Scientific Agriculture, 



517 



[.Tune, 1910. 



of his business and manufacturing costs. 

 The record is the only way to get at the 

 value of cows for dairy purposes." 



Pamphlets were then handed round 

 explaining the importance of milk 

 records, and the lecturer continued :— 



•'There are over 600,000 cows in the 

 State of Indiana. One third of them are 

 of the same type as the first cow shown, 

 so that about 200,000 cows in this State 

 are producing practically no profit at 

 all, These Jersey cows are more suitable 

 for a district where butter is made. You 

 have the great Chicago market for fresh 

 milk before you, and you should see to 

 it that you get cows that will produce 

 plenty of milk." 



The second door was then thrown opeu 

 and a Holstein cow shown, the lecturer 

 continuing : — 



• ' This is a Holsteiu cow. She cost £2 

 more per annum to feed than the Jersey 

 cow, or £12, She produced butter fat 

 valued at £17 or milk valued at £38. 

 The milk from a Jersey cow contains a 

 larger percentage of butter fat, but the 

 Holstein is the milk producer for this 

 fresh milk district. This cow, by record, 

 produces over 1,100 gallons of milk per 

 annum, or about ten times her own 

 weight." 



From 50 to 200 farmers were present at 

 every station. 



At an evening meeting the Railway 

 Industrial Commissioner of Erie, who 

 had accompanied the train, said that he 

 had noticed a wonderful change in the 

 interest taken by these farmers in this 

 train, compared with that takeu by 

 them in the first train on milk produc- 

 tion, some three years ago. Even when 

 a similar train for improving maize 

 growing went through last spring a 

 great many farmers were too shy to go 

 into the coaches, but this time as soou as 

 the train arrived at the station the 

 farmers rushed into the coaches and 

 took a lively interest in the whole matter. 

 ' These trains are provided by the 

 railway companies with the object of 

 developing the agriculture of the district 

 through which their lines run. In this 

 particular case, the railroad company 

 were endeavouring to promote the trade 

 in fresh milk for the Chicago market, by 

 encouraging farmers to keep cows for 

 milk production rather than for butter. 



NITRO-BACTERINE. 

 By T. Petch, B.A., B.SC 



" It was mentioned in the Heeleaka 

 Report for 1908 that the results which 

 were obtained from the inoculation of 



the seeds of leguminous green crops 

 with nitro-bacterine previous to use were 

 not such as to warrant any definite 

 recommendations as to its use. In plot 

 experiments inoculated seed certainly 

 grew better than untreated seed, but 

 this was not the case in the majority 

 of field experiments. Discrepancies in 

 the results obtained were probably clue 

 to differences in the nature of the soil 

 on which the experiments were made, 

 for this has an important bearing on the 

 subject. It seems desirable, therefore, 

 to renew investigations in this direction 

 with a view to determining whether on 

 certain soils inoculation of green-crop 

 seeds with nitro-bacterine is likely to be 

 economically profitable." The foregoing 

 is quoted from the Programme of the 

 Scientific Department of the Indian Tea 

 Association for 1910. Similar experi- 

 ments, it is understood, have been 

 carried out in Ceylon, but details have 

 not been published. 



The course of these experiments is 

 usually the same. Seed is inoculated 

 according to the directions, and in some 

 cases a control plot is sown with unin- 

 oculated seed at the same time. If the 

 inoculated plot shows an advantage, 

 that is attributed to the* acticn of the 

 uitro-bacterine. 11 it does not, the failure 

 is attributed to some factor in the soil ; 

 often the explanation is given that the 

 soil is so rich in nodule-forming bacteria 

 that the nitro-bactrine does not sensibly 

 increase their number. 



But such experiments, as a rule, omit 

 the most essential detail. Few of the ex- 

 periments would use chemical fertilisers 

 without having first obtained a com- 

 plete analysis, giving the percentage of 

 each constituent to two places of deci- 

 mals. And even if such analysis were 

 supplied by the vendor, and the mixture 

 was not liable to cnauge, they would 

 obtain a check analysis. Yet nitro- 

 bacterine, though it presumably con- 

 tains living organisms liable to injury 

 or death, is accepted and used without 

 any bacteriological analysis. 



This point has not been overlooked in 

 Europe. Nitro-bacterine has been tested 

 for two successive years at each of two 

 agricultural stations in Germany. In 

 addition to the usual inoculations and 

 crop tests, a bacteriological analysis of 

 the mixture has been made at the same 

 time by competent bacteriologists, ac- 

 customed to isolating and identifying 

 nodule-forming bacteria. The result of 

 the analysis has been the same in all 

 cases, viz : that nitro-bacterine does not 

 contain any nodule-forming bacteria. 

 Similar work has been done in Italy with 

 exactly the same result. 



