“I am anxious to know about our best land,” said Mr. West.  “What did the chemist find in the soil from the slope where we get the best corn after breaking up the old pastures?”

“He found the following amounts in the surface soil,” said Percy.

800 pounds of nitrogen

1,660 pounds of phosphorus

34, 100 pounds of potassium

8,500 pounds of magnesium

13,100 pounds of calcium

“Rich in everything but nitrogen,” Percy continued, “richer than our common prairies in phosphorus and calcium, and nearly as rich in potassium and magnesium; but very, very poor in nitrogen.  Legume plants ought to grow well on that land, because the minerals are present in abundance, and, while lack of nitrogen in the soil will limit the yield of all grains and grasses, there is no nitrogen limit for the legume plants if infected with the proper nitrogen-fixing bacteria, provided, of course, that the soil is not acid.  You will remember, however, that even this sloping land is more or less acid, although here and there we found pieces of undecomposed limestone.  With a liberal use of ground limestone, any legumes suited to this soil and climate ought to grow luxuriantly on those slopes.”

“That reminds me that we are greatly troubled with Japan clover on those slopes,” said Mr. West.  “Of course it makes good pasture for a few months, but it doesn’t come so early in the spring as blue grass and it is killed with the first heavy frost in the fall.  We like blue grass much better for that reason, but when we seed down for meadow and pasture, the Japan clover always crowds out the timothy and blue grass on those slopes.”

“And when you plow under the Japan clover, you get one or two good crops of grain,” said Percy, “because this clover has stored up some much needed nitrogen and the soil is rich in all other necessary elements.  Have you ever tried alfalfa on that kind of land?  That is a crop that ought to do well there, especially if limestone were applied.”

“Yes, I have tried alfalfa,” replied Mr. West, “and I tried it on a strip that ran across one of those steep slopes; but it failed completely, and, as I remember it, it was poorer on that hillside than on the more level land.”

“Did you inoculate it?” Percy asked.

“Inoculate it?  No.  I didn’t do anything to it, but just sow it the same as I sow red clover.”

“What does it mean to inoculate it?” asked Adelaide.

“It means to put some bugs on it,” said the grandmother; “some germs or microbes, or whatever they are called.  Don’t you remember, Adelaide, that I told you about that when I read it in the magazine a while ago?  Don’t you remember that somebody was making it and a man could carry enough in his vest pocket to fertilize an acre and he wanted $2 a package.  Charles said that $1.50 a hundred was more than he could afford to pay for fertilizer, and he didn’t care to pay $2 for a vest pocket package.  Isn’t that the stuff, Mr. Johnston?”