l68 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORl. 



Just think how we drained it of richness. Mother used to say, "you 

 are wearing that soil out." Well, when I planted that land to corn 

 again we got 80 bushels. Just see how it had worn off that land. Now 

 how did we do that? It sounds like a miracle or a lie, one or the 

 other. I will tell you, as near as I know. Away down in that soil, 

 just as far as you can drain the ground out, those alfalfa roots will go — 

 yes, just as deep. Now what do they do down there? They are lying 

 up close to the minerals of the soil, bringing up the potash and phos- 

 phoric acid nearer the surface, and on every root fibre are little nodules 

 full of bacteria, and the air coming down full of nitrogen, the bacteria 

 swallow the nitrogen and give it out to the alfalfa plant. It is really 

 true that an acre of alfalfa will produce you as much fertility in a 

 year that would cost you $60 if you bought it in the bag. That's the 

 way we build up our farm — not by fertilizers alone — but b}^ alfalfa 

 roots and manure. 



I was down in Kentucky one time, and, as I always do, I was looking 

 for alfalfa fields. I was walking around one day and looking up I saw 

 an old Kentucky farm up on a hill. I thought it ought never to have 

 been cleared for a farm — the fields looked so steep, so bare anrl pitiful, 

 and there was an old barn and an old dilapidated house. There 

 were still a few old apple trees. A picture came up in my mind 

 of the time when that farm was first cleared — of the young man 

 who brought his wife there and raised boys and had hopes that those 

 boys would stay on the old farm. Rut where were those boys now ? 

 They have probably gone to the city and left the old farm. Then I 

 could imagine the old man up there with his worn face, amid these 

 poverty-stricken surroundings, wondering what he was going to do, and 

 while I was feeling this pity for the old man, I looked up and saw 

 an alfalfa field — only two acres of it, but just green and growing in 

 the sunshine, and I said, "why, see that alfalfa. That old man has 

 caught hold at last. If he will treat that alfalfa right, it will make 

 him manure for starting another patch, and some day, if he keeps 

 on, he can spread the glorious banner of alfalfa over that whole 

 motmtain side ; and then his boys will have to stay at home and care 

 for it. and that old liill side will never get any poorer than it is now, 

 but richer every day." 



Let me tell you more about that old farm of ours. When I began 

 working on it an old lame darky did most all the work. Today I 

 have three married men there at work besides mv two brothers ; and 

 those three married men work there for $1.25 a day the year around. 

 I pay them that the year around. They have been with me for many 

 years ; they think they own the farm. Their little boys go to school along 



