36 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
poor, and she said no more. When we plowed the 
land in the winter of 1908-09 it seemed more mellow 
and friable than usual, so we plowed it deeper than 
it had usually been plowed. And when we disked it 
up in the spring it was most evident that the field 
had changed its character somewhat, so loose, mellow 
and friable it seemed. We resolved to make an ef- 
fort to beat our record for corn raising, so we 
planted with care. The seed was good and had been 
tested. We got nearly a perfect stand over much 
of the field and all summer gave it good culture. 
There was a most serious drouth late in the summer, 
which doubtless cut down our yield somewhat. Yet 
50 acres of that field made for us a little more than 
100 bushels of shelled corn per acre and the entire 
90 acres only fell a little short of making 9,000 
bushels. This result astonished us, as the field had 
in olden times yielded only about half that amount. 
In truth the alfalfa had built it up far beyond the 
fertility that it had had when a ‘‘virgin soil.’’ 
Let us briefly examine this miracle and see how it 
was accomplished. In the first place it is probable 
that this especial field has in it already about as 
much potash as it needs for large crop production, 
since it is a glaciated soil. Most of the field is well 
supplied with lime; in truth one can find small peb- 
bles of limestone sticking all through the soil. Thus 
it was sweet, and the alfalfa revels in sweet soil, al- 
kaline, not acid. So the alfalfa was at home there. 
Then the land had been thoroughly well under- 
drained; thus it was full of air. Alfalfa bacteria 
