228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Dr. Jenkins. No. As a rule, I think inoculation is neces- 

 sary. The soil must have the microbe in it in order to be suc- 

 cessful with the crop. It is necessary to inoculate the soil if 

 the organism is not present. I have already spoken of the 

 manner of getting the microbes into the soil. 



I might add to what I have already said that you should 

 not be discouraged if the first year you get no crop from your 

 alfalfa that is worth saving, that is, from the first year's seed- 

 ing. Do not be discouraged if you do not get any alfalfa that 

 you can make hay with. If your plants look heavy and thrifty in 

 the fall, and the field shows signs of your getting a good stand, 

 give a good mulch of stable manure late in the fall and that 

 will probably bring the field through in good condition. The 

 next year, in all probability, the results will be better. Every 

 one of these points is quite essential to the production of a good 

 crop. 



Now I recognize that this is a discouraging, lukewarm, and 

 half-hearted sort of a paper, but the intention of the paper has 

 been to give the facts as they appear to us. I think it is better 

 to tell the truth about it as we see it now. There has been so 

 much inordinate praise of alfalfa that it is likely to damage the 

 success of the crop in the State through a misunderstanding 

 of the difficulties in the way of successfully raising it. You 

 remember how it was with ensilage. When ensilage was 

 brought out the shout went up at once that you could increase 

 the amount of digestive food for your cattle by putting the 

 green fodder into your silo and manufacturing a food. After 

 a while it was discovered that the matter was not sufficiently 

 understood. Ensilage did not turn out as was expected, and 

 the consequence was that it got a black eye in this State, Now 

 we are beginning to see things in their true light, and are 

 getting the benefit of that knowledge. 



Take the matter of Sumatra tobacco. We went into that 

 quite extensively in some parts of the State in 1900, and after 

 the first crop dealers in Xew York were apparently so pleased 

 with it that they said it was worth $1.75 a pound, that they 



