18 Directror’s REPORT OF THE 
The results and observations in general, like those from other 
trials, show a greater disadvantage in the free use of foods of 
uncertain palatability and healthfulness during earlier stages of 
growth than at any other time. 
DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY. 
Quality of commercial culture for legumes.—Bulletin 270 
gives the results of an extended study of the commercial bacterial 
cultures for inoculating legumes. These cultures had been dried 
upon cotton which was afterward wrapped in paper and tin foil 
as a preparation for shipment. : 
Eighteen packages of this inoculated cotton were purchased in 
the open market and tested at the Station laboratory. Ninety- 
eight tests were made, a majority of them at Geneva, but thirty- 
six of them were carried on by bacteriologists in other States in 
order to compare results with duplicate samples. The outcome 
of these examinations may be summed up in the statement that 
these cultures were worthless for practical purposes. 
Further study showed that the explanation of this situation lay 
in the inability of Pseudomonas radicicola, the germ living in the 
nodules upon the roots of legumes, to survive when placed upon 
dry cotton. The worthlessness of the commercial cultures was 
inherent in their method of preparation. 
Since the publication of this bulletin the Department of Agri- 
culture at Washington has taken up the distribution of liquid 
cultures of Pseudomonas radicicola, and the above results which 
refer to the former method of distribution upon cotton, should 
not be understood as applying to these new cultures. 
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY. 
Potato spraying experiments.—During the season of 1904 the 
Station made extensive potato spraying experiments. The re- 
sults, taken in connection with those obtained in previous years, 
indicate that potato spraying may be highly profitable in this 
State. In fourteen farmers’ business experiments, including 180 
acres, the average gain due to spraying was 6214 bushels per 
acre and the average net profit $24.86 per acre. Forty-one other 
farmers who made experiments on their own account reported 
an average gain of 5814 bushels per acre. In the Station ten-year 
