676 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



theory is that you get a bacteria, that you get a few germs at a time 

 and keep oil until your soil is thoroughly inoculated with the germs. 

 I was in Nebraska where they grow alfalfa by the thousands of acres, 

 and it was reported there that the farmers had tried and tried to grow 

 it before they could get a good start. If they once get it established 

 they have no trouble in growing alfalfa in Nebraska. It sometimes takes 

 a long while to get it established. 



President Johnson: I understand from this discussion that unless 

 the alfalfa has nodules at the roots it will not take any nitrogen from the 

 air. 



Mr. Glover: If it does not have these nodules it will turn yellow and 

 die. These little germs take the nitrogen out of the air and put it in 

 the ground, which, if you went to the market to buy, would cost you 

 15 cents a pound. This is one of the most important elements of plant 

 food. 



Mr. Roberts: I have a field of 12 acres of alfalfa, which looked veiy 

 promising at first. I had my ground in fine condition and sowed 30 

 pounds to the acre, and then went over it with the spring-tooth harrow, 

 and I must sjiy that it looked very promising until the winter set in. 

 Just above me, about two miles, a neighbor has three acres, and ne has 

 cut it for four or five years, and last season he cut 18 tons off of that three 

 acres. He did not guess at it but weighed it, so it must have been accurate. 

 He did not say that he had so many loads on an eighteen-foot rigging, 

 but he took it to the scales and he had over 18 tons off of the three acres. 

 I do not know about his inoculating the soil. I know that he clipped 

 it off three times in one season, and it looks all right to me now. 



President Johnson: What condition was that in when it was weighed? 



Mr. Roberts: It was cured. He was putting it in the barn, after 

 it was cured and he weighed it. and there was a little over 18 tons on 

 the thx'ee acres. 



Mr. Millhouse: What kind of soil was it on? 



Air. Wood: It is on a lilack loam, and the soil was rather wet. I 

 have been contemplating putting alfalfa on one of my fields which is too 

 late for corn, as it will hardly mature because it is so late before I can 

 get it in. I have been thinlcing about this for some time, but I rather 

 hesitated. 



Mr. Glover: It is a kind of swampy soil, is it not? 



