The book of alfalfa; history, cultivation and meritsIts uses as a forage and fertilizer . in Bur clover; and, in thatcase, the difference in the size of the seeds of the twospecies is sufficient to distinguish them, in most is when we consider the round or roundish typeof alfalfa seed that there is difficulty in distinguishingfrom alfalfa the seeds of Yellow trefoil and of Sweetclover (illus. opp. p. 26), which latter frequently occursas a weed seed, and possibly in some cases in sufficientquantity to be suspected as an adulterant. By comparisonof the seeds of alfalfa with the two
The book of alfalfa; history, cultivation and meritsIts uses as a forage and fertilizer . in Bur clover; and, in thatcase, the difference in the size of the seeds of the twospecies is sufficient to distinguish them, in most is when we consider the round or roundish typeof alfalfa seed that there is difficulty in distinguishingfrom alfalfa the seeds of Yellow trefoil and of Sweetclover (illus. opp. p. 26), which latter frequently occursas a weed seed, and possibly in some cases in sufficientquantity to be suspected as an adulterant. By comparisonof the seeds of alfalfa with the two adulterants just men-tioned, (p. 26) the resemblances and differences ofthe three species will become evident. In general the 38 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA seeds of Yellow trefoil are shorter and rounder thanthose of alfalfa, the largest seeds of trefoil inch wide by inch long; whereas the larg-est alfalfa seeds measure i^ich wide by o. 1153 inchlong; so that the largest alfalfa seeds are a trifle widerand more than a third again as long as the largest trefoil. Yellow Trefoil: Black Medic: Hop Clover {Medicago lupulituij seeds. The smallest seeds of Yellow trefoil are usuallyplumper and shorter than those of alfalfa ( inchwide by inch long, as compared with inchwide by inch long in alfalfa) ; nevertheless, amongboth the small and the large seeds, so far as the criterionof size goes, individuals occur that equally well belong toeither species, and the average differences in size are SEED AND SEED SELECTION 39 not SO great as the differences found on comparing thelargest and the smallest seeds of the two species, theaverage for the trefoil being inch by inch,and for alfalfa inch by inch. So it will beseen at once that while trefoil seeds as a rule are smaller,shorter and rounder than those of alfalfa, the rule istransgressed by many individuals. We must, therefore,turn to the form and general outline o
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectalfalfa, bookyear1908
