auses of failure in the past
were want of knowledge in growing and caring for it on the part of the
growers, and the absence of the proper bacteria in the soil. Acidity in
some soils and want of drainage in others are also responsible for many
of the failures referred to. But even where it does grow reasonably
well, some trouble is found from the alfalfa failing in spots. In some
instances the cause can be traced, as when coated with ice in winter, or
where the soil is not uniform, but in other instances the precise causes
have not been determined. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however,
greatly increased areas will be grown in the future, especially in
States in which the dairy interest is paramount or even important.

=Soils.=--It was formerly thought by many that alfalfa would only grow
vigorously on soils and subsoils sandy in character, and underlaid at
some distance from the surface with water. It is now being ascertained
that it will grow on a great variety of soils, providing they are
reasonably fertile, free from acidity, sufficiently porous below to
carry away water with reasonable quickness, and not underlaid with hard
pan or a subsoil so tenacious that it is almost impervious to water.

The best soils for alfalfa are those of the Western mountain States, and
in these the deposit soils of the river valleys stand among the
foremost. These soils are usually of much depth. Many of them have water
underneath, and the subsoil is usually so porous that the roots can go
far down in them, such is the character of nearly all the bottom land
west of the Mississippi. But in nearly all of the mountain region of the
West, from Banff in British Columbia to Mexico, alfalfa will grow well
under irrigation, or in the absence of irrigation, if ground water is
not too distant from the surface. In this region alfalfa grows more
vigorously and more persistently than in almost any other portion of the
United States.

In regions where alfalfa is not dependent upon irrigation, the best
soils probably are deep, rich calcareous loams, clay or sandy, and
underlaid with what may be termed a mild or reasonably porous clay
subsoil. With such soils the plants may be in no way influenced by sheet
water below, as on some of these in Nebraska, for instance, such water
is fully 150 feet below the surface. These soils are usually possessed
of abundant food supplies to nourish the plants, and the roots can go
far down into the subsoils to ga