New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. TTt 
unite in saying that they have failed to find evidence that these 
cultures are of any value to the agriculture of their particular 
regions. | 
Bulletin 270 of this Station gives the results of bacteriological ex- 
aminations in 1905 of eighteen packages of inoculated cotton cul- 
tures for legumes, put up by the National Nitro-culture Co., of 
West Chester, Pa. Duplicate portions from six of these packages 
were examined at the Agricultural Experiment Stations in Delaware, 
Michigan, New York and New Jersey and by Parke Davis & Co., 
at Detroit, Mich. These eighteen packages were all found to be 
worthless for practical purposes. It was further shown experi- 
mentally that the failure of these commercial cultures was inherent 
in the manner of their preparation. 
Great stress is laid by the commercial companies upon the re- 
sults obtained by farmers from the use of these cultures. Of the 
large number of farmers (approximately a hundred) whose ex- 
perience has come to us during the past two seasons, but six have 
Believed that they had obtained any result whatever from the use 
of such cultures. One had tried the inoculation on garden peas. 
When the matter was reported in November the crop had dis- 
appeared, but the statements of both the man and his neighbors left 
little room for doubt that good results had been obtained. A second 
farmer had tested inoculation on cow peas, and while he main- 
tained that there was a marked increase in the nodule formation on 
the inoculated area, there was no discoverable difference in the crop 
obtained from the two portions. A third was enthusiastic concern- 
ing results obtained with alfalfa, but as no plat had been sown with- 
out inoculation it was hard to see upon what he based his con- 
clusions. Two other fields of alfalfa where the owners believed 
Me. Agr. Exp. Station Bul. 128. 1906. 
Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Station Bul. 237. 1906. 
Ky. Agr. Exp. Station Bul. 125. 1906. 
Ontario Agr. Coll. Bull. 148. 1906. 
Pa. Agr. Exp. Station Bull. 78. 1906. 
Ann. Rept. Wis. Exp. Station 22: 242. 1905. 
Ann. Rept. Mass. Exp. Station 18:77. 1906. ° 
Unpublished results were kindly furnished by Agricultural Experiment 
Stations of North Carolina and Virginia. 
Also see Report on field and pot culture experiments at Woburn (Eng.) 
Experiment Station. 1904. : 
