d under. The ordinary plough was to be followed in this case by a
subsoiler, to stir the earth as deep as possible. When the seed was
sown, the land was to receive five hundred pounds an acre of high-grade
fertilizer, and one hundred pounds an acre of infected soil.

The peculiar bacterium that thrives on congenial alfalfa soil is
essential to the highest development of the plant. Without its presence
the grass fails in its chief function--the storing of nitrogen--and
makes but poor growth. When the alfalfa bacteria are abundant, the plant
flourishes and gathers nitrogen in knobs and bunches in its roots and in
the joints of its stems.

I sent to a very successful alfalfa grower in Ohio for a thousand pounds
of soil from one of his fields, to vaccinate my field with. This is not
always necessary,--indeed, it rarely is, for alfalfa seed usually carry
enough bacteria to inoculate favorable soils; but I wished to see if
this infected soil would improve mine. I have not been able to discover
any marked advantage from its use; the reason being that my soil was so
rich in humus and added manures that the colonies of bacteria on the
seeds were quite sufficient to infect the whole mass. Under less
favorable conditions, artificial inoculation is of great advantage.

Wonderful are the secrets of nature. The infinitely small things seem to
work for us and the infinitely large ones appear suited to our use; and
yet, perhaps, this is all "seeming" and "appearing." We may ourselves be
simply more advanced bacteria, working blindly toward the solution of an
infinite problem in which we are concerned only as means to an end.

"Why should the spirit of mortal be proud," until it has settled its
relative position with both Sirius and the micro-organisms, or has
estimated its stature by view-points from the bacterial world and from
the constellation of Lyra. Until we have been able to compare opinions
from these extremes, if indeed they be extremes, we cannot expect to
make a correct estimate of our value in the economy of the universe. I
fancy that we are apt to take ourselves too seriously, and that we will
sometime marvel at the shadow which we did not cast.

CHAPTER LIX

MATCH-MAKING

The home lot took on a home look in the spring of 1898. The lawn lost
its appearance of newness; the trees became acquainted with each other;
the shrubs were on intimate terms with their neighbors, and broke into
friendly rivalry of blosso