130 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
without success. I advised drainage, and the land 
was drained, but yet alfalfa refused to ‘grow. I 
advised manure, and the land was made so rich that 
hog weeds grew as high as a man’s head, and yet 
alfalfa refused to grow. I advised much phos- 
phorus with no result. Different times of seeding 
were tried, and inoculation of the soil, and yet only 
failure resulted. Then I gave much belated advice 
to lime, and lime well, to use eight tons of ground 
limestone to the-acre and seed in late July. The 
man did nearly as he was told, putting on six tons 
of raw lime dust to the acre, and the very next year 
cut six tons to the acre of alfalfa hay. His field was 
the marvel of all the country around, and men came 
to see it. 
I could multiply these instances almost indefi- 
nitely. 
Inme in Soils —The reader should bear steadily 
in mind that the natural alfalfa growing regions of 
the world have in their soils now about from .5 per 
cent to 4 per cent of carbonate of lime. Five-tenths 
per cent is half of 1 per cent, or about ten tons of car- 
bonate of lime to the acre. Four per cent. would be 
approximately eighty tons of carbonate of lime to 
the acre. These figures are for the top foot of soil 
only. In natural alfalfa soils the subsoil is usually 
richer in lime than the top soil. When a man lives 
away from the limestone it is his privilege to buy 
carbonate of lime and add it to his soil. And when 
he lives in a region where limestone rocks abound 
and the soil is yet deficient because of leaching’ rains 
