36 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



poor, and she said no more. Wlien we plowed the 

 land in the winter of 1908-09 it seemed more mellow 

 and friable than usual, so we plowed it deeper than 

 it had usually been plowed. And when we disked it 

 up in the spring it was most evident that the field 

 had changed its character somewhat, so loose, mellow 

 and friable it seemed. "We resolved to make an ef- 

 fort to beat our record for corn raising, so we 

 planted with care. The seed was good and had been 

 tested. We got nearly a perfect stand over much 

 of the field and all summer gave it good culture. 

 There was a most serious drouth late in the summer, 

 which doubtless cut down our yield somewhat. Yet 

 50 acres of that field made for us a little more than 

 100 bushels of shelled corn per acre and the entire 

 90 acres only fell a little short of making 9,000 

 bushels. This result astonished us, as the field had 

 in olden times yielded only about half that amount. 

 In truth the alfalfa had built it up far beyond the 

 fertility that it had had when a "virgin soil." 



Let us briefly examine this miracle and see how it 

 was accomplished. In the first place it is probable 

 that this especial field has in it already about as 

 much potash as it needs for large crop production, 

 since it is a glaciated soil. Most of the field is well 

 supplied with lime ; in truth one can find small peb- 

 bles of limestone sticking all through the soil. Thus 

 it was sweet, and the alfalfa revels in sweet soil, al- 

 kaline, not acid. So the alfalfa was at home there. 

 Then the land had been thoroughly well under- 

 drained; thus it was full of air. Alfalfa bacteria 



