158 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the agriculturist goes out to the farmers to learn, instead of 

 the farmers always coming to him to learn. I found one man 

 pasturing 90 head of cows on 60 acres of high, hilly land, with 

 the driest range in forty-two years, and his cattle had plenty 

 of pasture. He said, "I can't get a good pasture without 

 plowing up and putting it into alfalfa, getting two crops, and 

 then sprinkling on some grass seed and letting it come to grass." 

 I certainly would sprinkle a little handful of alfalfa with all 

 my seeding, — timothy, clover and so on, — so that in time 

 all of your soil will be thoroughly inoculated. That will take 

 some years, but it certainly should be done, — a pound or 

 two or more to the acre of every field that you seed from now 

 on. 



Mr. TowNE. That brings to my mind that about six years 

 ago I sowed about five acres of land, and in the seed was some 

 alfalfa seed which came up in spots all over this piece of land. 

 I was so delighted with it that I said to myself, "Why, that 

 land will be inoculated, and I can raise the finest field of alfalfa 

 in the country." For two years it seemed that every plant 

 grew and the roots were large and well-established, and last 

 fall I had an idea that I could cut it and use it for my hens, 

 as it came up in bunches. I cut it and this year I have only 

 one plant left. 



Professor Cromwell. You killed the goose that laid the 

 golden egg that time. 



Mr. H. D. Fuller. I used the Galloway culture, which a 

 neighbor of mine procured from Iowa. This year I have 

 mowed it three times; the first time I got about a ton, the next 

 time a ton and a half, and the last time about a ton, I think. 



Professor Cromwell. I don't know the Galloway cultures. 

 Is it a water culture or a gelatine culture? 



A Voice. You use water with it. 



Professor Cromwell. My experience — and the United 

 States government does not agree with me in this — is that the 

 water cultures are very sensitive to the light. You can't keep 

 them more than a week or two before you kill your bacteria. 

 The gelatine cultures live longer. The water cultures are 

 good if fresh, but you must use them almost immediately when 

 you get them. I am awfullv sorrv that the gelatine men 



