A475 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA, 
lime distributors that hold a tone of limedust and 
apply from 8 tons to the acre downward. Among 
these the Buckeye seems to be a desirable type and 
is giving satisfaction. One must caution the work- 
men to avoid leaving narrow strips unlimed. 
Other Essentials —Other essentials are drainage, 
fertility, inoculation, and seed at the right time of 
year. These with limestone comprise all the essen- 
tial things. Writing this four years later than the 
main partwf the book, I am struck with the truth 
that alfalfa loves manure. One can find by the 
thrift of the alfalfa the spots where manure is 
buried in the field. Make the land rich. A little 
manure, at least, is almost essential to success. If 
one does not have it from the stable let him grow 
it and turn it under in cowpeas, soy beans, crimson 
clover, melilotus or almost anything that will decay 
in the soil, legumes preferred. 
I wish I could tell how to grow alfalfa in the East 
and grow it without manure or vegetable matter in 
the soil, but I have not yet learned the trick. In- 
stead, I begin to fear that there is nothing new un-- 
der the sun. Drainage, limestone, manure, inocula- 
tion—these, with seed sown at the right time, are all 
there are to alfalfa growing in the East. The prepa- 
ration of the soil, while important and even vital 
to getting a stand, is not so much an essential of 
alfalfa-growing as is the filling of the soil with plant 
food and letting the air into it. 
I receive many letters from would-be alfalfa- 
