roots by throwing out adventitious roots seems to be very 
moderate. I have seen but few roots that have been eaten 
off by the pocket gopher or cut by the plow where it has 
calloused and thrown out roots which would be efficient in 
sustaining the plant if it had to depend upon them. I did 
not observe many with any roots produced in this way, but 
I have seen a few. 
ALFALFA ROOTS CUT BY GOPHERS. 
In a piece of bottom land near the Cache-a-la-Pouclre 
river, I found a piece of alfalfa which was infested by these 
animals, and an examination of these roots showed that 
eighty per cent, of the plants had their roots eaten off, and 
this was doubtlessly the cause of the death of some of the 
plants, but they endured this severe root pruning to a sur¬ 
prising degree. 
NODULES ON THE ROOTS. 
Nodules appear on the roots in three forms: as warthy 
excressences mostly near the neck ; as single nodules on 
small roots, and united into large colonies. The first form 
appears at shallow depths and whether these are identical 
with the others or not, they cease to appear on the roots at 
greater depths ; while the third was found most abundant 
from three to five feet from the surface, and the second at 
all depths up to eleven and a half feet. There was a very 
great difference in the number of these on the roots at 
different localities though the plants seemed to be equally 
vigorous, and the proteids in the hay did not vary materi¬ 
ally. They were found much more abundant on the plants 
grown in a garden soil, and also much nearer the surface 
than in the fields. The development of the colonies illus¬ 
trated most vividly the influence of the alfalfa roots as me¬ 
chanical agents for opening up the soil and admitting the 
air. I frequently found the passage left by the decayed 
root entirely filled by a colony or group of these nodules, 
whose axis agreed with the axis of the hole left by the root. 
Groups were almost invariably found occupying such pass¬ 
ages or other cavities or clefts in the soil ; while the single 
nodule was found scattered anywhere along t he course of 
the root from the surface of the soil to the end of the root. 
Plate No. XI. shows some of the nodules as they occur 
near the extremity of the roots ; these roots were about 
seven feet long. Plate No. XIV. shows large groups of them 
as found at a depth of from two and a half to five feet 
from the surface, and it also gives an idea of the size and 
character of the smaller roots of this plant. The largest 
