FIELD CROPS. 837 



51-53, figs. 2). — During 189S barley was grown on 2 plats, one of which 

 had previously been in carrots and the other in flat peas. The plat on 

 which carrots had been grown had received 87 lbs. per acre more of 

 nitrate of soda, 50 lbs. more of muriate of potash, and a larger amount 

 of available phosphoric acid than the one devoted to flat peas. During 

 1897 the flat peas were cut twice, yielding 7,050 lbs. per acre of hay. 

 In 1898 the two plats were prepared and fertilized in exactly the same 

 way and seeded to barley. The growth of barley was more vigorous 

 and the yield much greater on the plat which had previously been in 

 flat peas than on that which had borne carrots and received more lib- 

 eral fertilizing. 



Experiments with crimson clover and hairy vetch, J. F. Dug- 

 GAR (Alabama College Sta, Bui. 96, pp. 183-208, figs. 5). — This bulletin 

 reports the results of inoculation experiments with crimson clover and 

 hairy vetch, and gives a general discussion on soil improving plants, 

 the significance of root tubercles, and the inoculation of soil or seed. 

 Brief notes regarding crimson clover and hairy vetch are given. Nat- 

 ural methods of inoculation and the cause for the frequent failure of 

 Mtragin are pointed out. 



Four twentieth- acre plats were used for an inoculation experiment 

 with crimson clover. The soil was a clay loam and in a low state of 

 fertility, and so far as known clover had never been grown on these 

 plats nor in adjoining fields. All plats were fertilized alike, and the 

 seed was sown on November 5 at the rate of 1 pt. per plat. No nitrog- 

 enous fertilizer was applied. Plats 1 and 3 were sown with inoculated 

 seed, and plats 2 and 4 were sown in the usual way. The seed was 

 inoculated by moistening it with water to which about 2 teaspoonfuls 

 of clover Nitragin had been added. The average yield of the inocu- 

 lated plats was 14,039 lbs. of green forage per acre, and of the unin- 

 oculated plats 2,293 lbs. per acre; the yield as cured hay was 4,057 lbs. 

 and 761 lbs. per acre, respectively. Plats 2 and 4 were in part inocu- 

 lated accidentally, so that the results failed to do full justice to the 

 increase effected by inoculation. 



In one experiment 2 lots of hairy vetch seed were sown, one of which 

 was dipped into water into which had been stirred earth from a spot 

 where vetch had grown for several years in succession. The plants 

 from the inoculated seed made the best growth and yielded at the rate 

 of 2,545 lbs. of cured hay per acre, while uninoculated seed yielded 

 only 232 lbs. The inoculated plants had large clusters of tubercles on 

 the roots, while the others had no tubercles. 



In a similar experiment the seed for some plats was inoculated with 

 vetch Mtragin. The results were similar to those obtained from seed 

 inoculated with vetch earth. In this case the increase in yield of hay 

 per acre as a result of inoculation was 2,706 lbs. Earth from a field of 

 lespedeza used as inoculating material for crimson clover had no effect. 

 It is stated that with few exceptions the inoculation of a leguminous 

 plant can be affected only by the root-nodule bacteria from a plant 



