PREFACE. 



The genesis of this book was a ride across England 

 one day in May, 1907. The earth was green and beauti- 

 ful, the pastures lush, the meadows giving brave promise. 

 Many cows grazed the pastures, fleecy sheep climbed the 

 hills of Derbyshire, great mares watched their lubberly 

 colts race across the sward and all was one harmonious 

 scene of peace, restfulness and security. There was some- 

 thing especially alluring in an agriculture based essentially 

 on permanent things like meadows and pastures that do 

 not let fields erode, that maintain and build fertility, that 

 make possible the higher types of agriculture based on 

 keeping good animals, on making milk for babes, wool for 

 soft garments or fine young horses for the use of man. 



All along the way I observed there was much doing 

 in the meadows. Great hopper-shaped machines on two 

 wheels were going to and fro over the grass distributing 

 something, I knew not what. Evidently the grasses were 

 being fed; evidently the wonderful carpet of green did 

 not "just happen" it was part of a definite plan. It was 

 fed, with what ? 



I learned a great deal during that summer in Europe 

 of the habits of men in feeding grasses in that land, in 

 making and maintaining meadows and pastures. All my 

 life I had loved grasses and clovers, the meadowland and 

 the pasture, as had my fathers and grandfathers before 

 me, and this work appealed to me. I resolved to help on 

 the same sort of work in America. My book "Alfalfa in 



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