Imperial County CA Archives History - Books .....Alfalfa 1918 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 14, 2006, 5:07 am Book Title: History Of Imperial County California ALFALFA This subject may not be worth an entire chapter, perhaps, but it will not be inappropriate to group other crops of a kindred nature with this record. It has often been said that California's prosperity began with the "gold craze" of 1849, which is probably true in a general sense. But there was another important event in her early history that came a few years later without any blare of trumpets whatever, creating no stampedes or rushes, built no mushroom cities, nor made men rich in a single night. This was the introduction of the alfalfa plant into the State, which has made thousands of men rich, whole counties prosperous, and converted barren land into fertile acres, which are better and more enduring than gold mines. From its modest advent into the vast list of forage crops in the early fifties it has been steadily growing in favor until today, when it must be credited first place among them all. It is estimated that there are now some 750,000 acres devoted to alfalfa in the State of California alone. It has thus changed the map of that state not only, but also of other states and territories. Broad vistas of purplish green fields are everywhere seen waving amid cloudlet shadows in the sunlit breeze. Brown and worn-out fields of wheat and barley have been converted into these more productive acres, and thousands of men with modern machinery are busily engaged in gathering the crop several times each season. It has even been estimated that this alfalfa crop is valued as one-and-half times greater than the entire output of gold in California. The cured hay is shipped in bales all over the world, and it goes through the canal to the eastern states. Before the present war it was ground into meal and sent to every spot where there was a cow or horse to be fed. Our allies in foreign lands are now feeding their cavalry horses on a secret ration composed of alfalfa-meal bricks ground with other nutritious ingredients. Dairymen find that it makes rich milk, fine cream and butter, which in this era of high prices turns into a fortune with proper management. It is fed green to dairy cattle, or the stock is turned loose into the waving fields to browse at will. The plant seems to adapt itself to most any climate with mosture and deep soil, though not so well in a wet, clay soil. Irrigation is not absolutely necessary, as it is grown successfully in this and other states in the east without it. The Turkestan species, especially, is found to resist seasons of drouth. The plant grew in northern Africa and Asia Minor centuries ago. And even in the frozen soil of Russia its hardy roots penetrate to a considerable depth. There are now many varieties of this alfalfa plant, of which a western experiment station is trying a list of 100. As to its precise origin and the date little seems to be definitely known. It is believed to be the deepest-rooted plant in the vegetable kingdom, which accounts for its extreme hardiness and great vigor. These roots often extend many feet below the surface of the soil, thus bringing up valuable plant food, and hence it is that from four to six crops are gathered in a single season. A peculiar feature of this plant is that attached to its roots are vast masses of nodules, formed by the working of a certain friendly nitrogen-producing microbe, without which it cannot grow, as the plant will not thrive in a virgin field. Either the seed or the soil must be inoculated. Despite its vigor of growth, however, it must be handled with more care than the coarser forage plants or much of its food value is lost. In curing for hay it must be cut at the right time and handled very little in order to secure bright green hay. The Soudan grass is a new forage plant which is found well adapted for silage purposes, that was introduced last year. It is a native of Africa and yields from ten to fifteen tons per acre, being an annual plant which can be cut from three to four times each season. It is usually planted late in August upon old barley land or after the cantaloupe crop has been gathered. The yield is similar to that of alfalfa, producing a vast amount of forage in a short time where another crop must be seeded the same year. Milo maize is among the chief grain crops in the Valley, and it showed an increased yield per acre last year. It is fed to hogs, cattle, sheep and poultry, and the price for this grain was much greater last year than ever before. In response to the call of the nation for greater production, the irrigation area of Imperial County in 1917 produced fodder, fiber and foodstuffs to the value of $32,000,000, which entitles it to second place among the counties of the United States in agricultural endeavor. More than 45,000 acres of new land were prepared and seeded last year, increasing the irrigated acreage on both sides of the line to 408,000. Of this some 80,000 acres are devoted to milo maize and 60,000 to barley. Most of these products are used at home, the farmers being convinced that a pound of forage put into cattle on the ranch is worth almost as much as two pounds shipped away. The acreage of wheat will be materially increased this year by the planting of 5000 acres, as it has been found that wheat will bear as well as barley and bring better prices in the market, especially under the present war conditions and the great scarcity of this valuable grain for human consumption. The increase of silos of late throughout this region, which are now said to number over forty, has led to a much larger production of forage crops adapted to this purpose, such as sweet sorghum, which often yields 38 tons of silage per acre. This silage is a desirable feed in the production of all dairy products. Additional Comments: Extracted from: THE HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY CALIFORNIA EDITED BY F. C. FARR IN ONE VOLUME ILLUSTRATED Published by ELMS AND FRANKS BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 1918 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/imperial/history/1918/historyo/alfalfa222nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 6.5 Kb