228 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



Hungary have been even more emphatic. Indeed, Llebig, more 

 than fifty years ago, in speaking of one of the most common 

 methods of destroying sources of available nitrogen, said: 



"Nothing will more certainly consummate the ruin of Eng- 

 land than the scarcity of fertilizers. It means the scarcity of 

 food. It is impossible that such a sinful violation of the divine 

 laws of nature should forever remain unpunished, and the time 

 will probably come for England, sooner than for any other coun- 

 try, when, with all her wealth in gold, iron, and coal, she will be 

 unable to buy one-thousandth part of the food which she has 

 during hundreds of years thrown recklessly away." 



To produce good crops of alfalfa without the nitrogen gather- 

 ing bacteria requires exceedingly rich soil and liberal applica- 

 tions of barnyard manure or other nitrogenous fertilizer. Even 

 the rich black prairie soil of Illinois does not furnish suflScient 

 available nitrogen for maximum crops of alfalfa. No other crop 

 grown in Illinois requires such large quantities of nitrogen as 

 alfalfa. 



Applications of available nitrogen to Illinois soil produce 

 crops of alfalfa which yield from two to four times as much hay 

 as crops which obtain all of their nitrogen from the natural 

 supply of the soil. The inoculation of Illinois soil with the 

 proper alfalfa bacteria enables the alfalfa to feed upon the in- 

 exhaustible supply of free nitrogen in the air and the inoculated 

 soil produces just as large crops of alfalfa as soil which has been 

 heavily fertilized with commercial nitrogen. Nitrogen costs 

 about 15 cents a pound in commercial fertilizers, and about 50 

 pounds of nitrogen are required to produce one ton of alfalfa 

 hay and the weight of the free nitrogen in the atmosphere is 

 equal to about 12 pounds to «ach square inch of surface of the 

 earth. 



In Summary. — Nitrogen is constantly being 

 drained out of the soil by growing crops. Wheat, 

 maize, oats, hay, nearly all farm crops take out nitro- 

 gen. It is gathered together in the grains ; a grain 

 elevator represents the fertility of many a field. It 

 goes to the cities ; it becomes the food of man. Ow- 

 ing to our wasteful practice, hard to reform in mod- 

 ern civilization, the nitrogen waste is poured into 

 the sea. Soon would the soils of the world become 



