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Title: The Book of Alfalfa: History, Cultivation and Merits

Author: F. D. Coburn

Author of introduction, etc.: W. D. Hoard

Release date: March 1, 2022 [eBook #67533]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Orange Judd Company, 1906

Credits: Charlene Taylor, Harry Lamé and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF ALFALFA: HISTORY, CULTIVATION AND MERITS ***

Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text.

Portrait
Signature

It is the pleasure of the publishers to present to those who are interested in alfalfa, the man who declined an appointment as United States Senator, that he might continue to direct the affairs of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture in general and of farmers in particular.—Orange Judd Company.

The Book of Alfalfa
HISTORY, CULTIVATION AND MERITS.
ITS USES AS A FORAGE
AND FERTILIZER.

Publisher's logo
*  *  *  * Spanish clover, such as has
 Usurped the Occident and dwells
 On Sacramento’s sundown hills,
 And all the verdant valley fills
 With fragrance sweet and delicate
 As wooing breath of woman is.
 —Joaquin Miller.

By F. D. COBURN
Secretary Kansas Department of Agriculture.

Illustrated

1912
Orange Judd Company
New York

Copyright, 1906 by
Orange Judd Company

New Revised Edition Copyrighted 1907 by
Orange Judd Company

All Rights Reserved

Printed in the U. S. A.

THERE ARE SOME SILENT SUBSOILERS THAT DO THEIR WORK WITH EASE, AND IN THEIR WAY, MORE EFFECTUALLY THAN ANY TEAM OR PLOW EVER HITCHED. THE CLOVER PLANT IS RIGHTEOUSLY FAMED AS ONE OF THESE, BUT ALFALFA IS ITS SUPERIOR. ITS ROOTS WORK, SUNDAY AS WELL AS SATURDAY, NIGHT AND DAY; THEY STRIKE 5, 10, 15 OR 20 FEET DEEP, MAKING INNUMERABLE PERFORATIONS, WHILE STORING UP NITROGEN, AND WHEN THESE ROOTS DECAY THEY LEAVE NOT ONLY A GENEROUS SUPPLY OF FERTILITY FOR ANY DESIRED CROP, BUT MILLIONS OF OPENINGS INTO WHICH THE AIR AND RAIN OF HEAVEN FIND THEIR WAY, AND HELP TO CONSTITUTE AN UNFAILING RESERVOIR OF WEALTH, UPON WHICH THE HUSBANDMAN CAN DRAW WITH LITTLE FEAR OF PROTEST OR OVERDRAFTS.

Flower pots

“Its long, branching roots penetrate far down, push and crowd the earth this way and that, and thus constitute a gigantic subsoiler. These become an immense magazine of fertility. As soon as cut, they begin to decay and liberate the vast reservoir of fertilizing matter below the plow, to be drawn upon by other crops for years to come.”