Vol. LXIV. No. 2910. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 4. 1905. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
EXPERIENCE WITH INOCULATED SOIL. 
Do the Government *'Cultures " Pay ? 
As readars know, the Agricultural Department at Wash¬ 
ington has sent out samples of “cultures" for experiment. 
These cultures contain the bacteria needed by Alfalfa and 
other legumes, and when started in water are to be used 
on the seed or in the soil. There has been some question 
about the value of this method, and we print the tirst of the 
reports from farmers. 
Success in California. 
Last year I treated sufficient peas to sow about 80 
acres, sowing some seed untreated. Part of the orchard 
had been in peas before, some two and part three years, 
and part had never had peas on it. 1 sowed some un¬ 
treated seed in two places where peas had grown and 
in one place where none had ever been. Where peas had 
grown before I could see no difference in any way, but 
where no peas had ever been grown the difference was 
wonderful. The treated peas grew twice as tall and 
were a different color. I could readily see the difference 
20 rods away. 
j. H. VARE. 
Los Angeles Co., Cal. 
Apparently a Better 
Stand. 
I have a piece of 
land, four acres, that is 
very poor. It is what 
is claimed to be made 
land, piled up in a 
mound, consisting of 
gravel, stone (some 
large ones), sand and 
loam, very steep. I 
have tried to get it to 
take seed, but always 
failed. This year the 
Department sent me 
the Red clover culture, 
with directions (which 
I followed). On July 
8 1 sowed four bushels 
of buckwheat on this 
ground. The culture 
was prepared; 1 inocu¬ 
lated 20 pounds clover 
seed, and had consid¬ 
erable of the culture 
left. The year before 
I had taken two wagon 
loads of sandy loam 
soil and put it under 
my barn, and taken the 
chicken manure from 
the henhouse and com¬ 
posted it with the loam, and later had it applied to the 
corn. I found that the boy had not taken the compost 
out very clean. 1 scraped it up and shoveled it over 
two or three times. It was nearly dust. I then took 
what culture 1 had left and dampened this pile of dust, 
working it over two or three times; measured it up and 
took it to the field. I. had 14 bushels. The plowed 
ground had been harrowed over once. 1 then had this 
dust spread on the four acres and harrowed again, then 
sowed on four bushels of buckwheat, harrowed it over 
once, then sowed my clover and Timothy seed; then 
had the ground bushed. Now the results; I got 15 
bushels of buckwheat from the four acres. Parts of 
it there was nothing to cut; a few scattering stalks of 
buckwheat eight to 12 inches high. The young clover 
stands thick and nice on this ground from two to six 
inches high. Where the buckwheat was the poorest the 
clover is the best. I.sowed an acre of millet at the 
base of this hill about June 1, and seeded it with clover 
and Timothy without the culture. T think the soil is 
much better, but the clover makes a poor show. Per¬ 
haps my inoculating the seed and the ground may have 
given the clover a better start. 1 shall put in this Fall 
a few loads of loam to have dry next Spring to use in 
sowing my clover seed. b. m. stone. 
Wyoming Co., Pa. 
Good Results in Indiana. 
We see so much criticism about the Red clover bac¬ 
teria that I feel like saying a word in defense of it. 
A year ago last Spring 1 received some of the bacteria 
from the Department at Washington, and inoculated 
some seed of the variety commonly known as Big Eng¬ 
lish clover. This seed was sown upon soil running 
from light colored sugar-tree loam to one of very dark 
color, upon which no clover had been for 20 years, and 
where the vegetable matter had so gone out of it that* 
it was exceedingly close and hard. Seeding was done 
after the Spring rains were over. The poorer parts of 
this soil were too poor to produce anything; even 
beans refused to grow more than a finger length high. 
Upon this soil the seed sown grew luxuriantly, and this 
season produced an abundant crop, much of it running 
above five feet in length on even the poorest soil, and 
with much branched stems with every head filled with 
seed. In further evidence of the beneficial effect of the 
inoculated seed, I sowed a remnant of the same upon 
an adjacent orchard this Spring and contiguous, a lot 
of the same variety not inoculated, and the difference 
in the two lots is so apparent that strangers wish to 
know what makes it. The difference is all in favor 
of the inoculated seed. There is also another question 
that arises, and that is whether or not the bacteria is 
responsible for such an abundant crop of seed, the crop 
in this section being quite light this year, while mine is 
heavier than any I have ever seen. This tends also to 
lead up to the belief that in many of our fields the bac¬ 
teria is almost or entirely wanting, as evinced by the 
poor stand and puny growth. E. j. walker. 
R. N.-Y.—In our own experiments with Alfalfa we 
have obtained far better results with the soil from our 
old field than with the dried bacteria. This difference 
is very evident. 
Poor Results in Massachusetts. 
I have read with much interest the several articles 
on Alfalfa. As I suppose is to be expected, only those 
who have been ultimately successful have so far de¬ 
scribed their methods. As a description of the methods 
of an unsuccessful grower might be instructing as well 
as serve as a basis for further discussion, I will describe 
our .attempts. .We have tried a small field every year 
for the past four or five years. Like other growers, we 
are convinced that an abundance of lime is necessary. 
We also use nitrogen liberally, and potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid very liberally. 1 his year’s field received 
lime, manure and a mixture of sulphate of potash, dis¬ 
solved bone black and nitrate of soda, and we have 
used about the same materials before. This last field 
was, unlike any of our previous attempts and in 
opposition to the advice of all Alfalfa growers, seeded 
with a nurse crop of oats, and the Alfalfa now—four 
months after sowing—looks the best of any we ever 
had. We have tried 
culture from the De¬ 
partment of Agricul¬ 
ture, and inoculated 
soil from the Alfalfa 
district in New York, 
but have never ob¬ 
tained a growth of no¬ 
dules such as we find 
on Red clover or Soy 
beans. 1 would like to 
know if Alfalfa any¬ 
where produces 50 or 
100 nodules on the 
roots of one plant, as 
is often done by Soy 
bean plants here. The 
inoculated soil has 
probably done a little 
good, but the plots on 
which the pure cul¬ 
tures have been used 
have never been mate¬ 
rially different from 
the adjoining plots on 
which no culture was 
used. Others tell of 
Alfalfa thickening up, 
but ours never does 
that. While we often 
get a fair stand on 
seeding we never had 
a year-old field that 
was well stocked, and 
usually by the first Fall 
there will be many 
spots where the weeds are ahead of the Alfalfa. We 
have tried disking, but find that the weeds will stand 
more rough treatment than will the Alfalfa. c. 
Hampshire Co., Mass. 
NOT ENOUGH WATER FOR POWER . 
We have a spring SCO feet from our dwelling which Is 
carried the entire distance in 1 Vi inch pipe, with a fall of 
about 40 feet from head to house. We can construct s^mall 
reservoir at the head, holding two or three barrels, possibly 
more. Stream varies from more than pipe can carry in a 
wet time to never less than a half inch in drought. Can 
this be made to develop sufficient power to run a No. 5 I’. 
S cream separator (capacity 350 pounds per hour), or a 
40 gallon Fenner churn, which will, of course, never be 
filled more than half full? We should not expect to run 
both at once. We have a gasoline engine, but do not want 
to use it for that purpose if water power can be made to do 
the work. h. j. n. 
Bradford, Ta. 
Experiments conducted at the Wisconsin Agricultural 
Experiment Station some years ago with a U. S. No. 5 
separator showed, for three trials, that the total power 
HALLOWEEN PREPARATIONS IN SOUTH JERSEY. Fig. 336. 
