It is safe to say that ninety-eight per cent of all the failures to raise 

 alfalfa is due to neglecting some of the essential features we have men- 

 tioned, namely, the lack of lime, a poor seed-bed, failing to inoculate the 

 soil, or because of sowing at the wi'ong time. If all of the requirements 

 are religiously complied with, there will be few failures recorded. 



The digestible nutrients and fertilizing constituents in alfalfa are 

 as follows: 



THE production of clover and the utilization of barnyard manure, is 

 and has been the foundation of agriculture since man first began 

 to intelligently till the soil. Clover and manures made the fields of 

 ancient countries fertile before the Christian Era, and to their use the 

 richness of farms in our eastern and central states, is due. In western 

 states, W'here alfalfa is grown, clover is not made a feature, and in other 

 sections where the plant is not being successfully raised, other legumes 

 such as cow peas, soy beans and vetch take its place. 



The value of clover, like other legumes, is because it possesses the 

 power to absorb nitrogen from the air and make it available, not only 

 as a plant food in the soil, but in its own substance which is used for 

 stock feed. Were it not for legumes, the nitrogen content of our 

 soils would soon become exhausted. We must not lose sight, however, 

 of the necessity of an abundance of live humus in the soil, which can 

 be maintained by applying barnyard manure, for organic matter is 

 the substance which holds the nitrogen in the soil until it has been 

 utilized by the growing plant. In fact clover will not grow in soil de- 

 void of humus. 



During recent years many complaints have been made that it is 

 very difficult to secure a stand of clover. It is said, the soil is clover 

 sick, that it has exhausted the soil of some of the inorganic plant food 

 elements, that the winters are too severe, etc. Undoubtedly there is 

 some merit in all of the reasons given, but regardless of the many fail- 

 ures, clover can be grown as successfully today as when our soils were 

 new, if the essential requirements of the plant are provided. 



