Alfalfa. 253 



favorable for the bacteria the use of soil from an old alfalfa field 

 uniformly results in abundance of nodules. 



5. Lime. — Dressings of lime usually prove beneficial to the crop. On 

 the heavier soil of the College farm, lime is essential to the establishment 

 of the crop. At the end of the first season it appears that 2,000 pounds 

 per acre has produced somewhat better results than 1,000 and practically 

 as good as 3,000 pounds. 



6. Combination treatments. — On that part of the College farm having 

 the heavy soil, the only method of treatment that produced results that 

 seem to promise ultimate success was a combination of lime, stable 

 manure and inoculation by means of soil from an old alfalfa field. The 

 plats thus treated do at the present time encourage us to believe that 

 practical success may be secured with alfalfa on many soils of the State 

 that are regarded as unsuited to the crop. 



7. Nurse crop. — On some gravelly loam soil on the College farm, 

 alfalfa grown without a nurse crop went into the first winter manifestly 

 much stronger than that grown with a nurse crop. After a winter of no 

 unusual severity this superiority was not maintained in the season's 

 production. 



8. Loss in ham. — Thoroughly field-cured alfalfa hay lost between 15- 

 and 16 per cent in weight upon being stored three months in the barn. 



L 



