266 THE BOOK OF ALFALFA 



We have tried inoculating the soil, both with earth ob- 

 tained from a field in New York, where alfalfa is' suc- 

 cessfully grown, and with the cultures sent out by the 

 department of agriculture and prepared by private firms. 

 We have not attained such degree of success as justifies 

 us in recommending the crop. We have occasionally got 

 a fair stand of alfalfa, but in all cases the winters prove 

 more or less injurious. In the course of a few years the 

 alfalfa is mostly crowded out by grasses and clovers. The 

 alfalfa almost every year suffers from leaf spot, which 

 tends to cut down the yield. We have found a very dis- 

 tinct benefit from the inoculation with earth from the 

 New York alfalfa field. We have not found an equally 

 distinct benefit to follow inoculation with any of the cul- 

 tures; and, although we are not as yet ready to make 

 a final report, it should be here remarked that the most 

 careful experiments on the use of these cultures in steril- 

 ized soils, under conditions calculated to give accurate 

 results, indicate that they have little, if any, value. In our 

 various experiments alfalfa has been tried on a wide 

 variety of soils. We have had a quarter of an acre field 

 upon a coarse-textured soil upon a farm in this neighbor- 

 hood where there is never any standing water within 50 

 to 60 feet of the surface. Even on this soil the alfalfa, 

 although it did fairly well for a year, has been injured 

 by successive winters, until it is at the present time almost 

 ruined. In this connection I call attention further to the 

 fact that D. S. Bliss of the department of agriculture, 

 who lias been making special efforts to promote the intro- 

 duction of alfalfa into New England, and who has trav- 

 eled extensively for the purpose of studying the results ob- 



