SOIL INOCULATION 



T 55 







should secure a sack of a hundred pounds of alfalfa soil 

 from some alfalfa grower or from the state experiment 

 station. One hundred pounds of this soil is sufficient 

 to scatter on about eight or ten square rods of the field to 

 be sown in alfalfa. The year following the seeding, soil 

 can be taken from the por- 

 tion of the field on which 

 the infected soil was scat- 

 tered and used for the in- 

 oculation of larger areas. 

 Alfalfa responds readily to 

 these methods of inocula- 

 tion, and nearly all plants 

 will have the proper nodules 

 on the roots the first season 

 of growth. If the infected 

 soil is mixed with the alfalfa 

 seed and sown by hand, a 

 small amount of soil will 

 partially inoculate a con- 

 siderable area. 



To prepare soil for grow- 

 ing alfalfa a mixture of one 

 fourth alfalfa and three 

 fourths clover or grass seed 

 may be used in seeding down 

 a portion of the farm. The 

 mixed hay will be improved by the alfalfa in it, and the 

 alfalfa plants will become producers and distributors of the 

 bacteria needed for future crops of this legume. After 

 alfalfa has been grown and fed, and the manure made 

 from the alfalfa scattered over the farm, all the soil on the 



Fig. 86. 



Clusters of nodules on alfalfa 

 roots. 



