196 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A comparison of the average yields of the plants serves to confirm and 

 to emphasize the conclusion arrived at in the former portion of the Report 

 " that inoculation of leguminous crops with ' Nitro-Bacterine ' m ordinary 

 garden soil is not likely to prove beneficial." 



Effect of Watering Plants with " Nitro-Bacterine " during Growth. — 

 The effect of inoculation of the soil and of the seed has been dealt with in 

 the former Report, but a third mode of inoculation has been recom- 

 mended, that of watering the plants after they have made some growth. 

 Six rows of seeds of 'Maincrop' were sown in a parallel series with the 

 first six rows on the fallowed ground. Thus the first two of these rows 

 were sown upon inoculated soil, the next two on uninoculated unmanured 

 soil, the last two on soil which had received a light dressing of dung at 

 the rate of ten tons to the acre. The first three rows were watered on 

 May 19 with culture-broth of "Nitro-Bacterine," in which the bacteria were 

 well grown, diluted twenty-four times with water ; the other three rows 

 were watered with a solution of ammonium phosphate of the same strength 

 as that in the culture-broth, so that the last three rows were treated like 

 the first three so far as the late inoculation is concerned except that 

 they did not receive the bacteria. Some of the seed was inoculated, some 

 was not, as shown in Table U. There was some irregularity in germina- 

 tion similar to that observed in the other rows of ' Maincrop.' 



This portion of the trial was far less complete than the other, but the 

 results obtained may be useful for comparison. There was a general fall 

 off in the total crops from the rows passing from 97 to 102 in a 

 somewhat similar manner to, but even more marked than, that alluded 

 to in discussing the return from the other rows on the fallowed ground, 

 as is shown in Table U. 



TABLE U. 



Produce from Rows 97 to 102 



How 



Treatment 



97 



Soil inoculated \ 





Seed untreated 



98 



Soil inoculated 





Seed inoculated 



99 



Soil untreated 





Seed inoculated, 



100 



Soil untreated , 





Seed untreated 



101 



Soil manured 





Seed untreated 



102 



Soil manured 





Seed inoculated J 



Plants watered 

 with " Nitro- 

 Bacterine " 



Plants watered 

 with ammonium 

 phosphate 



No. of 

 plants 



No. of 

 pods 



Wt. of 

 pods 



Wt. of 



peas 







grs. 



grs. 



51 



484 



3,003 



1,623 



51 



402 



2,591 



1,455 



45 



302 



2,518 



1,363 



31 



312 



2,085 



1,066 



37 



340 



2,405 



1,191 



26 



281 



1,755 



881 



But when the average yield of the plants in the respective rows is 

 worked out, the larger crops of the first three plots are shown to be 

 mainly attributable to differences in the numbers of plants in the 

 respective rows. These averages are given in Table V. 



