PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES 313 



owing to the high feeding vaiue of the hay, it is doubtful 

 whether it would be good practice to graze it in the East, 

 except with hogs. Alfalfa being a legume has the power 

 of assimilating atmospheric nitrogen under certain con- 

 ditions. It is thus a soil improver. Farmers cannot af- 

 ford to purchase nitrogen when they can gather it from 

 the air through the action of leguminous plants. Alfalfa 

 often fails, even though all the physical conditions seem 

 favorable, because the bacteria which live in the nodules 

 on its roots are not present in the soil. This deficiency 

 may be supplied by getting soil from an old alfalfa field 

 or from fields where Sweet clover or Bur clover pre- 

 viously grew with success, or by means of artificial cul- 

 tures. The Virginia experiment station, realizing the 

 importance of alfalfa to Virginia farmers and the dif- 

 ficulty of securing inoculated soil at a reasonable cost, has 

 undertaken the preparation of pure cultures which it is 

 distributing at a cost of 25 cents per acre. Soil inocula- 

 tion through artificial cultures is still in its experimental 

 stages, but it seems wise that Virginia farmers should be 

 given an opportunity to test these cultures at a moderate 

 cost and determine once for all their real value under 

 field conditions. The high feeding value of alfalfa has 

 long been recognized. It is admirably adapted to the 

 needs of all classes of live stock. It has been fed with 

 profit to horses, cattle, sheep and swine. It can be so 

 utilized as to largely take the place of wheat bran and 

 other expensive concentrates. The plats of alfalfa seeded 

 in the spring of 1904, both on the station farm and on 

 Brush mountain, show the importance of soil inoculation 

 and the advantages of using lime and phosphates on land 



