13C3 
of the fiekl. There can be no nicer work than har¬ 
vesting about 70 bushels of oafs per acre, thrashing 
them and storing in bins for the sheep and horses. 
Then there is a chance to visit the neglected neigh¬ 
bors, helping thrash and doing chores and fixing con¬ 
veniences about the house and barns, to fatten the 
stock so fewer need be carried over Winter, to go to 
some picnics and sit on logs with friends, to attend 
sheepmen's meetings and make remarks about “re¬ 
worked wool,” to attend fairs, and in the evenings 
to write numerous correspondents and circulars, and 
some for the press. August will not be so strenuous, 
but can be employed as usefully as July. “Count 
your blessings,” brother readers, the ones you have, 
and you will be ready for Thanksgiving Day. 
Ohio. W. W. REYNOLDS. 
Questions About Bacteria 
There are now on the market various products which 
are said to combine several species of bacteria for use 
in the soil, and also an amount of plant food. It is 
generally supposed that this material consists of dried 
peat or muck sweetened by lime, with a quantity of 
wood ashes and fine bone, or phosphate rock. Into this 
material are introduced various forms of bacteria which 
are supposed to inoculate the soil. There have been a 
good many questions about these materials, and we 
asked Dr. ,T. G. Lipman of the New Jersey Experiment 
Station to tell us about it. Ilis answer follows: 
HE claims made for this material are twofold 
viz: 
1. It will supply several species of bacteria that 
will help to increase the supply of nitrogen in the 
soil and also to make soluble plant food materials. 
2. It will directly supply certain substances which 
are necessary for the growing of crops. In other 
words, it is claimed to be both a soil inoculant and 
a fertilizer. 
As to the first of these claims, it is true that the 
Introduction of a large quantity of bacteria of the 
right type will stimulate fermentation in the soil 
and will lead to the formation of a larger quantity 
of available plant food. In fact, the practice of soil 
inoculation is more extensive than many people 
realize. You know, of course, that in the Orient no 
fanner in Japan, China or India would dream of 
farming without a compost heap. Farmers in these 
countries are very painstaking about the preparation 
of their compost heaps. In Southern China, as we 
are told by King, farmers will carry the' top soil of 
the little farms to the village, and, after composting 
it with various refuse substances for some weeks, 
wil return it to their fields. In the processes of 
composting many billions of nitrifying and other 
organisms are developed, and when the composted 
earth is returned to the field there takes place so- 
called mass infection or mass inoculation, very much 
as the dairy farmer adds sour milk or cream to 
pasteurized milk or cream as a starter to speed up 
fermentation in his product. The use of well-rotted 
manure owes its popularity in part to the fact that 
it supplies an enormous number of bacteria to the 
land at a time of the year when fermentation in the 
soil itself is still proceeding very slowly. 
Having pointed out the possible benefits to be 
derived from inoculation by so-called mass infection 
of land by means of composts or well-rotted manure. 
I wish to point out also the limitations of such 
methods of inoculation. It should be remembered 
that bacteria are minute plants, and that, like higher 
plants, they will not grow and multiply unless they 
are placed in a suitable environment. Alfalfa plant¬ 
ed in a sour soil will not grow. Corn planted in 
land that is too wet and poorly aerated will not 
thrive. Similarly, bacteria, no matter how numer¬ 
ous or active, when placed in a soil poor- in humus, 
or sour, or improperly drained, or generally run 
down, will not produce the desired results. Hence, 
it would be idle to expect that: any inoculation could 
remedy soil defects and would allow the production 
of large quantities of available plant food on ac¬ 
count of the inoculation, and, therefore, the growing 
of large crops. In an unsuitable soil the bacteria 
introduced in any cultures will either die out or fail 
to thrive. 
There is another fallacy which should be pointed 
out as bearing on the use of these preparations. 
Bacteria are not a substitute for plant food. If the 
soil is deficient in phosphorus, bacteria cannot sup¬ 
ply the deficiency. If the soil is deficient in pot¬ 
ash, sulphur or lime, the deficiency cannot be cor¬ 
rected by them. Hence, any claim that the users 
of cultures will be able to dispense with the use of 
fertilizers or manures is not at all justified. The 
best that can be said for such claims is that where 
we have naturally large supplies of potash (as they 
occur in clay soils) or large supplies of nitrogen 
(as they exist in peat soils), the stimulation of bac¬ 
terial activities would mean also the stimulation of 
the processes which 'would increase the rate at 
RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
which certain of the soil constituents will become 
soluble and available for the crops. Bacteria can¬ 
not make available in the soil what the soil does not 
contain. 
As to the value of ihese substances as a fertilizer, 
the relatively small amounts of phosphorus, potas¬ 
sium or other ingredients that it may contain can 
be readily determined by analysis. This analysis 
should show what value may be attached to the plant 
food ingredients contained in these preparations. 
j. G. LIPMAN. 
Sweet Clover in Florida 
F IG. 414 shows a picture of our Sweet clover on 
June 1. If you will examine it closely you will 
see that it is in bloom. In some parts of the field it 
was 5% feet high. This clover was planted the last 
week in September, and blossomed the last week in 
May. It is the ordinary biennial Melilotus alba, not 
the new annual Sweet clover. If the biennial will 
make in 10 months here I am wondering if the new 
annual variety will make in five months. I think 
it would be interesting to try it out, but I do not 
know where to get the seed. charles t. leach. 
Florida. 
Is the Soil Being Improved? 
I would like to know whether Mr. Wiggin, in the 
article on page 1261, is able to keep up the fertility of 
his farm with the manure from those eight cows, or does 
he have to use some fertilizer? If so, what kind and 
how much? Is his farm in as good state of fertility as 
formerly; that is, does it raise as much as years ago? 
New Jersey. k. b. s. 
HE question of maintaining soil fertility is one 
of the very pressing problems in New England 
agriculture. In New Hampshire it is universally a 
livestock system of farming, but it is an open ques¬ 
tion whether we are actually maintaining, or at 
least increasing, the fertility of our soil. On the 
Wiggin farm in Carroll County. N. II.. no commercial 
Sweet Clover in Florida. Fig. ^1). 
fertilizer is used. Nor, in fact, is any other system 
followed than hauling out the manure in the Spring 
and top-dressing the meadows. Like practically all 
New Hampshire farms, Mr. Wiggin leaves a large 
j roportion of his tillable land in hay, and buys all 
of the grain. 
In the case of this particular farm, it is my opin¬ 
ion, after looking the place over carefully and going 
into the matter of past crop yields, that the general 
soil fertility is just about being maintained. I am 
inclined to believe that the average yield of hay, 
oats and potatoes during the past five years has been 
about the same as during the past 20 or 30 years. I 
do not think this particular farm is running down 
lrill; neither do I think the soil fertility is being 
very much built up. And that, in fact, is about the 
situation all over New Hampshire. Hay. which is 
the chief crop, will run from a ton and a quarter to 
a ton and three-quarters to the acre, and more or 
less. Potatoes yield around 125 bushels to the acre 
for an average. 
There are a lot of flaws in the Wiggin farming, 
and in the average farming of New Hampshire in 
this respect. Nobody would hold up this farm as a 
model system that has solved all the problems of 
profit and maintenance. But as compared with the 
average proposition in Carroll County, the Wiggin 
farm stands out like a hilltop. The big point is that 
this man has made the fundamental beginning in 
successful farm management under the existing con¬ 
ditions which surround him. He has developed a 
herd of cows that make three times the profit from 
butter that the average cow makes in his region—a 
region, in fact, where the fat production of the aver¬ 
age cow bespeaks a liability, which does not impair 
the herd’s ability to produce as much fertilizer as 
any other. 
The run of good dairy farmers in New Hampshire 
AugU&t 2o, iu-o 
—really successful men—commonly figure that if 
they return around two tons of stable manure to 
each tillable acre every year (that is, in this ratio), 
they are building up the fertility of their land. Wide 
observation convinces me that this is true. It. 
usually takes pretty good care and conservation of 
manure to be able to return this much. On the 
Wiggin farm there are kept about eight cows, a bull, 
and around seven or eight head of young stock, be¬ 
sides two horses, about 100 hens and two to 10 pigs. 
The normal production of manure per month that 
could be saved is around 10 or 12 tons. This is saved 
for at least six months of the year, giving a manure 
supply for the fields of better than 60 tons. This is, 
provided it is carefully saved and cared for. Now 
it happens that the method of storing manure on 
Ibis farm is like that of most of the State, namely, 
in the “barn cella?’." To clean out the stables they 
lift a trap door in the drop, and with hoe and shovel 
push the whole accumulation down into the base¬ 
ment, where it stays all Winter. As a matter of fact 
this makes almost ideal storage of the manure. 
Generally there are some pigs tramping over the 
pile, which packs it and preserves it all the better, 
so that every Spring there is available a really tine 
pile of fertilizer. I always thought this was a little 
hard on the barn and the stock, but it certainly is 
fine for the manure. It becomes the Spring job to 
get. this out onto the land. It goes a long way to 
preserve fertility; but it is doubtful if the soil is 
being or can actually be built up without more work¬ 
ing and rotation. a. b. genung. 
Transplanting Roots of Alfalfa 
Some time past. 1 believe, I saw in Tiie R. N.-Y. 
an article in regard to growing Alfalfa by transplanting 
and cultivating like cabbage or tobacco. I have a small 
place (nine acres) which has been allowed to grow up 
to dewberries, wild buckwheat, goldenrod, bull nettle 
and all sorts of annual weeds. These make it imprac¬ 
tical to have a permanent meadow or pasture until the 
worst of the weeds are killed, and thorough cultivation 
seems to be the only method. I thought perhaps I 
could get. Alfalfa started and grow the most hay per 
given acre of any method. Will you advise me as to 
the desirability of this, and if practical tell me where 
I can get. complete cultural directions? c. R. c. 
Dutchess Co.. N. Y. 
W E have transplanted several thousand plants 
of Alfalfa, and have part of these plants still 
growing. Some of them are live and six years old 
and of great size. We obtained the seedling plants 
from South Dakota. The Cossack variety gave us 
best results for this planting. The seed was evi¬ 
dently planted in Spring, and the plants were plowed 
out the next Fall and carried over Winter in storage. 
When they came to us the roots were about the size 
of a lead pencil. We planted these 3 ft. apart each 
way. about as we would cabbage or tomatoes. In 
some cases we did not plow or fit the land in any 
way. but simply drove a spade down into the ground, 
put the Alfalfa plant behind the spade, pulled out 
the latter and let the soil fall back around the root. 
'The soil was firmed by stepping on it. The only pre¬ 
caution was to make sure that the crown of the 
plant was put close down to the ground. As the 
plant grows larger its tendency is to push the crown 
out of the soil. It is better, of course, to plow and 
tit the land properly before planting. You can if you 
like plant an early variety of sweet corn or cabbage 
between the Alfalfa plants; for the first season give 
good culture and fertilize well. That will give a 
paying crop and start the Alfalfa off well. 
We find that 3 ft. apart is excellent for a seed crop, 
but not so good for hay. The plants spread out too 
much and make it harder to cut the hay. Two feet 
apart with a variety like Cossack would be better. 
There is no question about the possibility of growing 
Alfalfa in this way. The plants made a tremendous 
root growth, which cannot be thrown out by frost. 
We would not. however, advise C. R. C. to plant nine 
acres in this way. The cost of hand labor would be 
prohibitive. In some cases the machine transplanters 
have been used to set the plants, but in these days ol 
high-priced labor this method will not pay for acre 
crops. On gardens or small fields it will pay, but 
the cost of setting a nine-acre field puts the method 
out of the question. 
Our suggestion is to have that field plowed at once 
and seeded to rye. In the Spring plow this under 
and plant corn, giving good culture and using at 
least one ton of limestone per acre. The following 
year seed to Alfalfa, following as nearly as possible 
the plan outlined by Martin Thew on page 971. He 
seeds in Spring, without a nurse crop. The soil is 
thoroughly fitted and the inoculated seed is sown 
with a drill or wheelbarrow seeder and covered 
quickly. If the Summer is fairly moist the plants 
make a strong growth and come through the Winter 
in good condition. 
