trition which it contains. As a hay crop, it is greatly
prized. Even swine may be wintered in a large measure on cured alfalfa
hay.

As a fertilizer, the value of alfalfa will be largely dependent on the
use that is made of the plants. When pastured or fed upon the farm, the
fertility resulting being put back upon the land, it ranks highly as a
producer of fertility. But this question is further discussed on page
191. As a destroyer of weeds much will depend upon the way in which it
is grown. This question also is discussed again. (See page 185.)

=Distribution.=--It is thought that alfalfa is more widely distributed
over the earth's surface, furnishes more food for live stock, and has
been widely cultivated for a longer period than any other legume. It is
grown over wide areas of Asia, Europe, North and South America, and its
cultivation is constantly extending. It was grown on the irrigated
plains of Babylon long before the days of Nebuchadnezzar. It was the
principal fodder used in the stables of the kings of Persia. From
Persia, it is thought, it was brought to Greece about 470 B. C., and
that its cultivation in Italy began at least two centuries before the
Christian era. Several Roman writers, as Virgil, Columella and Varro,
mention it. From Italy it was introduced into Spain and from Spain it
was doubtless carried by missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church to
Mexico and the South American States which lie west of the Andes, as
Peru and Chili. In the arid and semi-arid regions of the Andes, the
conditions were found so favorable to the growth of alfalfa that it is
now the principal forage crop grown. It is almost certain that it was
brought from Chili to California, from which it has spread over much of
the cultivated portion of the arid and semi-arid west. Western grown
seed is also the chief source of supply at the present time for all the
States of the Union.

Fully a century ago attempts were made by Chancellor Livingstone and
others to introduce it into the Eastern States, but without much
success, owing, probably, to the lack of knowledge on the part of the
people as to how it should be grown. The seed at that time was doubtless
brought from European sources, probably France. It has been noticed by
more recent growers in these States that the results from sowing such
seed do not prove as satisfactory as those from American grown seed, but
that alone should not sufficiently explain why the attempts to grow