FROM THE AIR BY THE LEGUMINOS^ 43 



increasing the activity of certain bacteria, such as Aoolobactcr 

 chroococcum. A number of successful experiments have been 

 carried out on soils treated with molasses spread over fields 

 in certain conditions. 



In Alauritius this method has been in use for years and 

 has given surprising results quite incapable of being ex- 

 plained by the presence of mineral salts in the molasses. 

 The treatment, however, is somewhat different, consisting 

 as it does in simply spreading the molasses in the trenches 

 or between the rows. The modern planter regards molasses 

 as a valuable aid in his farming. 



Artificial Inoculation of Soils. 



The recognition of the power of the bacteria in the 

 Leguminosffi to fix atmospheric nitrogen led a number of 

 investigators to experiment on the artificial inoculation of 

 soils. 



About the year 1888, Dr. Salfeld, one of the working 

 directors of the Peat Station at Ems, was the first to in- 

 vestigate the action of inoculated bacteria on previously 

 sterile peats. Dr. Salfeld's method was to spread from one 

 to four thousand kilos of earth taken from a tield in which 

 Leguminosse had been cultivated. The results were excellent 

 and numerous applications were made of this method. 



M. Grandeau says that one of his friends, the Count 

 of San Bernardo, acting on his advice, succeeded in estab- 

 lishing sulla on his estate in Andalusia by importing soil 

 direct from the Algerian sulla prairies. 



In Sweden, in the Flahult cultures, at the Agricultural 

 Station at Aas, and at the station of Lyngby, near Copen- 

 hagen, a number of most satisfactory trials of the Salfeld 

 method have been made. In spite of the value of the 

 method, however, it is most expensive in practice, owing 

 to the necessity for conveying huge loads of soil from one 

 point to another no small distance away. It is this 



