FIELD EXPERIMENTS. 13 



yield. The results show that this small amount of nitrogen was 

 at least unnecessary, 



EXPERIMENT ON SECOND FARM. 



The experiment made at this farm was on a piece of land 

 which had been in grass for several years and was in a rather 

 low state of cultivation. It was not known to have ever been 

 planted to peas and for this reason was considered an excellent 

 piece on which to test the effect of the nitro-culture material. 

 Four acres of the field was measured off and divided into plots 

 of one acre each. After the sod was turned over and the land 

 thoroughly harrowed it was dressed with 700 lbs. to the acre 

 of the following mixture : nitrate of soda, 50 lbs. : acid phos- 

 phate 400 lbs. ; muriate of potash 250 lbs. It will be noticed 

 that a very light application of nitrogen was made, the idea being 

 to apply just enough in the most available form for the imme- 

 diate use of the plants up to the time when the nitrogen collect- 

 ing bacteria could begin to work. 



On May 25 the field was planted to Alaska peas. The seed 

 used on two of the plots was inoculated and on two of them it 

 was not treated. 



The field was visited on June 27th and at this time the peas 

 were about 6 inches high with a very even stand over the whole 

 piece. The plants were rather light colored and no nodules 

 could be found on the roots. On July 7th the field was again 

 visited. The plants were found to be 12 to 15 inches high, in 

 blossom and growing finely. The roots were examined for 

 nodules and all the larger plants were found to be abundantly 

 supplied with them, but very few were found upon the roots of 

 the smaller plants and those that were found were down low on 

 the smaller roots. As far as could be observed at this time the 

 nodules were no more plentiful in the plots that had received the 

 culture than on the blanks. 



No rain fell during July and this field suffered greatly from 

 the drouth, resulting in the premature ripening of the peas and 

 a yield of less than half a crop. This experiment would not have 

 been reported except for the interesting fact that root nodules 

 formed abundantly on a large part of the plants on two of the 

 four plots. It happened that one of these plots received inocu- 

 lated seed and the other did not. The two other plots, one 



