ALFALFA 
29 
well-drained land, a sweet fertile soil, the 
right kind of bacteria in the soil, and 
freedom from weeds. To get a successful 
stand, a firm, fine seed bed is necessary. 
After- this it demands little attention. In 
general any soil that grows corn or red 
clover successfully will grow alfalfa. 
Wet and soggy land, land where the 
ground water stands within three or four 
feet of the surface, or where water stands 
half a day at a time, are not suitable. In 
springy, seepy soil in the northern parts of 
the country, the alternate freezing and 
thawing heaves out the plant and com¬ 
pletely destroys the stand. In this respect 
a sandy loam is a little better than a clay 
loam. Properly drained soil is again neces¬ 
sary on account of the great depth to which 
the taproot plunges. The roots must get 
nitrogen from the air, but they cannot do 
this if surrounded by water. The plant 
cannot take nitrogen in any other way than 
thru the roots; in fact, alfalfa needs more 
thoro drainage than any other crop. Not 
only must the soil be well drained, but a 
second and equally important essential is 
that it be free from acidity and even have 
an alkaline reaction. Alfalfa does not do 
well on an acid soil. In the East especial¬ 
ly, where very few soils are not acid, it is 
necessary to sweeten very heavily with lime. 
Alfalfa requires more lime than any other 
forage crop. It demands not only a neutral 
soil but one with an excess of lime for its 
own use. 
Before sowing alfalfa one should be sure 
of the state of the soil in this respect. One 
good way is to wrap a moist piece of earth 
in blue litmus paper; if the paper shows a 
tendency to redden, the soil is doubtless 
badly in need of lime. This may be applied 
in two ways: either the ground unburned 
limestone (carbonate of lime), two to four 
tons to the acre; or burned lime, one or two 
tons. (See Clover.) Since the lime stays 
where it is put, thoroly harrow it in. Often 
it is well to apply the lime the year before 
putting in alfalfa, say with corn. 
Alfalfa will thrive only in soils which are 
rich in lime. An acid soil is destructive to 
the bacteria. Humus cannot be formed 
from decaying organic matter without lime. 
It prevents the loss of the nitrogen in the 
soil thru the leaching of rain«; in fact, car¬ 
bonate of lime seems to be the foundation 
of fertility itself. 
Except in the wonderfully rich land of 
the West, one’s treatment of the soil can 
not stop here. While alfalfa has been much 
praised as a restorer of fertility, it is nev¬ 
ertheless true that it makes heavy drafts 
upon the phosphate and potash in the soil. 
As with lime, when these are not present 
they must be supplied. Unlike sweet clover, 
it requires a fertile soil to start with. On 
worn-out. fields, phosphorus should be sup¬ 
plied; 400 to 600 pounds of steamed bone 
meal to the acre or natural rock phosphate 
mixed with manure has been recommended. 
Plenty of well-rotted stable manure should 
be given, or, lacking that, cow peas, crim¬ 
son clover, and soy beans can be planted 
for green manure. When potash may be 
lacking in the soil, wood ashes or commer¬ 
cial potash may be applied. Summing up, 
it is more important, as the late J. E. Wing 
pointed out in his book on alfalfa, to fill 
the soil with plant food than to get the 
seed bed right. 
SOIL INOCULATION-. 
A third essential for successful alfalfa 
cultivation is that the right kind of bacteria 
be present in the soil. Only in compara¬ 
tively recent years has this been understood. 
Minute vegetable organisms inhabit the 
small pale nodules which can be seen with 
the naked eye about the roots of the plant; 
their function is to gather nitrogen from 
the air and convert it into a form in which 
it can be assimilated by the plant. If the 
soil is wet or acid, they will not thrive. 
Where they are not present in the soil al¬ 
ready, they have to be put there. This pro¬ 
cess, known as inoculation, is universally 
demanded where alfalfa and sweet clover 
have not been grown before. 
One of the two or three satisfactory 
methods of inoculation is the soil-transfer. 
Soil should be gathered from a field in 
.which alfalfa has been grown before or 
from about the roots of sweet clover (the 
sweet clover and alfalfa bacteria are iden¬ 
tical), then pulverized and screened thoro¬ 
ly, mixed with the alfalfa seed, and sown 
300 to 400 pounds to the acre. Since the 
sun’s rays are fatal to these germs, the 
mixing should be done in the shade and the 
sowing in the evening or on a cloudy day. 
