132 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



prejudice against alfalfa, then sow clover, or any 

 other useful legume. Sure it is that once the land 

 is dry and sweet all the other good things will nat- 

 urally follow in train. Bacterial life in the soil, 

 sweet and abundant crops will follow with better 

 animal life, more hope in the farmer's breast, better 

 schools and more children in them, better country 

 roads (for there will be money to pay for them) and 

 a higher level of life and living all around. 



Fertility and Abandoned Farms. — Prof. A. D. 

 Selby of the Ohio agricultural experiment station, in 

 an essay read before the Columbus Horticultural 

 Society in 1907, on the question of "Abandoned 

 Farms," makes the following significant remarks 

 concerning the intimate relation between soil sweet- 

 ness, soil bacteria and soil life, and the continuance 

 and progress of farm occupancy. "We quote: 



Vietch has made the following ohservations : "Broadly speak- 

 ing, no more striking proof of the importance of maintaining an 

 alkaline reaction basic condition of the soil is needed than is 

 furnished by those soils which have become famous for their 

 persistent fertility under exhaustive cultivation. The loess soil 

 regur of India, Tschernoseum of Russia, chalk of England, 

 basalt of the far northwest, prairie of the middle west, blue 

 grass of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the limestone valleys of 

 the east are soils which are recognized as the most fertile in 

 their respective localities, and have maintained their pre-emi- 

 nence in fertility, in some cases for thousands of years. These 

 soils are all basic in character, alkaline in reaction. The history 

 of liming furnishes more general evidence upon the value of an 

 alkaline reaction of the soil as one of the chief economic factors 

 in crop production. * * * 



I believe it was BerthoUet who observed that "la terre est 

 Quelque chose vivant" — "the soil is a living thing." In a much 

 greater degree in our day than in Berthollet's day we recognize 

 the soil as a living medium, whose biological content is now 

 rich or now poor, here abundant and full of vigorous possibilities 



