George Washington Carver: A National Agricultural Library Digital Exhibit

1916

National Agricultural Library

The history of alfalfa in the Eastern States runs back for at least two centuries, as the colonists made repeated attempts to establish it.

Under the name of "lucern" it had been introduced into England about 1650. The attempts on the part of the American colonists to establish it were unsuccessful. The limestone region of central New York probably constitutes the area of its longest continued culture in any section of the East. In South Carolina there is a field reported to be seventy-five years old. Alfalfa has also been grown locally in most of the Eastern States for many years. The black prairie soils of Alabama and Mississippi are proving especially adapted to alfalfa. The successful districts have usually been the somewhat limited area of limestone soils where the conditions are especially suited to the plant. The recent efforts looking to its further extension throughout the East and South indicate that the chances of success increase greatly as the special requirements for its production are understood and provided for.

Alfalfa