124 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Woops. No; he can not do that. It requires the most careful 
and technical work to do it in the laboratory. 
Mr. Bowie. What is the expense of it? ; 
Mr. Woops. It depends on the scale on which it is used. Using it 
on a smalls scale, say 5 acres, the cost would be about 3 cents an 
acre. 
Mr. Bowts. I mean what is the cost to the Department? 
Mr. Woops. It does not cost us—well, I can tell you 
Mr. Bowrr. What did you use, say last year, what did it cost you? 
Mr. Woops. The men had*been working on a great many other 
problems, but on this particular item Ican give you the figures— 
Mr. Bows. Not exactly, but approximately ? 
Mr. Woops. About $1,200, or something like that. That is also 
what we used the year before. 
Mr. Brooks. Do the experiment stations supply these same cultures? 
Mr. Gattoway. No; they have not the facilities or can not do it. 
Mr. Haucen. Is this sent out over the country free [indicating 
package |? 
Mr. Woops. Yes; free to all applicants. 
Mr. Haucen. It is sent out free? 
Mr. Woops. Yes, sir. 
Mr. Lams. How long will it be before the trusts get hold of it? 
Mr. Woops. It is patented in the name of the Government. The 
trust has been trying to get it. We have had applications from man- 
ufacturing concerns, saying they would like to manufacture it for the 
Government. We have told them that if they will keep it up to stand- 
ard and sell it at a reasonable price, very well; but they can not manu- 
facture it for us—it is free for everybody. 
Mr. Grarr. The Germans propagate these bacteria—is that what 
you call them? 
Mr. Woops. Yes. 
Mr. Grarr. They send them out in fluidform. That is, the bacteria 
were placed in fluid in a different form from these packages which are 
now sent out. One of your men there told me that the Department 
here had improved greatly over the methods employed over there. 
Mr. Woops. Yes; in every particular, because the organism they 
had was less active than the organism in hand, owing to the fact that 
they cultivate it on a medium containing nitrogen. We cultivate it on 
a medium containing no nitrogen, making it dependent on the air, and 
by that we can breed it to a higher nitrogen-fixing power. If you 
send it out ina moist medium it deteriorates in a few weeks and becomes 
useless; and then it costs from $8 to $12 an acre to apply it accordin 
to their method. There is considerable difference between that aaa 
3 cents an acre. We can send it out around the world and back 
again on this dry cotton and it will be as good the day it gets back as 
it was the day we sent it out. 
Mr. Scorr. If this culture can be multiplied indefinitely from a 
small beginning what is the use of going through this technical and 
elaborate operation in your laboratory after you have a start? 
_ Mr. Wooovs. There Is not any use; it is simply a question of keeping 
it pure and up to the standard. All we are doing now is commencing. 
r. GatLoway. The chances are after the farmer had it for a month 
he would not have an organism there at all, but something else. 
Mr. Scorr. Why do you not keep it that way—— 
