prised. I took advantage of his deep interest and pointed out that 

 this alfalfa was not thrifty because it had to depend entirely upon 

 the soil for its nitrogen and there was not a sufficient amount avail- 

 able to supply the needs of such a rapid-growing crop as alfalfa. 

 On the inoculated area the bacteria supplied the deficiency and the 

 alfalfa was thrifty. (See Pig. 29.) 



"More people will inoculate when they know what it means," 

 he declared. "Alfalfa makes the land rich and the farmer rich too!" 

 Nodules on Alfalfa Roots Worth Thousands of Dollars in Building 

 up Soil! 



There are many who have never seen the root nodules of alfalfa 

 or of clover. They are too busy making money to have time for 

 the inspection of the swellings on alfalfa or red-clover roots. Yet 

 those very nodules are worth untold thousands of dollars to the 

 farmers of every land in keeping up the soil fertility. Without 



Fig. 24. Sweet Clover Dirt for Inoculation. 



Along the roadside where sweet clover is growing inoculated soil 

 can be obtained. 



them the country might face famine, due to a depletion of soil nitro- 

 gen. Many of the worn-out and abandoned farms of the Eastern 

 States would still be productive if they had been managed with 

 legumes instead of with timothy and grain alone. (See Fig. 7.) 



Ancients Knew Alfalfa Made Soil Rich 



The soil-enriching properties of leguminous crops were appre- 

 ciated centuries ago. Columella, an ancient Roman writer, wrote 

 not less than 1OQ years ago that alfalfa "dungs the land." It 

 makes the soil rich. r 



But it was only thirty years ago that scientists discovered^ why 

 alfalfa improves the fertility of the soil. It was only thirty years 

 ago that those minute bodies or organisms we now call bacteria were 

 discovered. They have since had a most profound influence on 

 agricultural practice, ^i 



Our best farmers have been employing these unseen builders of 

 soil fertility on their farms by growing legumes alfalfa, clover, 



30 



