19B 



Hairy Vetch Inoculated with Vetch Earth. 



Seed of hairy vetch was sown October 17, 1896, all plots 

 being fertilized alike with acid phosphate and sulphate of pot- 

 ash. Before sowing, one lot of seed was dipped into water, 

 into which there had been stirred and allowed to settle earth 

 from a lawn, once a garden spot, where common vetch ( Vicia 

 saliva) had for several years in succession made a luxuriant 

 growth and formed tubercles. 



The plants from inoculated seed formed numerous 

 branches, most of which were about three feet long ; those 

 from ordinary untreated seed made but few branches, and 

 these were only about eight inches long. The inoculated 

 plants had large clusters of tubercles on the roots ; the others 

 had no tubercles. 



The weight of cured hay was '2,540 pounds per acre from 

 inoculated seed, and only 232 pounds from non-inoculated 

 seed, a gain of 2,808 pounds, obtained at no other expense 

 than that of the labor necessary to obtain the soil from the 

 lawn where vetch had grown. 



Inoculation Experiment with Hairy Vetch. 



An experiment similar to the above was begun November 

 4, 1897, except that, instead of vetch earth, there was used 

 some of the imported material prepared especially for this 

 plant and known as vetch Nitragin. The field used was re- 

 markably uniform in fertility, as shown by the nearly uniform 

 yields of corn on all plots in 1897. Seed of hairy vetch was 

 sown on one-twelfth acre plots November 4, 1897, at the rate 

 of 30 quarts per acre. On two untreated plots seed was sown 

 in the ordinary way. On the other plots the seed was dipped 

 in a solution of vetch Nitragin. 



The plants grew off slowly on all plots and the soil con- 

 tained sufficient nitrogen to keep the non-inoculated plants 

 abreast of the others until spring. Then differences appeared: 

 the non-inoculated plants being in large part reddish oi 

 brownish. The inoculated plants had a healthy green foliage, 

 branched much more freely than the others, and attained a 



96-3 



