222 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



MR. BLflLLL: Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Professor 

 whether weather conditions have anything to do with the success- 

 ful growing of such crops. 



PROF. HARSHBERGER: I should think so, if you have a heavy 

 rain or a dry period, I should think it would have a very material 

 effect. 



MR. HALL: Will you please give us the ideal condition of the 

 soil? 



PROF. HARSHBERGER: The conditions as I understand them 

 are — the soil should never be acid; that can be decided by a litmus 

 test; in the second place, the soil should not, as I said before, have 

 a water-logged condition. The water should have drained through; 

 there should be a certain amount of moisture, of course, but it 

 should have been drained through into the subsoil, and there should 

 be a certain amount of aeration, and also a certain amount of 

 humus. Humus is not absolutely necessary, but there should be a 

 certain amount of that in the soil, and there also should be a cer- 

 tain amount of lime. Those are the conditions, as I understand 

 them, for inducing the production of the nodules on the roots. 



MR. SEEDS: The farmers over Pennsylvania don't know whether 

 they are a success until they dig up the roots and make an inves- 

 tigation. 



PROF. HARSHBERGER: Well, they don't need to dig up the 

 whole crop, I guess. 



MR HALL: I made some experiments in inoculating a field that 

 would not grow clover with soil from a field that did grow clover; 

 a part of it was a success and a part of it was a failure. A part of 

 that land v.as pmt in on a cloudy day, and harrowed in, and a part 

 of it was put in on a sunshiny day; now which of those days should 

 have been successful? 



PROF. HARSHBERGER: I think both of them should have been; 

 I cannot see why there should have been any difference. 



MR. HALL: There was a difference; that put in on the sunshiny 

 day, I couldn't get any clover. 



PROF. HARSHBERGER: It is possible that the sun may have 

 dried it off perhaps so as to have killed the germs. 



MR. SEEDS: I have been raising some alfalfa and it has not been 

 a question with me in regard to nodules; I don't care anything about 

 the nodules only so that I get the hay. I have a field situated be- 

 tween the house and the barn that has been sown to alfalfa this 

 year. I don't care anything about the nodules, but I am going to 

 plant that alfalfa — I am going to seed it the third time. My object 

 is to plow down the alfalfa plants and get into that soil the food 

 that produces alfalfa and see if I can raise as much as the western 

 man. 



PROF. HARSHBERGER: Tlie mechanical condition of your soil 

 is what you regard, probably. 



