike clover. This is only true of some varieties. Other varieties, as the Turkestan, for instance, will endure lower temperatures and more exposure than the clovers named. Alfalfa has been grown with some success at the government experiment station, Indian Head, Sask, Canada, and yet it sometimes winter kills in Texas. As with clover, it is injured most by exposure to sweeping winds blowing over it in winter when the mercury is low, and the injury is more fatal just after the removal of a snow covering and when the plants are young. Ice forming over the fields after a sudden thaw and remaining for a time is very liable to kill the plants. It can stand considerably more summer heat than any of the clovers grown northward, as witnessed in the good crops grown in some parts of Louisiana during the hottest weather of summer. Nevertheless, with reference to temperatures, what may be termed a mild climate, such as characterizes Southern France in Europe and Western California in the United States, is best adapted to its growth.
It is better adapted to climates that are dry, where the plants can be irrigated, as then rains do not interfere with the harvesting of the hay. Even in the absence of irrigation, a climate that is reasonably dry is preferable to one where drenching rains frequently fall, which wash away the soil when sandy, or which fill it full of water when composed of clay. But where rains fall frequently and in moderation, as in the northern Puget Sound region, the effect is helpful to the growth of the alfalfa plants, although it may add somewhat to the labor of making alfalfa hay, and to the hazard in curing it. Alfalfa will maintain its hold for years on some portions of the table lands of the mountain States under conditions so dry that the plants can only furnish one cutting of hay in a season. It is safe to assume, therefore, that alfalfa can be grown under a wider range of climatic conditions than any other legume grown in the United States. But the influence which climate should be allowed to exercise on the use that is to be made of it should not be lost from view. In climates much subject to frequent rains in summer, it should be grown rather for soiling food and pasture than for hay, whereas in dry climates, and especially where it can be irrigated, it should be grown for hay, soiling food and pasture, but especially the former.
While alfalfa can be successfully grown in one or the other of its varieties in some portion of every State in the Union, it has its favorite feeding grounds. The best conditions for growing it are found in the valleys of all the Rocky Mountain States, where the growth can be regulated by the application of irrigating waters. In these the conditions southward are superior to those northward, because of the milder climate, which precludes the danger of winter killing by exposure, which occasionally happens in the more northerly of the mountain States, and because of the more prolonged season for growth, which adds to the number of the cuttings. This does not mean that the river bottoms in other parts of the United States will not be found good for growing alfalfa. It can be grown in many of these; in fact, in nearly all of them, and to some extent by the aid of irrigation, if the waste waters were stored, but the deposit soil in these valleys being of much closer texture than that in the western valleys, is, on the whole, lower in adaptation than the soil in the latter.
In the western valleys of the mountain States, alfalfa is the crop around which it may be said that agricultural production centers. It is the principal hay crop of those States. The extent to which it may be grown there is revolutionizing the production of live stock on the ranges, as it is providing food for them in winter, which is fast removing, and will probably soon entirely remove, the element of hazard from live stock dependent on the range pastures for support in that season. The dairy and swine industries in those valleys must largely depend upon it. Fruit orchards must ultimately grow on buried alfalfa meadows, and the rotation of all crops in the same will be largely dependent upon the growing of alfalfa. Next in adaptation to the mountain States are, it is thought, certain soils that lie between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi, especially such as are in proximity to rivers, or are underlaid with sheet water not far distant from the surface. But an unusually large proportion of the upland soil in these States, from Central Minnesota southward, have high adaptation for the growth of this plant. Particularly is this true of the soils of Nebraska and Kansas and of considerable portions of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.
In States east of the Mississippi, the adaptation is not so general, and is more dependent on soil conditions than on those that are climatic. In nearly all of the river bottoms of these States it will grow with more or less success. On nearly all upland soils it will also grow well, where the subsoil furnishes naturally good drainage. For the exception, see [page 132]. But in no State east of the Mississippi, is such a proportion of the area so highly adapted to growing alfalfa as in many of the States west of that river. In other States areas are found in which alfalfa will produce excellent crops, but usually these do not embrace the larger portion of the entire area in any State. In a considerable number of the States such areas are more or less limited, and usually they are distributed variously in the different States; that is, they do not lie side by side. The favorite soil conditions in these are a good loam, preferably more or less sandy and resting upon a porous subsoil.
A more exact idea will be given of relative adaptation in various States in what is now submitted. In California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, alfalfa is now grown chiefly by the aid of irrigation, and all of these States have highest adaptation for its growth. In some parts of California 6 to 10 tons of cured hay are obtained in one year, with pasture in winter additional. In Utah, good crops have been grown successively on the same land for more than a quarter of a century. In Colorado two cuttings are obtained the first season, and it is said that there the plants are not easily destroyed. It yields enormously in the irrigated valleys of New Mexico and Arizona.
In Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, it is grown with and without irrigation. In large areas in all these States, excellent crops are and may be grown, but the season of growth being shorter, not so many cuttings are obtained per year as in the mountain States further south. In Northern Idaho two cuttings may be obtained per year, even on high, dry land.
In North Dakota, especially westward, alfalfa gives promise of successful growth. It will grow well in much of South Dakota, especially on sandy soils not too distant from water. In Minnesota it has been grown successfully in Carver County since 1886. Good success is being obtained from growing it in other parts of the State, even in some parts of the Red River valley. In Western Iowa it is being grown with much success, and in some portions of Eastern Iowa. In Missouri, the two important centers for growing it are the northwest and the southeast, but in other areas it has also done well. In Kansas it will grow well in all parts of the State where the subsoil is porous. It has been cut for hay in that State in less than 60 days from the date of sowing. It grows equally well over at least two-thirds of Nebraska, especially the eastern half, and its growth in Nebraska is rapidly extending. In the Arkansas valley it luxuriates, and it is also being grown in Oklahoma. In Louisiana immense fields are being grown along the Red River and in other parts of the State. In Texas it is being grown more or less north, east and south, and especially in the valley of the Brazos.
In the Southern States alfalfa has not in many instances been given a good chance where tried. The plants have too frequently had to contend there as elsewhere with ill-prepared and weedy soils and imprudent pasturing. Yet it is being grown with considerable success, though as yet in limited areas, in all the Southern States. It has done well in parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, and in Georgia are some alfalfa meadows 25 years old. In the other Southeastern States, viz., Virginia, the Carolinas and Florida, it does well only in areas more or less circumscribed, but it has been grown with some success even in the rainy climate of Southern Florida.