122 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Woops. From 130° to 132° Fahrenheit. 
In the Northwest, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South 
Dakota, Iowa, and the State of Washington, we have organized a sort 
of cooperative series of investigations looking toward the general 
improvement of crops in that region. A large part of the cooperative 
cereal work is done in cooperation with these stations, and this is an 
experiment on our part and upon the part of these stations to deter- 
mine the best methods of carrying on cooperative work between the 
Department and the stations, to get some idea of what can be accom- 
plished. We are spending in that general cooperative work this year 
$5,384. It will possibly amount to nearly $6,000. We want to 
increase that a little so as to include, perhaps, the Nebraska station or 
one of the other stations in that region. The Nebraska station wants 
to cooperate with us, but we have not been able to arrange any 
cooperative work there on account of the fact that we were using all 
we could for cooperative work in the group of stations mentioned, and 
the $1,000 we want in the way of an increase here is to develop that 
cooperative work further. 
Now, I come to the physiological laboratory, which takes up a differ- 
ent group of problems from these I have been describing, and in the 
technical laboratory work, in that line of investigation which includes 
the problems I will describe later, 1 want an addition of $2,000. We 
are now spending $8,114, including apparatus, supplies, and all the 
men engaged in this physiological work. We want $2,000 additional 
to get qadsioval help and additional apparatus in that laboratory, 
making $10,000—— 
The Cuarrman. How much has that grown in the last few years—on 
what increasing scale has it grown? How much did you set off for 
that work last year and the year before, if you remember? 
Mr. Woops. Last year $8,114 was allotted to that work. 
The Cuairnman. And the year before that, if you remember? 
Mr. Woops. Well, the year before that the laboratory was organ- 
ized as a State laboratory and I do not know how much there was, but 
I think about half that amount. The work was just starting at that 
time. This laboratory has been going only about three years, including 
thisyear. Some of the results obtained in that laboratory are extremely 
important, and I want to take up one of the most important of those now. 
That is the question of nitrogen fixation. We discussed that to some 
extent last year in this committee, and 1 told you then that we had 
isolated this nitrogen fixing organism and had perfected the method 
of cultivating. This year we have been engaged in producing that 
organism and sending it out. We have sent out alfalfa to 1,500 farm- 
ers, and we have 3,000 applications on hand which we are preparing 
to fill in the spring. 
The Cuarrman. Alfalfa applications? 
Mr. Woops. That is for alfalfa; but we get applications for cow- 
peas and soy beans and red clover and every other variety of legumi- 
nous crops. We have these cultures bred up so that the organisms we 
have have from five to ten times the nitrogen-fixing power that the 
nitrogen has when we first take it from the tubercle. So when we 
apply this to the crops the increase in the crop is very great, and is 
proportionately greater the poorer the soil. 
Mr. Scort. How is it applied to the crop? 
Mr. Woops. It is applied in this way. I will pass around here just 
