REPORT OF MR. TF. E. FAIRFIELD 391 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



INOCULATION. 



It has been found in this province that to make alfalfa thrive it is necessary for 

 the land on which it is sown to be inoculated with the germs of certain bacteria that 

 live on the roots of the plant. The simplest way to do this is to take some soil from 

 an old alfalfa field and scatter it over the surface of the land to be sown, at the rate 

 of 100 or 200 pounds per acre. 



This is worked into the soil as the seed bed is being prepared. Nearly all of the 

 ground on which the alfalfa was sown was inoculated this way but some was left un- 

 treated. All of the plots sown came up well and a good uniform stand was obtained. 

 The plants were clipped once with a mowing machine but they had not made sufficient 

 growth to make it worth while to rake up what was cut. The second growth was 6 

 to 10 inches high at time of frost. 



No difference could be noticed between that which was inoculated and that which 

 was not till about September, when the latter began to appear less thrifty and did not 

 make within two to four inches as much growth. The difference in the colour of the 

 foliage was particularly striking. 



A small plot was sown with seed that had been treated with a culture furnished 

 by the Provincial Department of Agriculture, Edmonton, but there was no noticeable 

 effect on th-e growth resulting from this treatment. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT AMOUNTS OF SEED. 



Six plots of one-fourth acre each were sown at the following rates of seed; 5, 10, 

 15, 20, 25 and 30 pounds per acre. A good stand was obtained on all of them. 

 % 



DIFFERENT KINDS OF SEED. 



Small plots of one-fiftieth acre each w^re sovm. with the following kinds of alfalfa 

 seed; home grown seed, taken from a field that had itself been grown from locally 

 threshed seed, so that it will be starting the third generation of plants grown in the 

 district, Turkestan seed supplied from the Central Farm, and seed bought on the 

 market under the name of Turkestan. 



MIXTURE OF ALFALFA AND GRASSES. 



Plots of one-quarter acre each were sown with mixtures of Alfalfa and Brome 

 grass. Alfalfa and Timothy, Alfalfa and Western Rye grass and Alfalfa and a mix- 

 ture of all three grasses. A good stand of alfalfa was obtained m each case but the 

 grasses were very thin. These were all irrigated along with the other plots of alfalfa. 



CLOVERS. 



Small plots of one-fiftieth acre were sown with Eed, Alsike and White clover 

 and a good stand was obtained on all three plots. 



GRASSES. 



A quarter of an acre of timothy and a half-acre each of Brome grass and Western 

 Bye grass were sown. The seed in each case was sown at the rate of 6 pounds per acre. 

 A rather poor 'stand was obtained, as germination was feeble owing to lack of showers 

 after the seeding was done. Half of thes^e plots were top-dressed with some very 

 coarse barn-yard manure in November. These plots were irrigated at the same time 

 that the alfalfa plots were. 



HAY. 



About thirty loads of native hay were cut on the farm. In addition to this, a 

 small field was sown with a mixture of wheat and peas and was cut green for feed. 



