232 Bacteria in Relation to Country Life 



over, sweet clover soil could be used as inoculating 

 material for new alfalfa fields. 



In the course of time, it became apparent that the 

 use of legume-earth for inoculating purposes in the 

 United States has its disadvantages. The need was 

 felt for efficient p'ure cultures of the legume-bacteria, 

 and, accordingly, the Department of Agriculture in 

 Washington turned its attention to the preparation of 

 such cultures. A representative of the Department, 

 who was sent to investigate the preparation of nitragin 

 in Europq, reported the outlook as rather unpromising. 

 The Department undertook, therefore, to develop a 

 new method for the distribution of pure cultures of 

 legume-bacteria. The work was placed in charge of 

 Dr. George T. Moore, Physiologist in the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry. 



The progress made by him was deemed satisfactory 

 by the chiefs of the Bureau for, in the preface to Bulletin 

 71 of January, 1905, it is stated that "he has succeeded 

 in perfecting the pure-culture method of distribution 

 even beyond our expectations." It is stated further that 

 "Doctor Moore, in the course of the investigations, soon 

 discovered why it was that the former methods of culture 

 and distribution were so uncertain in their results. 

 He worked out improved methods of making the cul- 

 tures and increasing by growth in non-nitrogenous 

 media the nitrogen-fixing power of the organisms, and 

 perfected a method of drying them by which their 

 activity can be preserved indefinitely." 



The method, as it was elaborated in the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, differed in many particulars from the 



