SOIL AND SEEDING 65 



alfalfa-growing and the successful growing of other 

 crops. Poor farming never brings big crops, nor will 

 poor land produce as big yields as the more fertile. 

 Failure to restore to the soil the necessary elements of 

 which it has been robbed means the same in New York, 

 Kansas, Virginia, or anywhere else. Every farm plant, 

 to prosper, must find in the soil, readily available, the 

 elements needed for its development. If a farmer finds 

 the soil lacking in elements needed for certain crops, he 

 should either apply the deficiency or not attempt 

 their raising. This is true of corn or wheat, cotton, or 

 tobacco, no less than alfalfa. 



Alfalfa needs especially nitrogen, potash and phos- 

 phorus. The average virgin soil in the United States 

 contains enough of these to last several hundred years. 

 If there had been at all times an intelligent rotation of 

 crops, these chemical elements would be found in just as 

 large proportions in the soil that has been farmed a hun- 

 dred years as in the soil never cultivated. Hence, if 

 after trying alfalfa a man meets with failure, he should 

 not stop, and say, "Alfalfa won't grow 'here'," but try it 

 again immediately. If he discovers a seeming failure in 

 March or April, he should disk and harrow and as early 

 as possible sow about ten pounds of seed to the acre ; in 

 many instances he will have to clip his alfalfa in about 

 six or eight weeks and can mow a crop of hay in Sep- 

 tember, or possibly two hay crops in the season. There 

 have been various cases reported where three hay crops 

 were secured the first season after such cultivation, when 

 the fields had been pronounced a failure in March. 

 Alfalfa may be sown on such ground as late as the first 



