New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, Fi 
INOCULATION AND LIME IN GROWING ALFALFA, 
As has been noted elsewhere (p. 268), this Station has exerted 
itself for years to extend the growing of alfalfa among the dairy- 
men of the State. Previous to 1905 some work had been done with 
marked results in supplying inoculation for alfalfa by soil from 
our alfalfa field, but in 1905 the matter of determining the real need 
of inoculation for alfalfa growing was taken up. Observations on 
nearly 200 fields distributed over practically every agricultural 
county of the State show that only about one-third’® of: the fields 
are sufficiently inoculated to meet the needs of the plant in this 
respect. 
We have tested the inoculation of the seed with the appropriate 
germs just previous to sowing and also the application of soil from 
our alfalfa field as a means of supplying this need. 
The application of the cultures to the seed was made in our 
laboratory and the seed sent by express to the farmers for imme- 
diate sowing. The results were entirely negative. The germs failed 
to induce the formation of nodules on the growing plants in any 
noticeable way. On the contrary the application of soil from our 
alfalfa field at the rate of 100 pounds to 200 pounds per acre gave, 
almost without exception, uniformly good results in the formation 
of nodules on the plants. In about one-third of the cases this 
application made the difference between success and failure in the 
growing of the alfalfa. 
In connection with these experiments the effect of lime or ashes 
applied at the rate of 1,500 pounds of stone lime or its equivalent 
to the acre was tested in a number of cases. In practically all of 
these instances the influence of the lime was beneficial, and- in 
some cases it made the difference between success and failure in 
the resulting crop. 
MILKING MACHINES. 
Notwithstanding the vast changes which have been made by the 
introduction of machinery into practically all branches of agri- 
culture, milking cows has until recently retained its primitive place 
in the division of hand labor. The increasing difficulty of getting 
sufficient labor on the farms of the State, and the increasing disin- 
clination of farm help to milk cows, has produced a situation which 
practically demands a milking machine. 
* Syllabus of lecture at Normal Institute, Ithaca, November 25-27, 1907. 
