218 Inoculation for Leguminous Crops, 1905. 
alone showing some increase of crop ; (2) with beans there 
was no evidence of gain, but in some cases actual loss ; (3) 
with tares the tendency was in each case to a loss ; (4) with 
red clover the observations are not complete, but, as yet, gain 
has not been shown. Thus far as regards the German 
preparations. 
Coming to the American preparations, the results with (1) 
soy bean have been practically vitiated, and with (2) melilotus 
has been obtained the only indication of a possible gain from 
the treatment. In three cases out of the four the treated seed 
gave some increase, and notably when the plants were grown 
in the open. The germination in the case of melilotus was 
not as satisfactory as could have been wished, and allowance 
has to be made for variations inevitable to pot-culture methods. 
It would be fairer, therefore, on the whole to say that, as 
regards the utility of the American preparations, judgment 
should be held over until further trial has been made. 
Melilotus, moreover, is not a crop likely to be of general 
utility in this country ; and one may, as the outcome of the 
year’s experience, say generally that, as regards the ordinary 
leguminous crops which the farmer would grow, there has 
been nothing brought out to show that the inoculating 
materials, now distributed, are likely to be any more successful, 
practically, than they were when originally introduced nearly 
twenty years ago. 
J. Augustus Voelcker. 
22 Tudor Street, E.C. 
