be a fine subsoil for alfalfa, where the bed rock is not too near
the surface. Of course there is but little nitrogen in the subsoil,
but that is true of all normal soils, because the nitrogen is
contained only in the organic matter, and that decreases rapidly
with depth and usually becomes insufficient to color the soil below
18 inches."

"Now," began Mr. West, "from these different analyses or invoices,
and from your discussion of these results, I take it that you would
not advise me to purchase any commercial fertilizer for use on the
land we are still using in my rotation; but you think we should make
large use of limestone and legume crops."

"Yes, Sir. Phosphorus is markedly deficient only in the very level
upland which has been allowed to remain uncleared for fifty years or
more, and nitrogen is certainly the limiting element on the land you
are trying to keep in your rotation. While you cannot hope to put
into your soil any such reserve of slow-acting organic matter as we
still have in our comparatively new soils of the West, we may keep
in mind that a small amount of quick-acting fresh organic matter is
more effective than a large supply of what we might call embalmed
material that decomposes very, very slowly unless assisted by the
addition of more active organic matter. It frequently happens that
one soil containing a large reserve of old humus, and hence showing
more organic carbon and more nitrogen, by the ultimate invoice, than
another soil, is, nevertheless, less productive, because the other
soil contains a larger amount of fresh organic matter which decays
quickly and thus furnishes more nitrogen and liberates more of the
other elements from the insoluble minerals of the soil because of
the greater abundance of the active products of organic decay.