PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES 267 



more or less injurious. In the course of a few years the 

 alfalfa is mostly crowded out by grasses and clovers. The 

 alfalfa almost every year suffers from leaf spot, which 

 tends to cut down the yield. We have found a very dis- 

 tinct benefit from the inoculation with earth from the 

 New York alfalfa field. We have not found an equally 

 distinct benefit to follow inoculation with any of the cul- 

 tures; and, although we are not as yet ready to make a 

 final report, it should be here remarked that the most 

 careful experiments on the use of these cultures in steril- 

 ized soils, under conditions calculated to give accurate 

 results, indicate that they have little, if any, value. In 

 our various experiments alfalfa has been tried on a wide 

 variety of soils. We have had a quarter of an acre field 

 upon a coarse-textured soil upon a farm in this neigh- 

 borhood where there is never any standing water within 

 50 to 60 feet of the surface. Even on this soil the alfalfa, 

 although it did fairly well for a year, has been injured 

 by successive winters, until it is at the present time 

 almost ruined. In this connection I call attention further 

 to the fact that D. S. Bliss of the department of agricul- 

 ture, who has been making special efforts to promote the 

 introduction of alfalfa into New England, and who has 

 traveled extensively for the purpose of studying the re- 

 sults obtained, now speaks very discouragingly as to the 

 outlook in general. In conclusion, while we are not in- 

 clined to discourage experiments with alfalfa, we do wish 

 most emphatically to caution against engaging in these 

 experiments upon an extended scale, for we feel that dis- 

 appointment is almost inevitable. 



