PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES 307 



viously grew with success, or by means of artificial cul- 

 tures. The Virginia experiment station, reaHzing the 

 importance of alfalfa to Virginia farmers and the dif- 

 ficulty of securing inoculated soil at a reasonable cost, has 

 undertaken the preparation of pure cultures which it is 

 distributing at a cost of 25 cents per acre. Soil inocula- 

 tion through artificial cultures is still in its experimental 

 stages, but it seems wise that Virginia farmers should be 

 given an opportunity to test these cultures at a moderate 

 cost and determine once for all their real value under 

 field conditions. The high feeding value of alfalfa has 

 long been recognized. It is admirably adapted to the 

 needs of all classes of live stock. It has been fed with 

 profit to horses, cattle, sheep and swine. It can be so 

 utilized as to largely take the place of wheat bran and 

 other expensive concentrates. The plats of alfalfa seed- 

 ed in the spring of 1904, both on the station farm and on 

 Brush mountain, show the importance of soil inoculation 

 and the advantages of using lime and phosphates on land 

 intended for this crop. From a general review of the 

 situation it appears that there is no reason why alfalfa, 

 under good management, should not succeed in many 

 parts of Virginia. 



WASHINGTON. 



F. Af. Lowden, Walla Walla county, — In 22 years I 

 have had experience with from i to 400 acres of alfalfa, 

 on bottom, second bottom, and upland, with clay, sand 

 and loam soils, with subsoil of hardpan and strong alkali 

 from 18 to 20 inches below the surface, and water at 

 depth of 18 to 20 feet. The soil is seldom moist all the 

 way down, the dry soil beginning five to eight feet below 



