likely to be benefited to an extent that will far more than repay the outlay involved in labor and seed.

If the clover has been sown for pasture, the renewal of the same on higher ground may be made as stated above, but with the difference that the same kind or kinds of grain may also be sown at the same time as the clover is becoming rooted.

In pastures, medium red clover may be renewed whenever the attempt is made to renew the pastures, as by disking them and then sowing upon them the seeds of certain grasses or clovers or both. The disking is usually done in the spring and while the frost is out for only a short distance below the surface. The amount of seed to sow need not be large, usually not more than 2 or 3 pounds per acre, especially when seed of other varieties is sown at the same time. One stroke of the harrow following will provide a sufficient covering for the seed.

Clover as a Fertilizer. It would probably be correct to say that no plant has yet been introduced into American agriculture that has been found so generally useful as clover in fertilizing land and in improving the mechanical condition. Some who have investigated claim that there is more nitrogen in a clover sod after the removal of a good crop of clover than will suffice for four average farm crops, more phosphoric acid than will suffice for two, and more potash than will suffice for six. It begins to draw nitrogen from the air as soon as the tubercles commence to form and continues to add thus to the enrichment of the land during all the succeeding period of active growth. As previously stated, the

nitrogen is drawn in great part from the air; consequently, soil from which a bountiful crop of clover has been removed will be considerably richer in nitrogen than before it grew the same, and this will hold true as intimated above, even though the crop should be removed and sold. Under the same conditions it will also be true in available phosphoric acid and potash. But the latter are gathered from the soil and subsoil while the plants were growing. Consequently, if crops of clover are grown in short rotation periods and if no fertilizer is given to the land other than the clover brings to it, while it will be abundantly supplied with nitrogen, a time will come when the supply of phosphoric acid and potash may be so reduced that the soil will not grow even good crops of clover. When this point is reached the soil is spoken of as "clover sick." Happily, however, nearly all soils are so well stored with phosphoric acid and potash that this result is not likely to follow for many years. But lest it should, attention should be given to fertilizing the land occasionally with farmyard manure, or with phosphoric acid and potash applied as commercial fertilizers. Because of this, and also for other reasons, it is usually considered more profitable in the end to feed clover on the farm and return it to the land in the form of manure. But clover may cease to grow on land where once it grew well, because of other reasons, such as changes in the mechanical condition of the soil caused by the depletion of its humus and changes in its chemical condition, such as increased acidity. The remedy is the removal of the cause.

The roots also put large quantities of humus in the soil. Where crops are regularly grown in short rotations they will suffice to keep it amply supplied for ordinary production. Because of this it is usually considered more profitable to cut both the crops which medium red clover produces in one season, or to pasture off one or both, than to plow under either as green manure. But when soils are too stiff or too open in character it may be advantageous to bury clover to restore the equilibrium. It may also be necessary to bury an occasional crop in order to put the land quickly in a condition to produce some desired crop, the growth of which calls for large supplies of humus. When clover is plowed under it will usually be found more profitable to bury the second growth of the season than the first. The crop is in the best condition for being plowed under when the plants are coming into bloom. If left until the stems lose their succulence the slow decay following in conjunction with the bulkiness of the mass plowed under might prove harmful to the crop following the clover. The influence of the roots upon the mechanical condition of the soil is most beneficial. The roots go down deep into the subsoil and also abound in fibrous growth. The tap roots in their decay furnish openings through which the superfluous water may go down into the subsoil. The fibers adhering to the main roots so ramify through the soil that when even stiff land is filled with them it is rendered friable, and is consequently brought into a good mechanical condition.

While all varieties of clover may be utilized in

producing food and in enriching land, none is equal to the medium red for the two purposes combined. This arises from the fact that none save the medium red grows two crops in one season under ordinary conditions. Though the first crop should be taken for food, as it generally is, there is still ample time for a second crop to grow for plowing under the same season. This second growth is ready for being plowed under when time is less valuable than it would be when the mammoth or alsike varieties would be in season for being thus covered. And yet the work may be done sufficiently early to admit of sowing fall or winter crops on the land which produced the clover.

CHAPTER IV

ALFALFA

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) previous to its introduction into California, from Chili, about the middle of the last century, was usually known by the French name Lucerne. The name Alfalfa is probably Arabic in its origin, and the term Lucerne has probably been given to it from the Canton Lucerne in Switzerland. It has followed the plant into Spain and South America, and now it seems probable that soon it will be known by no other name over all the United States and Canada. It has also been known by names applied to it from various countries for which it has shown high adaptation, as, for instance, Sicilian Clover, Mexican Clover, Chilian Clover, Brazilian Clover, Styrian Clover and Burgundy Clover. In yet other instances, names have been applied to it indicative of some peculiarity of growth, as, for instance, Branching Clover, Perennial Clover, Stem Clover and Monthly Clover.

Alfalfa is upright and branching in its habit of growth, more so than the common varieties of clover. It usually grows to the height of 2 to 3 feet, but it has been known to reach a much greater height. Although possessed of a single stem when the plants are young, the number of the stems increases up to a certain limit, with the age of the