SUMMARY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 507 



had been taken; then came good rains, dissolving 

 the fertilizers, and it was as though a miracle had 

 occurred. The alfalfa stood in tall, thrifty fresh- 

 colored ridges where the fertilizer had been put; it 

 remained healthy but small where it had not been 

 fed. While we did not weigh the strips separately, 

 I have no doubt that the fertilization more than 

 doubled the yield of alfalfa. A dollar spent in phos- 

 phorus for this field would return at least $4 or 

 $5. 



The lesson was not new; it was merely striking, 

 and it illustrates the fact that we can not get the 

 maximum profit from alfalfa unless we feed it ; that 

 practically all the lands of the United States are 

 hungry for phosphorus; that alfalfa bacteria can 

 not appropriate atmospheric nitrogen well unless 

 they too have plenty of phosphorus with which to 

 work. That alfalfa got no nitrogen from us ; it gave 

 us, after being fed with phosphorus, twice the nitro- 

 gen that we had before. Under our system of farm- 

 ing, as we feed the alfalfa hay to animals, we keep at 

 home much of the fertility thus gained. 



Basic Slag, Acid Phosphate or Raw Rock Phos- 

 phate. Admitting that we can make large profit by 

 purchasing phosphorus in some form, how shall we 

 best buy it? We admit that we are yet undetermined 

 in this matter. We have used three carloads of 

 fine-ground Tennessee phosphatic rock and think 

 that we got results from its use. We put it out 

 directly on the land at the rate of 1,000 pounds per 

 acre, followed by spreading manure over the land 



