120 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



wasted. Better to turn the manure under and apply 

 the lime afterward. It can then be mixed through 

 the soil with the disk or any sort of harrow. Lime 

 sinks, rains dissolve it and leach it down, so usually 

 it is best not to turn it down deep. It takes a liitle 

 time for lime to neutralize soil acidity, so get it on 

 some weeks or months ahead of the time that you 

 wish to sow alfalfa. The time of year when it is 

 applied is not essential. A farm is a busy place, if 

 it is a business farm. So just get out the lime when- 

 ever you have leisure, only remembering not to put 

 caustic lime in contact with manure if you can well 

 avoid it. 



Depth to Apply Lime. As has been said, lime 

 sinks, so it is usually best to put it near the surface. 

 It 'Ought, however, to be mixed as perfectly as 

 possible with the soil, and is not very effective when 

 left in lumps, since it is not then in contact with 

 enough of the soil particles. There are soils that 

 have such acid subsoils that they will not grow 

 alfalfa more than a year or two before it perishes. 

 In these soils the roots decay down about six inches 

 below the surface. Sometimes this rotting is caused 

 by too much water in the subsoil, but when the sub- 

 soil is dry water will not stand in post holes, and 

 then one must conclude that it is soil acidity that is 

 at fault, especially if he finds by the litmus paper 

 test that the soil is really sour. I have seen such 

 soils along the Atlantic seaboard. In the making 

 of these soils lime was left out and other combina- 

 tions of chemicals put in that form probably mineral 



