SUMM^iBY OF ALFALFA SOWING. 497 



grow. Naturally the lime soils are far richer than 

 the soil in Georgia. Drainage made the difference. 

 The black lime soils are very similar to our best 

 black soils of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; they need 

 underdrainage with tiles fully as much as did our 

 soils. Happily, as I write, ditching machines are 

 beginning the work. There seems no physical ob- 

 stacle to drainage. It is easier than it was in Ohio ; 

 the fall is ample, and outlets are good as a rule. I 

 also have an idea that these black soils, where they 

 have grown continuous crops of corn and cotton, in 

 some instances for eighty years, must be depleted in 

 their phosphorus content, at least in the available 

 phosphorus. I am undertaking to learn by exper- 

 iment if this is not true. Till the present time 

 no fertilization whatever has ever been given them. 

 They respond marvelously to stable manures we 

 know, but manures are always in limited supply on 

 plantations. 



Spring seeding is almost universally practiced in 

 the black soils, for the reason given that the lands 

 are wet and may through frost lift the young plants 

 in winter. After underdrainage fall seeding can be 

 practiced and I think with perfect success and far 

 greater freedom from crabgrass. 



Making Alfalfa Hay in the Prairie Lands. — Many 

 alfalfa-growers here make their hay very cheaply. 

 It is their practice to let hay dry quite thoroughly 

 before raking. They are not strenuous to save all 

 the leaves, for the hay is going to a market that does 

 not highly regard alfalfa leaves. Sweep rakes gather 



