184 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



in straight lines across the field, and some in contact with the roots of selected 

 plants. In about two weeks the plants in places adjacent to the places of in- 

 oculation began to take on a healthy, green color and more vigorous growth. 

 Digging about the plants I soon found tubercles. Some reached 18 inches in 

 height by July, when it was cut. Our soil is evidently unfitted for the profit- 

 able growth of alfalfa, containing almost no lime, and too much iron." The 

 report adds that "This is a condition of soil which is seldom found in Kansas, 

 where the springs, wells and creeks are almost universally supplied with 

 'hard' water. It is possible that the failure of the bacteria to spread on the 

 unlimed soil was due to an acid in the soil which needed to be neutralized by 

 an alkali such as lime/' We should have said that the experiments of Mr. 

 Patch were made in Wisconsin, though quoted in the Kansas report. It 

 shows what we have before said, that the great reason for the failure of alfalfa 

 eastward has been the lack of lime more than anything else, and the failure 

 to keep it mown the first season to keep down the weed-growth, and to invig- 

 orate the alfalfa. It seems probable, then, that as we learn the needs of the 

 plant, that alfalfa will be made a success in the East to a far greater extent 

 than it has been. The report states that alfalfa has been successfully sown in 

 Kansas every month from March to September. When the ground is not 

 weedy, spring seeding has been successful, but the preference seems to be 

 for fall seeding. Alfalfa seed should always be fresh, and old seed is a com- 

 mon cause of failure. The advice is to use about 20 pounds of seed per acre, 

 but as low as 8 to 10 pounds have been used with success. The mower should 

 be run over the young alfalfa two or three times the first summer to keep 

 down the weeds; if a good stand is there the second season it will be able to 

 take care of the weeds. Alfalfa should be handled in hay making pretty 

 much as clover hay is made, and should always be gotten in without rain and 

 stored under cover, for no hay is more easily ruined by rain. 



