Soils
Category:
ALFALFA
But little can be gleaned from American sources on this
subject. Notwithstanding, it may be said with safety that it has greater
power to grow on poor, worn and hard soils than any forage plant that
has yet been introduced into America for economic uses.
It will probably be found true of it, as of other clovers, that it will
thrive best on soils that have produced timber, and more especially
timber of the hardwood varieties. This means, therefore, that it will
grow well in probably all kinds of clay soils and also in loam soils
underlaid with clay. It has high adaptation for soils abounding in lime.
It can be made to succeed on hard clay subsoils from which the surface
soil has been removed. But it will also grow well on sandy soils and
even on gravels when a reasonable amount of moisture is present. The
author succeeded in growing it in good form in 1897 and 1898 in a vacant
lot in St. Paul, from which 6 to 8 feet of surface soil had been removed
a short time previously. The subsoil was so sandy that it would almost
have answered for building uses.
This clover will probably grow with least success on soils of the
prairie so light in texture as to lift with the winds, and in which the
underlying clay is several feet from the surface, also in slough soils
that are much saturated with water.
Since it grows vigorously on road sides, in rocky waste places and even
in brick yards when sown without a covering, the idea has gained
currency that the harder the soil, the better the plants will grow, and
the more surely will they be established in the soil; but this view does
not seem to be in accord with the principles which usually govern plant
growth. It will, however, send its roots down into hard subsoils so
deeply that in certain seasons the plants could not be dug up without
the aid of a pick.
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