CLOVERS NEED INOCULATION 139 



just enough soil to make it so that it can be sowed again. 

 This gives good inoculation. Or again, one may simply 

 leach water through infected soil and apply the water to" 

 the seed. This method is said to have been successfully 

 used at the New Jersey station. 



Curiously enough, when stable manure has been applied 

 liberally to soils, they are often found inoculated with bac- 

 teria belonging to certain clovers that may never have 

 been grown there, and none of the substance of which had 

 been applied to the manure. For example, alfalfa sown 

 on manured land seldom needs any additional inoculation 

 to cause it to be covered with nodules; whereas on land 

 adjoining none could be seen. This has been frequently 

 observed even when no alfalfa hay had ever been fed in 

 the barn whence the manure came, and is a mystery yet 

 to be cleared up. 



Clovers Needing Inoculation. -Crimson clover seldom 

 thrives except when inoculated, and inoculation is by no 

 means common in the South until the clover has been 

 grown for several years. The fact that it grows up so 

 slenderly when not inoculated has caused many experi- 

 menters in the South to discard this very valuable winter- 

 growing plant. I have observed in Tennessee that inocu- 

 lated plants made more than 10 times the growth that 

 non-inoculated plants made close by. If one wishes to 

 grow crimson clover in a new region of the South one 

 should inoculate at least a small area, whence later earth 

 could be taken for inoculating larger areas. An acre will 

 inoculate a county, the earth rightly used. A flower-bed 

 of crimson clover in the garden may be the source of soil 



