282 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5-6 EDWARD VII., A. 1905 



bacteria, the other untreated. The land was in a poor state of fertility and supposed 

 to be deficient in clover ba.cteria, as practically no clover had been grown on this land 

 for quite a few years. For this reason this piece was selected, the claim being made 

 that the effect of the treatment would be more clearly manifest where these bacteria 

 were most deficient. Careful notes were taken from time to time but there was no 

 perceptible difference between the plots sown with treated and untreated seed. A care- 

 ful examination of the roots was also made and with the same results, the clover in 

 each case having many more nodules than were found on the alfalfa. 



A similar experiment was carried on in plots of one-twentieth of an acre each, on 

 a piece of land in a good state of fertility, that had grown a crop of beans the previ- 

 ous year, with similar results. At present there is a good stand of both clover and 

 alfalfa on this piece of land and it is being left without any other cover for the winter. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH ALFALEA. 

 (Repeated from report of 1904-) 



A one-fortieth acre plot of alfalfa was sown early in June, 1902, with barley as a 

 nurse crop. The nurse crop was cut early in August. The plants only made fair 

 gi-owth and during the following winter were killed out excepting a few plants. These 

 made very poor growth during the season of 1903, and now only two weak plants 

 remain. 



In 1903 a similar plot was sown early in June, wheat being used as a nurse crop, 

 which was left uncut and allowed to remain as a protection during the winter. The 

 alfalfa plants made a good start and nearly all came through the winter, but made 

 very poor growth this season. A few plants of Red .clover that happened by chance to 

 get into this plot lived through the winlter and made exceptionally good growth. This 

 plot was cut twice through the summer, at which times the alfalfa was only from 4 to 

 6 inches high, while the few plants of Red clover in thiS plot were at least three tim.es 

 that height. The soil of these two plots was a heavy clay, underdrained, in a fair 

 state of fertility and was well cultivated before sowing. 



This season a plot of one-tenth acre of alfalfa was sown. The soil was a heavy 

 clay, underdrained, and in a good state of fertility. This land was ploughed May 13 

 and well worked up. It was again worked May 29, June 20 and 29 with the spring- 

 tooth and smoothing harrows. On July 7 this ground was .again "worked with the 

 spade, spring-tooth and smoothing harrows, and alfalfa sown at the rate of 25 lbs. per 

 acre with the grain seed drill. One-half of the plot was sown with wheat at the rate 

 of 2 bushels per acre as a nurse crop, and the other half with alfalfa alone. The 

 alfalfa on the plot without a nurse crop made a much more satisfa.ctory growth than 

 that with the nurse crop, and was much better. than that of any former year. On 

 October 20 the growth of that sown alone averaged 10 to 12 inches, and ,that with the 

 nurse crop averaged only 5 to 7 inches. The^nurse crop, which made $. growth^ hi 

 about 24 inches, was allowed to remain as a protection throughout the winter. 



This spring (1905) what remained of the nurse crop was removed. No particular 

 difference was observed in the amount killed out either on that protected by the nurse 

 crop or that unprotected, both growing fairly well in the early part of the season, 

 that sowm without the nurse crop being always considerably the best. On June 29, 

 one one-hundredth of an acre of the best part of that which had no nurse crop was cut 

 and weighed green, weighing 125 lbs., this being at the rate of 6i tons per acre, the 

 remainder being too light to admit of being cut. An equal measure of clover cut from 

 an adjoining field that had been sown about the same time the previous summer, gav« 

 236 lbs., as agaiust 125 lbs. of alfalfa. 



