152 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
curious result. In Iowa on the experiment station 
farm at Ames a field was sown in alfalfa. All the 
seed was sown the same day and in no way was the 
treatment of one part of the field different from 
the treatment of any other part, yet there was se- 
cured a fine stand of thrifty alfalfa on one side of 
the field and very thin and poor alfalfa on the other 
side. The explanation seemed to be that on a previ- 
ous year one side of this field had been manured and 
sugar beets grown thereon. Yet all the field seemed 
very fertile and Director C. F. Curtiss thought that 
planted in corn all of the field was rich enough to 
grow 80 bushels to the acre. But that addition of 
some stable manure a year or two previously made 
one side of ‘the field eminently fit for alfalfa, while 
the other side remained in unprofitable condition so 
far as alfalfa was concerned. From experience I 
feel sure that I had rather take a rather poor piece 
of land, well manured, for alfalfa growing, than a 
naturally rich piece of land with no manure. In 
truth some of the heaviest alfalfa I have ever seen 
grew on Woodland Farm on soil naturally very in- 
fertile, though well filled with lime, after the field 
had been well coated with manure, the manure 
turned under deep and alfalfa sown. 
One day I was plowing in this self same field when 
a curious thought came. A flock of black birds was 
following the plow, hopping eagerly along and 
keeping up animated discourse, meanwhile busily 
searching for something. What they were after, of 
course, was earth worms. The thought then came, 
