116 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
under careful control, and later by the use of the recommended 
temperatures in connection with the entire output of a factory for 
a season. This temperature, continued for this time, was found 
to be close to the limit of heating which could be done without 
injury to the quality of the commercial output. 
TEST OF COMMERCIAL CULTURES FOR LEGUMES. 
The fact that the leguminous plants alone are able to profit by 
the presence of large quantities of nitrogen in the atmosphere, and 
that this ability is, in turn, the result of the assistance of certain . 
- bacteria living within the roots of the legumes has been known for 
about twenty years. About ten years ago an attempt was made 
in Europe to utilize this knowledge in the distribution of the needful 
bacteria in commercial form, but the effort was not successful. 
The year 1905 is memorable for the awakening in agricultural 
circles in the United States of a widespread interest in this subject. 
As a result of this suddenly awakened interest large quantities of 
inoculating material were sold to the agricultural public by com- 
mercial companies at fancy prices before its real value could be 
determined by the agricultural experiment stations. 
During the winter and spring of this year inquiries were con- 
stantly coming to the Station from farmers regarding commercial 
cultures for inoculating legumes. Many of these inquiries asked 
specifically concerning the purity and quality of these so-called 
nitro-cultures. As it was the first season that they had been upon 
the market, there were no data from which to answer these ques- 
tions, and accordingly an investigation was planned. 
A preliminary examination of these cultures failed to show that 
there were any living bacteria of the desired kind upon them. In 
order to add greater certainty to the results a co-operative experi- 
ment was planned in which duplicate tests of these cultures were 
arranged with three other experiment stations and a large com- 
mercial firm. As a conclusion from these tests’® all united in pro- 
nouncing these commercial cultures as worthless for practical pur- 
poses. Sixteen! experiment stations have not joined in denouncing 
this propaganda of legume cultures dried upon cotton. 
* Bul. 270; same in Rpt. 24:45-85 (1905). 
* Bul. 282; same in Rpt. 25:109-116 (1906). 
