Climate and Soil.--The experimentation with alfalfa by farmers has been wide-spread, and the percentage of failure has been so large that many have believed this legume was unfitted to the climate and soil of the country east of the Missouri River. Successful experience has shown that it can be made to take a considerable place in eastern crop-schemes. The climate is not unfavorable, as is evidenced by large areas of good alfalfa sods on thousands of farms. The abundant rainfall brings various weeds and grasses into competition with it, and that will remain a serious drawback until growers learn to clean their surface soils by good tillage before seeding. Any land that is sufficiently well drained to produce a good corn crop in a wet summer can grow alfalfa if the seed-bed is rightly made. The loose soils are more difficult to seed successfully than is the land having enough clay to give itself body, although most experimenters select their most porous soils. All farms having good tilth can bring alfalfa into their crop-rotations. Free Use of Lime.--The conditions requisite to success in alfalfa-growing are not numerous, but none can be neglected. Alfalfa should be given a calcareous soil when possible, but an acid soil can be made favorable to alfalfa by the free use of lime. There must remain a liberal amount after the soil deficiency has been met, and when the use of lime is on a liberal scale, the pulverized limestone makes the safest carrier. However, 50 bushels of stone-lime per acre can be used safely on any land that is not distinctly sandy, and that amount is adequate in most instances. Inoculation.--The necessity of inoculation has been discussed in Chapter IV. Eastern land would become inoculated for alfalfa if farmers would adopt the practice of mixing a little alfalfa with red clover whenever making seedings. Some alfalfa plants usually make growth, securing the bacteria in the dust of the seed, presumably. The addition of one pound of alfalfa seed per acre would assist materially in securing a good stand when the day came that an alfalfa seeding was desired. Fertilization.--The ability of alfalfa to add fertility to the farm, and directly to the field producing it when all the crops are removed as hay, does not preclude the necessity of having the soil fertile when the seeding is made. The plants find competition with grass and other weeds keen under eastern skies where moisture favors plant-life. In their first season this is markedly true. There should be plenty of available plant-food for the young plants. Stable manure that is free from the seeds of pernicious weeds makes an excellent dressing. It is good practice to plow down a heavy coat of manure for corn and then to replow the land for alfalfa the next season. A top-dressing of manure is good, affording excellent physical condition of the surface for starting the plants. Eight tons per acre make a good dressing.