112 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



and the hills of Judea where grew such grapes, 

 such goodly grain, such grass that the land literally 

 flowed with milk and honey ; Judea where David the 

 shepherd boy walked and tended his sheep and grew 

 to the stature of a man ; Judea, where Christ walked 

 and lived and loved is a land of limestone, the lime 

 soft and honeycombed by water, constantly decaying 

 and giving its riches to the -soil. It is a curious 

 thought, indeed, that had it not been for the lime- 

 stone in the hills of Judea, perhaps the Master of 

 mankind might have been born in another land. 



Availability of Lime. So far as the writer's re- 

 searches have extended, everywhere that limestone 

 is found alfalfa grows naturally, almost of itself. 

 This book will be read by many men, we hope, who 

 have not been blessed by being placed on soils rich 

 in carbonate -of lime. Let them not thereby be 

 overmuch cast down. This is an age of machinery 

 and of cheap transportation. Limestone exists in 

 incalculable amounts throughout a great part of the 

 United States, and can be burned or ground raw, and 

 transported from the cliffs to the farms at very small 

 cost. This will be done some day, no doubt. It is 

 only a question of the farmers awakening to the 

 advantages to be derived from the use of abundant 

 carbonate of lime, and their asking for it, when 

 manufacturers will be glad in nearly every state, 

 as they have in Ohio, to place the stuff on the market 

 at a reasonable rate. My good friend, Prof. A. D. 

 Selby, of the Ohio agricultural experiment station, 

 himself almost 9$ great an enthusiast on lime as 



