INOCULATION AND NITROGEN. 233 



will get inoculating earth for all the rest of the 

 farm. It may perhaps be necessary to ship in 

 enough, for the first strip, though it is today a rare 

 neighborhood that does not have in it either some 

 sort of an alfalfa field with inoculated plants or a 

 sweet clover patch. Once you have the strip of in- 

 oculation on your farm you are independent; you 

 can go on and enlarge as fast as you please. An 

 acre of inoculated alfalfa would give soil enough for 

 inoculating at least an entire county. 



Searching for Inoculation. It is astonishing how 

 few farmers have ever seen a nodule on a clover 

 root. They are easily found, especially on some 

 sorts of clovers. One can pull up almost any thrifty 

 red clover root and find nodules in place, looking 

 like little white seeds. On the red clover they are 

 found on the larger roots, as well as on the finer 

 root hairs. The little creeping white clover has 

 nodules in plenty and they are easily found. Alfalfa 

 has nodules only on the smaller finer root hairs. 

 Thus they are not to be seen when one pulls vio- 

 lently a plant from the soil, especially if the earth 

 is hard and clayey. The little nodules remain in 

 the earth. They are very easily dislodged from their 

 hold on the roots. One must take the roots out with 

 some care and perhaps will need to wash the earth 

 away to find the nodules the first time. After he 

 has seen them once and knows what to look for he 

 will find them more easily the next time. 



Appearance Reveals Inoculation. After one 

 knows alfalfa well he can tell at a glance whether 



