226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



well from the start and develops nodules on the roots. In 

 our Station garden this was the case. 



Other soils, and, I think, most soils, do not have this or- 

 ganism in them and need to have it brought to them. In places 

 where repeated trials with alfalfa have failed, the inoculation 

 of the soil has been at once followed with a good stand. 



As to the best way of getting this microbe into the soil, I 

 believe the surest way is to scatter on it soil taken within a 

 few inches of the surface of a well-established alfalfa field 

 where the plants show abundant root nodules. One hundred 

 pounds of soil is enough, sown over an acre and harrowed in 

 with the seed, or any time within three months before seeding. 



Equally successful in Illinois has been the use of soil taken 

 from waste land where the sweet clover, melilot, grows abun- 

 dantly. Tliis plant is not uncommon on waste lands here in 

 Connecticut ; it is a nitrogen-gatherer, and the observations and 

 tests of Dr. Hopkins have proved its value in inoculating alfalfa 

 fields. 



The cultures made as a commercial venture, which have 

 been so widely advertised to " double the yield " with the state- 

 ment that " you can be absolutely sure of a heavy crop of al- 

 falfa the first year after seeding," cannot be recommended. 

 Experiments indicate that tliey are worthless. 



I have tried to give very briefly an idea of the merits of 

 alfalfa as a crop, the work which is necessary to success with 

 it, and not to hide the difficulties of its introduction. 



We need to raise more leguminous crops than we do now, 

 not more for the sake of our cattle than for the sake of our 

 land. We need them as cover crops for the winter, to prevent 

 washing and leaching. We need them as green manure in the 

 spring, and we need them to lessen our grain bills. Cow-peas 

 and soy-beans are used to some extent. Red clover is neg- 

 lected. To my mind there is more chance of general success 

 with red clover than with alfalfa. 



I wish every farmer in Connecticut might have seen the 

 fields at the Agricultural College at Storrs as I saw them be- 

 fore snow flew. They were certainly an object lesson in good 

 farming. There was no bare ground in sight in the late fall. 

 Every field was tucked up for the winter with a coverlet either 

 of rye or, for the most part, as it looked to me, of red clover. 

 There was no chance for loss of nitrogen from the soil by 



