232 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
result. Some farmers who have adopted this plan 
maintain that it is not even necessary to add glue to 
the water, though that would doubtless make it some- 
what more effective. 
Conditions Favorable to Bacteria—Now to make 
those bacteria most healthful, most active, consider 
their tastes. Acids in the soil promptly kill them 
off. Much lime in the soil makes them very vig- 
orous and active. So make the soil sweet with lime, 
alkaline with lime, not sour. And they feed on air. 
So let the water out of the land and the air into it. 
Drain and subsoil or plow deep. Then the soil is 
ready to work miracles for you. Then one sees com- 
ing from the land rich croys of alfalfa, many times 
as much nitrogen as was originally in the soil, feed- 
ing his animals, feeding the soil if the manure is 
put back. 
Inoculation in Advance.—lIf one plans to sow al- 
falfa in a year or two he should begin by getting a 
source of inoculating. soil on his own farm. Let 
him prepare a narrow strip of land across a field, 
lime it, drain it, enrich it, inoculate it and sow it 
to alfalfa. Do not say, ‘‘I will experiment here 
with alfalfa.’ Alfalfa is no experiment any longer. 
It is sure to grow on sweet dry rich soil with in- 
oculation. There is no chance of failure. But on 
this strip you will get indication of the readiness of 
your field for alfalfa. If it grows there vigorously 
all along, and stands the winter quite well, you 
know that your soil is dry enough, sweet enough and 
rich enough for alfalfa. And from this land you 
