12 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



prospects beneath the surface of the earth and brings 

 her hidden treasures to the Hght of day. It takes the 

 earth, air, moisture and sunshine, and transmutes them 

 into nourishing feed stuffs and into tints of green and 

 purple, and into nectar and sweet perfumes, alluring the 

 busy bees to visits of reciprocity, whereon they caress 

 the alfalfa blossoms, which, in their turn, pour out secre- 

 tions of nectar fit for Jupiter to sip. It forms a partner- 

 ship with the micro-organisms of the earth by which it 

 is enabled to enrich the soil upon which it feeds. It 

 brings gold into the farmer's purse by processes more 

 mysterious than the alchemy of old. The farmer with a 

 fifty-acre meadow of alfalfa will have steady, enjoyable 

 employment from June to October ; for as soon as he has 

 finished gathering the hay at one end of the field it will 

 be again ready for the mower at the other. The homes 

 surrounded by fields of alfalfa have an esthetic advan- 

 tage unknown to those where the plant is not grown. 

 The alfalfa meadow is clothed with purple and green 

 and exhales fragrant, balmy odors throughout the grow- 

 ing season to be wafted by the breezes into the adjacent 

 farmhouses." 



