198 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Mr. CoE. I did not. 



Dr. Woods. Don't misunderstand nic to say that all 

 the cultures sent out last year were failures, because they 

 were not ; but they were not reliable, so man}^ of them were 

 failures, — perhaps two good ones in eighteen bad ones. 

 It may have been perfectly possible, of course, that those 

 were all right. 



The Chair. Do you think the bacteria sent out did any 

 harm ? Does its age make an}^ difference ? 



Dr. Woods. No ; all it is necessary to do is to wet the 

 seed in so much water and then dry it right out, and if the 

 seed was thoroughly dried, it would keep indefinitely. If 

 used right off, it would help germination slightly. 



The Chair. Didn't it do better in the south than in the 

 north? 



Dr. Woods. Naturally so, because most of our soil is 

 already stocked with the right bacteria for the kind of crops 

 we grow up here ; and they sent down to the sandy soil and 

 inoculated on that particular soil, and got better results than 

 in the north. I doubt if 99 men out of 100 here would 

 ever be any better off in New England if they had all the 

 cultures they wanted given to them free for the use of clover, 

 because more than 99 per cent of our land is already stocked 

 with the organism ; but Avhere we haven't it, it wants to be 

 brouo-ht in, of course. 



Mr. CoE. Then why is it we can't get clover every 

 year ? 



Dr. Woods. The use of any mineral fertilizer will have 

 a tendency to bring in and stimulate the growth of clover. 

 The Departiuent of Agriculture investigation showed be- 

 yond question that in order to get the best effects from nitro- 

 gen-gathering plants it is necessary to grow them on soils 

 that are d(^ficient in available nitrogen. When you apply 

 the mineral fertilizers, that tends to help. On such land as 

 you have been talking about you will probably be helped 

 with some alkali, — such as wood ashes or lime. 



The Chair. Th(! reason I asked that question is, last 

 spring we sold several hundred lots of that bacteria, and we 

 advised it simply as an experiment. Some time ago we sent 



