•242 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



When the very similar American cultures were tried in this country, 

 and met with repeated failures, the serious objection was raised that the 

 cultures were dead before they were received. This was probably true in 

 some cases, but not in all. In one extensive series of trials that came 

 under my notice they were certainly capable of producing nodules. In 

 order to be perfectiy certain that the organisms supplied were in good 

 condition, and capable, under proper conditions, of producing nodules, 

 peas were sown both with and without inoculation in soil which had 

 been pasteurized by heating for one hour at 90° Cent., a temperature 

 sufficiently high to kill all the nodule-producing bacteria. Nodules were 

 plentifully produced in the pots in which the inoculated peas were sown, 

 but this was not the case in the pots where the unincculated seed was 

 sown. In other pots the soil was inoculated after pasteurization, by 

 watering with the diluted inoculating broth, and here again nodules were 

 freely produced on plants raised from uninoculated seed. There is thus 

 no question as to the viability of the culture used. 



The seeds used in these pot cultures were inoculated at the same time 

 and in the same way as the seed sown in the garden trial. 



Sowing the Seed and the Growth of the Plants. — All the seed was sown 

 on the afternoon of March 10, ir drills of equal depth throughout. The 

 first sign of the seedlings appearing above the ground was noticed on 

 April 6, and all the plots had the plants up within a day or two. There 

 was no advantage or disadvantage in the inoculated over the uninoculated 

 plots. The weather was, on the whole, favourable to the growth of the 

 plants, and they grew on without check. Following a very hot spell at 

 the beginning of May there was an attack of Pea Weevil (Sitones lineatus), 

 but the plants were by that time too well grown to suffer much and all 

 suffered alike. All the rows came very well with the exception of 

 1 Maincrop,' which was rather patchy. Examination showed that a con- 

 siderable number of the seeds of this variety had rotted in the soil and 

 had not attempted germination. By the middle of May all the rows had 

 wire stretched along them to support the plants, and by June 4 some of 

 the plants of ' Telegraph ' and 1 Duke of Albany ' were in flower. 



The trial was seen by many persons during its progress, and none 

 were able to observe at any time any marked difference between an 

 inoculated plot and the adjoining uninoculated plot, which had otherwise 

 received similar treatment. 



Method of Estimating the Result. — In order to get an accurate estimate 

 of the crop on the several plots the produce of each of the ninety-six plots 

 was picked separately when it had attained a marketable size. Each row 

 Ml picked over, as a rule, four times, the last time so as to strip off every 

 pod. Each picking of one variety on one half of the trial ground was 

 completed within one day. The pods from each row were counted and 

 weighed as soon as gathered, then shelled, the shelled peas being also 

 weighed. By this method, which involved the shelling of about 7£ cwt. 

 of peas and weighing them in quite smaU quantities, we were not only 

 able to ascertain the total crop from each row, but also to find out 

 whether any showed earlier maturity than others, and whether, on the 

 whole, the pods were better filled in one plot than in another. 



