Scientific Agriculture. 



" A trial of the effect of inoculation of 

 peas with ' Nitro-Bacteriue' was con- 

 ducted at Wisley in 1908. 



The soil ot the Wisley Gardens is one 

 more likely to respond to such inocula- 

 tion than the majority of garden soils. 



The experimental area was divided 

 into twenty-four equal plots, twelve 

 being on well-worked soil, and twelve 

 on soil that had been fallowed in 1907. 



Each pair of plots on the cultivated 

 ground received different soil treatment, 

 and the corresponding pairs on the fal- 

 lowed land received the same treatment. 



One of each pair of plots had seed 

 which had been inoculated sown upon it ; 

 the other, seed which had not been 

 inoculated. One row of each of four 

 varieties was sown upon each plot, the 

 same varieties being used throughout. 



It is shown that the Wisley soil is 

 lacking in none of the chemical elements 

 necessary for the successful growth and 

 development of nodule-forming bacteria, 



Seven out of the twelve plots on which 

 inoculated seed was sown, gave smaller 

 crops than the corresponding uninocu- 

 lated crops, and one gave an equal crop # 



There was, under no soil treatment, a 

 consistent increase in the crop due to 

 inoculation. 



The total weight of the crop from the 

 whole of the plots receiving inoculated 

 seed was 450 lb., while the total from the 

 plots in which uninoculated seed was 

 sown, was 515 lb. The uninoculated seed 

 therefore gave, in the aggregate, a 

 crop 14 per cent, heavier than the inocu- 

 lated. 



The crop from the inoculated seed was 

 not better in any way than that from 

 the uninoculated, nor did it reach niatu- 

 tity earlier 



There was a remarkable difference in 

 the yield from the well-cultivated land 

 and the fallowed land, greatly in favour 

 of the former. 



It is concluded that the inoculation of 

 leguminous crops with ' Nitro-Bacterine' 

 in ordinary garden soils is not likely to 

 prove beneficial." — Agricultural News 

 Vol. VIII., No. 178, February 20, 1909. ' 



454 [May, 1909. 



THE CONSERVATION OP SOIL 

 MOISTURE AND ECONOMY IN 

 THE USE OF IRRIGATION 

 WATER. 



By E. W . HlLGARD AND R. H. 

 LOUGHRIDGE. 



The ex ceptionally dry season of 1897-8, 

 coupled with the early cessation of rains 

 in the spring of 1897, have brought 

 about in California a more extended 

 failure of cereals and pasturage, and 

 shallow-rooted crops generally, than in 

 any year since the State became a 

 prominently agricultural one, the season 

 of 1876-7 being the nearest to carry 

 with it a similar deficiency in crop 

 production. It has been the effort of 

 the Experiment Station to utilize the 

 present unusual season for the study 

 of the limits of endurance of drought 

 on the part of the several crop plants, 

 and with it to determine the minimum 

 of water that will suffice for their satis- 

 factory growth in the several soils. 

 While far from completed, this work 

 (involving many hundreds of determin- 

 ations of moisture in soils) has already 

 yielded some results which render it 

 desirable that they should be placed 

 before the farmers and discussed at 

 once, in order to provide against a 

 recurrence of avoidable injury in the 

 future. 



Amount of water required by Crops. — 

 It is not very generally understood how 

 large amount of water is required for 

 the production even of fair crops ; for 

 the maximum of possible product is 

 rarely obtained on the large scale, 

 because it is not often that all conditions 

 are at their best at any one time and 

 locality. But from numerous observ- 

 ations, made both in Europe and in the 

 Eastern United States, it has been 

 found that from 300 to over 500 tons 

 of water are on the average required 

 to produce one ton of dry vegetable 

 matter. In Wisconsin, King found 

 that a two-ton crop of oat-hay re- 

 quired over one thousand tons of 

 water per acre, equal to about nine 

 inches of rainfall. The average rate 

 for field crops at large is given by 

 European observers at 325 times the 

 weigh o of dry matter produced, being 

 at the rate of about three inches of 

 rainfall actually evaporated through 

 the plant, 



These data should enable us to 

 estimate the adequacy of the moisture 

 contained in the soil at the beginning 

 of the dry season to mature the crop, 

 provided «we make due allowance for 



