502 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
We sold the alfalfa hay for $20 a ton in the field 
and mowed it five or six times a year, although the 
midsummer cuttings might yield little hay because 
of heat and drouth. Through an accident Mr. Blair 
was unable to continue the administration and C. E. 
Speed carried on the work. We disked and har- 
rowed the alfalfa twice or more during the year and 
it retained its thrift perfectly. We plowed some 
alfalfa sod and planted it to corn. That yielded 
more than 80 bushels to the acre. 
Alfalfa had shown the way to soil redemption of 
all of this vast delta region, shown the way to peo- 
ple the land with intelligent, home-making farmers. 
Under Mr. Speed’s administration we grew alfalfa, 
peanuts, corn, soy beans, cowpeas, pigs, goats and 
cattle. He made the place pay handsomely until 
the Scots sold it to go into rice planting. I know 
of no more splendid illustration of what alfalfa can 
do in the way of soil restoration than this, but there 
are few soils with enough lime, potash and phos- 
phorus already in them. I have nowhere else seen 
a soil that would not smile when tickled with stable 
manure and alfalfa roots. For such things this soil 
seemed ungrateful. 
There was much sandy loam on a neighboring 
plantation. This was reputed to be unfit for alfalfa. 
We learned that it was not naturally inoculated, so 
we had an Italian tenant inoculate and sow a field. 
The result was magnificent and the alfalfa grew 
taller than usual on our so-called buckshot soil. 
Later my friend, Mrs. Vinyard Scott, sowed alfalfa 
