EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 115 



lication but await confirmation by another year's experience before 

 they are issued. Calcuhxting the results to acre units it was found that 

 the medium green soy when inoculated, that is when the roots bore the 

 normal numbers of bacteria-infested nodules, returned per acre 152.29 

 pounds of nitrogen and 100.89 pounds of potash, but when uninoculated, 

 that is when there were no nodules on the roots, the return per acre 

 was but G3.12 pounds of nitrogen and 67.84 pounds of potash. The cow- 

 peas, New Era, inoculated, returned G1.90 pounds of nitrogen per acre 

 and 77.20 pounds of potash. The vetch, 77.10 pounds of nitrogen and 

 (>8.12 pounds of potash. The samples of these crops were taken Septem- 

 ber 23, 1903, the second crop of clover was growing on an adjacent plot. 

 The crop was an average one and similar samples of tops and roots taken 

 and analyzed and, as in the other cases, the total content of nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid and potash determined. This clover crop returned 

 51.47 pounds of nitrogen per acre and 36.18 pounds of potash. Of course, 

 it is to be remembered in this connection that there are two crops of 

 clover per season to be considered, whereas there is but one crop of the 

 other legumes. These preliminary results are certainly very interesting 

 and deniand a careful and thorough study in this season and the next. 

 Work was begun last year, jinvestigating the relation of various factors 

 to the abundance of the nodules on the roots. Quite contradictory evi- 

 dence was produced. In one case an abundance of nitrogen seems to 

 prevent the formation of the nodules, in another it seems to encourage 

 it, so the presence of potash in large quantity in one case seemed hostile 

 and in another favorable to the presence of the nodules. Inoculation 

 with soil from a field which had borne soy beans was effective in one 

 case and not effective in another. There is much work laid out for the 

 station on these topics before any decisive and final verdict can be 

 rendered. Cooperative experiments in various parts of the State were 

 planned in the spring of 1904, and are in oijeration at the date of this 

 report. 



For several years experiments have been conducted aiming to answer 

 live questions regarding the growing of alfalfa. Much is known con- 

 cerning this crop but much that is written concerning it in the rural 

 press is untrue. So much depends upon the character of the season, 

 that it is not alone unsafe but is worse than that, it is false and mis- 

 leading to publish results of the work of a single season. The alfalfa 

 sown in the spring of 1903 is making a vigorous growth and the first 

 crop was harvested June 9, 1904, the alfalfa then knee high and just 

 beginning to blossom. Possibly because the season of 1903 was wet the 

 alfalfa sown with a nurse crop was the freest from weeds and the most 

 vigorous of any, excelling in these respects adjacent plots sown without 

 a nurse crop but run over with a mower two or three times during the 

 season to prevent weeds going to seed. Parallel trials on farms away 

 from the station show that the alfalfa was, to a great extent, killed by 

 the coat of ice which covered the ground in the late spring of 1904 and 

 were it necessary to render a verdict at the date of this report it would 

 have to be that alfalfa was not a safe crop for the farmer in Michigan, 

 although in certain protected localities it withstood the asperities of an 

 adverse winter. 



The farm department of the station is carrying on at no inconsiderable 

 expense work planned by Prof. Crozier and the Directors in 1894, on 



