132 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
prejudice against alfalfa, then sow clover, or any 
other useful legume. Sure it is that once the land 
is dry and sweet all the other good things will nat- 
urally follow in train. Bacterial life in the soil, 
sweet and abundant crops will follow with better 
animal life, more hope in the farmer’s breast, better 
schools and more’ children in them, better country 
roads (for there will be money to pay for them) and 
a higher level of life and living all around. 
Fertility and Abandoned Farms.—Prof. A. D. 
Selby of the Ohio agricultural experiment station, in 
an essay read before the Columbus Horticultural 
Society in 1907, on the question of ‘‘ Abandoned 
Farms,’’ makes the following significant remarks 
concerning the intimate relation between soil sweet- 
ness, soil bacteria and soil life, and the continuance 
and progress of farm occupancy. We quote: 
Vietch has made the following observations: “Broadly speak- 
ing, no more striking proof of the importance of maintaining an 
alkaline reaction basic condition of the soil is needed than is 
furnished by those soils which have become famous for their 
persistent fertility under exhaustive cultivation. The loess soil 
regur of India, Tschernoseum of Russia, chalk of England, 
basalt of the far northwest, prairie of the middle west, blue 
grass of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the limestone valleys of 
the east are soils which are recognized as the most fertile in 
their respective localities, and have maintained their pre-emi- 
nence in fertility, in some cases for thousands of years. These 
soils are all basic in character, alkaline in réaction. The history 
of liming furnishes more general evidence upon the value of an 
alkaline reaction of the soil as one of the chief economic factors 
in crop production. * * * 
I believe it was Berthollet who observed that “la terre est 
quelque chose vivant”—‘the soil is a living thing.’ In a much 
greater degree in our day than in Berthollet’s day we recognize 
the soil as a living medium, whose biological conteat is now 
rich or now poor, here abundant and full of vigorous ,.ssibilities 
