182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



made in accordance with the directions accompanying the 

 packages carried, as would naturally he expected, a large 

 amount of foreign bacteria and yeasts and other low plant 

 organisms, but in many instances they had no root tubercle 

 oro-anisms. Of course the use of such cultures could ffive 

 only negative results. That this method of preparing and 

 shipping cultures proved to be so unreliable in 1905, is 

 greatly to be regretted. This matter has been fully investi- 

 gated by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, and the results are now in type and will be ready for 

 distribution in bulletin form in the near future. 



As I understand it, the New York investigations show 

 that the principle of soil inoculation from cultures is all 

 right, but that the method of preparation and shipment 

 practised by the department and the commercial companies 

 cannot be depended upon for soil inoculation. Fortunately, 

 as stated above, on most New England soils there is prob- 

 ably nothing to be gained by the inoculating for our common 

 leguminous crops, such as clover, peas and beans. If one 

 desires to grow alfalfa or soy beans, cow peas or other 

 leguminous plants that are not conmionly grown in New 

 England, there seems to be only one of two ways in which 

 they can be inoculated with any surety at present. That 

 which is to be most depended upon is the application of soil, 

 at the rate of perhaps half a ton to the acre, taken from 

 fields that have grown the required legume with an abun- 

 dance of root tubercles. It would also be possible to have 

 a bacteriologist prepare cultures in the licjuid form from root 

 tubercles growing on the desired kind of plants. This last 

 method, while being theoretically })ossible, is practically 

 beyond the reach of most people. 



The inventor of the cotton method. Dr. Moore, is now in 

 the employ of one of the commercial companies, and it may 

 be that they Avill be able to overcome the difficulties that 

 caused the failures in 1905. According to the Chief of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, these failures in 1905 are attributed to the 

 dried inoculated cotton absorbing moisture from the air, 

 which seemed to ))rove fatal to the bnctei-ia. 



