104 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
Deficiency in Soil—Curiously enough there are 
many well drained soils in the eastern part of the 
United States that are admirably adapted to being 
penetrated by alfalfa roots, yet on which alfalfa does 
not naturally grow well, if at all. Such soils often 
are loose, pervious, easily penetrated by roots. They 
may be of clayey loam order, or have sandy or 
gravelly nature. On them perhaps grow chestnut 
trees. Chestnut soils ought usually to be good al- 
falfa soils. Naturally they are not. By right treat- 
ment they may be made good. The clue to their 
reclamation is lime. 
Soil a Living Thing—A soil is a living, drink- 
ing, breathing thing. If it is truly alive it has in it 
much air, sufficient water, but that held in suspen- 
sion as film water only in the earth, not in satura- 
tion. That is, there is a film of water about each 
little grain of sand, between each two grains of soil, 
and between the layers of water is air. The living 
soil has in it humus, vegetable matter, in greater or 
less amounts. It has in it bacteria in immense num- 
bers. It is alive with bacteria. These bacteria are 
of various kinds and orders. Some are engaged in 
destroying humus. They break it down and from 
the nitrogen in the humus make soluble nitrates. 
These the plants can absorb through their rootlets. 
Some of these bacteria are able to assimilate the 
free nitrogen of the air and make it available for 
plants growing with roots in that soil. These bac- 
teria exist in all soils probably where there is 
plenty of humus decaying. Other bacteria there are 
