120 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
wasted. Better to turn the manure under and apply 
the lime afterward. It can then be mixed through 
the soil with the disk or any sort of harrow. Lime 
sinks, rains dissolve it and leach it down, so usually 
it is best not to turn it down deep. It takes a litle 
time for lime to neutralize soil acidity, so get it on 
some weeks or months ahead of the time that you 
- wish to sow alfalfa. The time of year when it is 
applied is not essential. A farm is a busy place, if 
it is a business farm. So just get out the lime when- 
ever you have leisure, only remembering not to put 
caustic lime in contact with manure if you can well 
avoid it. 
Depth to Apply Lime.—aAs has been said, lime 
sinks, so it is usually best to put it near the surfaée. 
It ought, however, to be mixed as perfectly as 
possible with the soil, and is not very effective when 
left in lumps, since it is not then in contact with 
enough of the soil particles. There are soils that 
have such acid subsoils that they will not grow 
alfalfa more than a year or two before it perishes. 
In these soils the roots decay down about six inches 
below the surface. Sometimes ‘this rotting is caused 
by too much water in the subsoil, but when the sub- 
soil is dry water will not stand in post holes, and 
then one must conclude that it is soil acidity that is 
at fault, especially if he finds by the litmus paper 
test that the soil is really sour. I have seen such 
soils along the Atlantic seaboard. In the making 
of these soils lime was left out and other combina- 
tions of chemicals put in that form probably mineral 
