222 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



The land would not grow more than 25 bushels of corn 

 per .acre and seemed very poor, hard and clayey. Wish- 

 ing to make alfalfa succeed I cleaned out a stable that 

 had in it 40 years' manure and enriched part of one field 

 well. I used also commercial fertilizers, chiefly of phos- 

 phorus. Other parts of the land had no manuring what- 

 ever. The final result showed absolutely no difference in 

 growth between the manured and the unmanured land 

 no sign of the fertilizer was discernible. The fact was, 

 the soil was very rich in phosphorus and potassium. 

 The alfalfa did not mind its deficiency in nitrogen, since 

 the soil carried naturally the bacteria that alfalfa re- 

 quires and as soon as it started to grow it gathered its 

 own nitrogen. I have nowhere seen such a result else- 

 where, and it is a safe rule to make soils destined to 

 grow alfalfa as rich as one well can. Assuredly here 

 I address my words to farmers in eastern America; 

 dwellers in Idaho and Colorado may smile if they will, 

 though in Nebraska manure gave good returns applied 

 as preparation for alfalfa, as, also, it did in Iowa. Now, 

 with rich land, drained, filled with carbonate of lime, 

 are we ready to sow alfalfa? Nearly. Now comes in- 

 oculation. I know of no plant more dependent on its 

 bacteria than alfalfa. Without them it is a poor, sickly, 

 short-lived plant. 



There are several ways of inoculating land for al- 

 falfa, but first let us consider where it is needed. Assur- 

 edly not in California nor in any of the semi-arid land 

 of the West; not, commonly, in Kansas now, though 

 once it was needed; not often any more in Nebraska, but 

 in all the region east of the Missouri River one is apt to 



