NEw YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 33 
name of “ Nitragin.” Partly on account of the naturally small de- 
mand for this new article and partly on account of the poor results 
obtained by various investigators who tested these cultures they 
ceased to be offered for sale. Hiltner has steadily continued. his 
studies of this subject and has found a solution for many of the 
difficulties which earlier beset the preparation of cultures of suffi- 
cient vigor to accomplish the desired fixation of nitrogen. 
The problem of the production of cultures of Ps. radicicola which 
would be a satisfactory substitute for soil in the inoculation of 
legumes was undertaken by the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
and in 1904 one of its investigators patented’? a process which was 
expected to furnish the bacteria in a vigorous condition and in a 
form which would allow their ready distribution. It was soon 
found that this method was a failure*® and attention has more re- 
cently been given to other methods of preparation and distribution. 
A report”! of progress has just been made which indicates that the 
results obtained by the new Department methods are still less than 
one-half as good as those obtained from the use of inoculating 
soil. Pure cultures have been sent out in various forms and on a 
considerable scale from both the Virginia”? and the Ontario” agri- 
cultural experiment stations. 
While it has been found that there is rarely any need for arti- 
ficial inoculation in growing a legume which is a common crop in 
any district, there is often the need of inoculation in order to grow 
successfully a legume which has never been grown in that locality. 
PLAN OF EXPERIMENTS. 
During the past three seasons the proposition has been made to 
all farmers who inquired regarding inoculation for alfalfa that the 
Station would furnish the inoculating material if the farmer would 
foilow general drections and report the progress of the experiment. 

“Letters Patent No. 755,519. Dated March 22, 1904. Issued to George 
T. Mcore. 
” Harding, H. A., & Prucha, M. J. The quality of commercial cultures 
for legumes. N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 270, 1905. Same in Annual Rept. 
*Kel'’erman, Karl F., & Robinson, T. R. Progress in legume inocula- 
tion. U. S. Dept. of Agr., Farmers’ Bul. 315. 1908. 
Ferguson, Meade. Soil inoculation with artificial, cultures. Va. Agr. 
Exp. Sta. Bul. 159. 1906. 
°° Harrison, F. C., & Barlow, B. Co-operative experiments with nodule- 
formirg bacteria. Ontario (Canada) Agr. Exp. Sta. Bul. 148. 1906. 
2 
