THE SEED WORLD 
133 
LEGUME INOCULATION 
G ROWERS of legume crops find that 
seed inoculation pays. It pays for 
the following reasons: (1) It enables 
plants to secure nitrogen from the air and 
passes it on to the plants for their use. 
(2) It prevents crop failures. Very often 
a legume crop is a complete failure if the 
seed has not been inoculated. (3) It in¬ 
creases crop yields; in some cases several 
hundred per cent. (4) It improves the 
crop quality. (5) It enriches the soil. 
Reliable Dealers 
There are many reliable manufacturers 
of legume inoculation material. It is not 
necessary any longer to use cultures from 
state agricultural experiment stations, for 
these commercial concerns have reliable 
and tested cultures. These firms employ 
bacteriologists who have made this line of 
work a life-long study. Each culture for 
the different kinds of legumes is care¬ 
fully prepared and when properly mixed 
with the seeds to be planted the desired 
inoculation results. 
These commercial cultures are inspected 
and tested from time to time by state and 
government officials, which tends to keep 
manufacturers careful as to the potency 
of their product. As a result of the pains¬ 
taking manner in which these legume 
cultures are manufactured, some excellent 
cultures are now available. 
Increased Demand 
The demand for inoculants is increas¬ 
ing each year. Farmers are slowly but 
surely finding out that inoculating seed 
pays. This demand is bound to increase 
as time goes on and there is little ques¬ 
tion but that the demand will be doubled 
in a very short time. 
Due to this increased interest in in¬ 
oculation seed dealers are finding that it 
pays to sell well known brands of inocu¬ 
lants. 
The margin of profit obtained from the 
retailing of legume inoculants is very at¬ 
tractive. Seedsmen should put special 
stress on their sales efforts to urge all 
buyers of legume seed to purchase a sup¬ 
ply of inoculants sufficient to treat the 
seed they buy. 
The manufacturers of legume inocu¬ 
lants put up their products in attractive 
containers thus making them practical for 
display purposes. They also cooperate 
with seed dealers in supplying them with 
window display material, electros, and 
advertising copy for seed catalogs and 
local newspaper advertising. In fact, 
Courtesy of Agricultural Experiment Station, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. 
(Left) Limestone and a commercial inoculant were used on this field of sweet clover. 
(Right) Limestone only was used. 
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