478 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMEEICA. 



lime distributors that hold a tone of limedust and 

 apply from 8 tons to the acre downward. Among 

 these the Buckeye seems to be a desirable type and 

 is giving satisfaction. One must caution the work- 

 men to avoid leaving narrow strips unlimed. 



Other Essentials. — Other essentials are drainage, 

 fertility, inoculation, and seed at the right time of 

 year. These with limestone comprise all the essen- 

 tial things. Writing this four years later than the 

 main part of the book, I am struck with the truth 

 that alfalfa loves manure. One can find by the 

 thrift of the alfalfa the spots where manure is 

 buried in the field. Make the land rich. A little 

 manure, at least, is almost essential to success. If 

 one does not have it from the stable let him grow 

 it and turn it under in cowpeas, soy beans, crimson 

 clover, melilotus or almost anything that will decay 

 in the soil, legumes preferred. 



I wish I could tell how to grow alfalfa in the East 

 and grow it without manure or vegetable matter in 

 the soil, but I have not yet learned the trick. In- 

 stead, I begin to fear that there is nothing new un- 

 der the Sim. Drainage, limestone, manure, inocula- 

 tion — these, with seed sown at the right time, are all 

 there are to alfalfa growing in the East. The prepa- 

 ration of the soil, while important and even vital 

 to getting a stand, is not so much an essential of 

 alfalfa-growing as is the filling of the soil with plant 

 food and letting the air into it. ' 



I receive many letters from would-be alfalfa- 



