CARBONATE OF LIME. 121 



acids. Liming the surface makes alfalfa start off 

 vigorously and make good growth for a year or a 

 little longer, then it begins to decay, and will rarely 

 live the second -winter. In these soils the need is to 

 study how best to get lime down into the subsoil, or 

 at least down in direct contact with it. I suggest 

 that one way to accomplish this is to apply lime very 

 liberally to the top of the land before plowing, then 

 to turn the land as deep as possible, turning at the 

 same time the furrows as near as practicable 

 squarely upside down. A better plan, but more la- 

 borious, would be to distribute the lime in the bot- 

 tom of each furrow as the land was plowed, turning 

 it under by the next following furrow. This puts 

 the lime in direct contact with the subsoil. If a sub- 

 soil plow could now follow and open the underlying 

 ground, which would let some of the lime drop into 

 it, the work would be done in an ideal manner. 



Value of Liming. — It may make men in California 

 or Colorado smile to read of any such laborious way 

 of making land ready for alfalfa in the East. They 

 need not scorn the eastern man nor his soil or 

 methods. He has in truth better opportunity to 

 make profit from alfalfa growing than they with 

 their splendid soils, rich in lime and phosphorus, 

 and their fine, sunny skies. The eastern man has 

 advantage of splendid markets. His alfalfa when 

 he gets it is worth to him at least $15 per ton, and 

 if he is a dairyman or a stockman buying wheat bran 

 at $25 per ton he can very nearly replace a ton of 

 purchased bran with a ton of alfalfa hay grown 



