216 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



next consider its lime content. Alfalfa loves carbonate 

 of lime. So-called "natural alfalfa soils" are always 

 soils heavily charged with carbonate of lime. The al- 

 falfa-growing soils of Colorado, for example, contain 

 from i l /2 per cent to as much as 10 per cent or more 

 of carbonate of lime. The same condition is met every- 

 where in the West. In southeast Missouri along the Mis- 

 sissippi River one finds alfalfa growing vigorously; one 

 finds, too, a soil with about i l /2 per cent of carbonate 

 of lime. In Louisiana, on a very heavy, tenacious "buck- 

 shot" clay residue from the overflow of the Mississippi 

 River, I found alfalfa thriving well, and analysis showed 

 a lime content of about i l /2 per cent or a little more. 

 On Woodland Farm the subsoil is well filled with small 

 limestone pebbles and the surface soil of the best alfalfa 

 fields will effervesce when muriatic acid is poured onto 

 the soil. A natural alfalfa-growing region is found in 

 Alabama and Mississippi on the rotten limestone of the 

 black prairie region. Onondaga Co., N. Y., is made 

 up largely of limestone hills; there alfalfa thrives. In 

 the parts of France having most lime in the soil one finds 

 the most lucerne. In England it is grown where the soil 

 is calcareous or lime-impregnated. I have nowhere found 

 alfalfa growing profitably or well except on soils well 

 filled with lime either by nature or by man. 



Soils Can Be Made Fit to Grow Alfalfa. The fact 

 that alfalfa is a lime-loving plant would be discourag- 

 ing were it not that its peculiar requirements are quite 

 easily met if men will take trouble. For instance, there 

 are hardly any soils less adapted naturally to alfalfa- 

 growing than the sands of the Gulf Coast. These sands 



