INOCULATION FOR ALFALFA 223 



run against land destitute of the alfalfa bacteria. It is 

 pretty safe to assume that if you have never grown alfalfa 

 on your farm you will be helped by inoculation. 

 If sweet clover grows naturally there you have the bac- 

 teria; they inhabit at pleasure either legume. If you 

 have fed hay made from alfalfa meadows and used the 

 manure you have inoculation ; in fact, wherever you have 

 used much manure of any sort the chances are that you 

 have the bacteria. At the same time, I have seen very 

 small and sickly alfalfa growing close to a barn where 

 presumably much manure had been spilled, and search 

 showed that there were no nodules on any of the alfalfa 

 roots. In part this may have been the result of acidity 

 of soil, since no lime had been used there. In the course 

 of many years' study I have yet to find any soil full of 

 carbonate of lime and highly manured that especially 

 needed inoculation. However, the trick is of inestimable 

 value on soils that need it, and many do, as there is an 

 overwhelming wealth of experience to prove. 



Alluvial soils commonly do not need inoculation. For 

 example, in Louisiana there was no need of inoculation 

 in the heavy "buckshot" soils, but in the sandy soils with 

 less lime, inoculation was good. Inoculation is the life 

 of alfalfa in eastern Virginia, in Maryland and, in truth, 

 in most of the Atlantic Coast region. It is less seldom 

 practiced in Ohio, but is strongly advised for New York. 

 It is safe to do it wherever alfalfa is a new crop. On 

 our own farm in Ohio we observe that we now commonly 

 get a crop of hay the year it is sown, whereas in former 

 years, while we got good stands, we got no hay till the 

 second year, 



