With such an equipment, one can readily understand why alfalfa 

 resists drought and heat; that when the corn is stunted and the 

 pastures are parched and brown, about the only crop that maintains 

 its vivid green to brighten the landscape and cheer the farmer is 

 alfalfa. 



Soil Builders 



These roots not only give alfalfa a strong constitution and great 

 growing power, but they leave a permanent and lasting benefit to 

 the farmer in the way of a more fertile soil. When an alfalfa field 

 is plowed the roots themselves decay and make the best kind of 

 humus-building manure. (See Fig. 13.) 



There is another way and a more important manner in which 

 alfalfa builds up the soil and makes it richer and more productive 

 that is through its nitrogen-gathering bacteria. Go into a success- 

 ful alfalfa field in June and dig up some plants. Carefully break 

 away the soil from the finer roots and observe on them the small 

 swellings or nodules. We all know, or should know, that these 





. 



Fig. 8 This was a "One Time" Fertile Soil. 



What timothy growing and soil robbing will finally lead to. 



nodules are the homes of millions of bacteria that use up the ni- 

 trogen gas of the air and convert it into a liquid form of nitrogen 

 which is an actual fertilizer for the plant. (See Fig. 28.) 



Alfalfa A Soil Fertilizer Factory 



An alfalfa field is a marvelous fertilizer factory, each acre capable 

 of manufacturing annually 160 pounds of raw nitrogen into an avail- 

 able form of plant food. Alfalfa supplies its own nitrogen require- 

 ments. When the manure from alfalfa hay is returned to the soil 

 that produced it vast stores of nitrogen accumulate and result in 

 bigger arid better crops of corn, potatoes or tobacco, which may 

 follow after the alfalfa field has been plowed. Clover is also a valu- 

 able soil enricher, but it does not add so much nitrogen or so much 

 humus-forming material in the way of root growth and stubble as 

 alfalfa. 



12 



