In the States northward from the Ohio River, that is, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, the necessity for growing alfalfa has not been so much felt as in some other States, because of the excellence of the crops of clover grown in these. Its growth, however, is extending in all of these States. Much of the soil in Illinois, it is said, must first be inoculated with the bacteria proper to alfalfa before vigorous crops can be grown, and this is probably true of sections of Indiana soil. Some sections of Ohio are becoming noted for the crops of alfalfa which they have grown, and in Wisconsin Hon. W. D. Hoard succeeded in securing 5.7 tons of alfalfa hay in one season from four cuttings made on three-fifths of an acre.
In all the Eastern and New England States, alfalfa is being grown to some extent. In some counties of New York, as Onondaga and Madison, it is becoming the leading soiling and hay crop. In Massachusetts it has borne cuttings year after year on sandy loam soil. On Long Island three to four cuttings each season have been obtained for a series of years. It is believed that it will grow over nearly the whole of Southern Maryland and also in much of the eastern part of that State, and its growth has been quite successful in parts of Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Alfalfa will grow well in considerable areas in Canada. The statement would seem safe that at the present time profitable crops could be grown in some parts of every province of Canada in which the land is tilled. In Quebec, even on high land, it usually endures the winters. Near Montreal it has been cut for soiling food at the height of 30 inches as early as May 15th. In some parts of Eastern Ontario good crops can be grown, and also over considerable areas of Western Ontario. The author grew it with much success at the experiment station at Guelph in 1890 and subsequently, and during recent years considerable areas are being grown in several of the Lake Erie counties and in those that lie north from them. But in no part of Ontario are the conditions for growing alfalfa better than in some of the mountain valleys of British Columbia.
But few crops, if, indeed, any, are being experimented with at the present time to so great an extent as alfalfa; hence, the expectation is reasonable that there will be an enormous increase in the area grown in the future that is near. The two chief causes of failure in the past were want of knowledge in growing and caring for it on the part of the growers, and the absence of the proper bacteria in the soil. Acidity in some soils and want of drainage in others are also responsible for many of the failures referred to. But even where it does grow reasonably well, some trouble is found from the alfalfa failing in spots. In some instances the cause can be traced, as when coated with ice in winter, or where the soil is not uniform, but in other instances the precise causes have not been determined. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however, greatly increased areas will be grown in the future, especially in States in which the dairy interest is paramount or even important.
Soils.—It was formerly thought by many that alfalfa would only grow vigorously on soils and subsoils sandy in character, and underlaid at some distance from the surface with water. It is now being ascertained that it will grow on a great variety of soils, providing they are reasonably fertile, free from acidity, sufficiently porous below to carry away water with reasonable quickness, and not underlaid with hard pan or a subsoil so tenacious that it is almost impervious to water.
The best soils for alfalfa are those of the Western mountain States, and in these the deposit soils of the river valleys stand among the foremost. These soils are usually of much depth. Many of them have water underneath, and the subsoil is usually so porous that the roots can go far down in them, such is the character of nearly all the bottom land west of the Mississippi. But in nearly all of the mountain region of the West, from Banff in British Columbia to Mexico, alfalfa will grow well under irrigation, or in the absence of irrigation, if ground water is not too distant from the surface. In this region alfalfa grows more vigorously and more persistently than in almost any other portion of the United States.
In regions where alfalfa is not dependent upon irrigation, the best soils probably are deep, rich calcareous loams, clay or sandy, and underlaid with what may be termed a mild or reasonably porous clay subsoil. With such soils the plants may be in no way influenced by sheet water below, as on some of these in Nebraska, for instance, such water is fully 150 feet below the surface. These soils are usually possessed of abundant food supplies to nourish the plants, and the roots can go far down into the subsoils to gather food and moisture. Such lands are found more or less in nearly all the States of the Union east from the Rocky Mountains; hence, when the requisite bacteria are present, good crops can be grown on them in every State in the Union.
On the ordinary black soils of the prairie, alfalfa will usually grow reasonably well if underlaid with clay not too distant nor too tenacious. When the roots get down into the subsoil, they can usually find much food in the same, and unless in very dry areas a sufficiency of moisture, but in many instances it may be necessary to introduce the requisite bacteria, and to apply farmyard manure to encourage sufficient growth to carry the roots down quickly to the subsoil. In some prairie soils the growth will be vigorous from the start, but usually these are lands that have grown hardwood timber, and that have in them more or less clay.
In climates where the rainfall is considerable, alfalfa will frequently grow well on gravelly soils and on those that are stony. Some of the best alfalfa soils in the State of New York, New England States, and in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario are of this character.
Alfalfa will frequently grow fairly well even on stiff clays, and in some instances on gumbo soils. But these soils must not be so retentive as to collect and hold water for any considerable time within a few feet of the surface. Such lands have usually much staying power; hence, alfalfa grown on them frequently improves for years after it has been sown. On the reddish soils that cover much of the South, it has been found, as in growing alfalfa on stiff clays in the North, that where deep subsoiling is practiced alfalfa is not only more easily established, but it also grows with added vigor.