232 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



result. Some farmers who have adopted this plan 

 maintain that it is not even necessary to add glue to 

 the water, though that would doubtless make it some- 

 what more effective. 



Conditions Favorable to Bacteria. — Now to make 

 those bacteria most 'healthful, most active, consider 

 their tastes. Acids in the soil promptly kill them 

 off. Much lime in the soil makes them very vig- 

 orous and active. So make the soil sweet with lime, 

 alkaline with lime, not sour. And they feed on air. 

 So let the water out of the land and the air into it. 

 Drain and subsoil or plow deep. Then the soil is 

 ready to work miracles for you. Then one sees com- 

 ing from the land rich crops of alfalfa, many times 

 as much nitrogen as was originally in the soil, feed- 

 ing his animals, feeding the soil if the manure is 

 put back. 



Inoculation in Advance. — If one plans to sow al- 

 falfa in a year or two he should begin by getting a 

 source of inoculating soil on his own farm. Let 

 him prepare a narrow strip of land across a field, 

 lime it, drain it, enrich it, inoculate it and sow it 

 to alfalfa. Do not say, "I will experiment here 

 with alfalfa." Alfalfa is no experiment any. longer. 

 It is sure to grow on sweet dry rich soil with in- 

 oculation. There is no chance of failure. But on 

 this strip you will get indication of the readiness of 

 your field for alfalfa. If it grows there vigorously 

 all along, and stands the winter quite well, you 

 know that your soil is dry enough, sweet enough and 

 rich enough for alfalfa. And from this land you 



