SOIL INOCULATION 



In Alabama, one of the great cotton-pro- 

 ducing states, the cow-pea, another legume, 

 is in much favor as a green manure. The dan- 

 ger of soil exhaustion has long been imminent, 

 indeed its disastrous results have been severely 

 felt. At the experiment station, in connection 

 with the state agricultural college, the subject 

 of soil inoculation has been under considera- 

 tion for several years. It was recognized that 

 cow-peas have the power not granted to wheat, 

 corn, oats and other cereals which must take 

 their supplies from the earth through their 

 roots. It was recognized, also, that, without 

 the nodules upon the roots of the cow-peas 

 they, like the other legumes bearing no tuber- 

 cles, had no advantage over the near-by cotton, 

 or the grasses or grains. The value of the 

 cow-pea as a renovator of the soil was recog- 

 nized, but a legume was needed which could 

 be planted in the winter, which would not only 

 add nitrogen to the soil when plowed under 

 in the spring, but would prevent the winter 

 rains of the South from washing the soil and 

 leaching out nutriment. 



Another of the legumes is called hairy 

 vetch, a vine-like plant valuable for fodder, 



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