LIMESTONE AND ALFALFA 219 



Where is Liming Needed? There are a few areas in 

 southeastern Kansas that need lime, arid also in Iowa, 

 though probably not very much of it. Much land in 

 Missouri needs sweetening; all of southern Illinois and 

 much of southern Indiana need4t, and there are instances 

 everywhere over Indiana where it would be beneficial, 

 and from Indiana eastward one finds an increased lime- 

 hunger in soils till one at last reaches the Atlantic Sea- 

 board. Where it is not needed is where bits and frag- 

 ments of limestone are found mixed through the soil, 

 left there by glacial ice or by the breaking down of lime- 

 stone rocks. Nearly the whole South needs carbonate 

 of lime sadly, the exceptions being the alluvial prairie 

 lands along the Mississippi, the Red, the Arkansas, and 

 some other rivers, and the black prairie lands of Ala- 

 bama and Mississippi. Liming is not commonly needed 

 where red clover grows rank and tall, where bluegrass 

 comes of itself and covers, although there are exceptions 

 to that rule, and I have seen good bluegrass land that 

 grew poor alfalfa till it was dressed with carbonate of 

 lime, after which it grew splendid alfalfa, and the blue- 

 grass too was greatly improved. 



I make no apology for spending so much time in coup- 

 ling alfalfa with lime and drainage because really if the 

 reader had good enough drainage and plenty of car- 

 bonate of lime in his soil he would find alfalfa to grow 

 so easily that he would not trouble to read this chapter 

 at all. And yet there are other essentials; they are 

 found in nature associated with soils calcareous and well 

 drained, though when one is artificially making such a 

 soil one may require to supply them. 



