182 REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY OF THE 
cerning this disagreement in recommendations we can only say that 
we doubt that the pure-culture method is yet sufficiently perfected 
so that it can be safely relied upon to produce the desired results. 
WINTER INJURY. 
In New York, as elsewhere, it is not uncommon for alfalfa to 
winterkill. Yet, where other conditions are favorable as, for ex- 
ample, in Onondaga County, fields last for many years. Spillman'® 
cites a New York alfalfa field 45 years old. Coburn” says, “there 
is a field in New York which has been mown successively for over 
sixty years.” 
More or less injury occurs every winter. The winter of 1903- 
1904 in’ New York was the coldest since temperature records of 
the State Weather Bureau began in 1888 and alfalfa winter-killed 
to an unusual extent.'S The ground froze deeply, there was much 
freezing and thawing during March and probably what was most 
disastrous of all, a thaw in February was followed by a sudden, 
hard freeze which left the ground covered with a thick coat of ice. 
On the Station farm an alfalfa field which had produced good crops 
for several years was completely killed out. 
Winterkilling 1s brought about in different ways — by freezing 
of the roots, by heaving, and by smothering of the plants under ice 
and standing water. It is prevented chiefly by providing good sur- 
face and underdrainage, and by avoiding late cutting in order that 
the alfalfa may go into the winter with several inches growth to 
hold the snow. ‘Top-dressing with stable manure in December 1s 
“Some recent papers bearing on this point are the following: Harding 
and Prucha (8); Kellerman and Beckwith (50); Harding (37); Moore 
(68); Stone (100); Prucha and Harding (81). See also those cited in 
footnote 13 and the following Experiment Station bulletins and reports: 
Cornell (N: ¥.) Bul. 237; Ga. Bul. 71; "Ky. Bul? 1257 Mass. Rote 
Me. Bul. 126; N. C: Rpt: 30; Ohio Bul. 181; Okla. Bul. 68; Ontario (Gane 
Agr, Coll, Buls,. 148’and 164; Pa: Buli' 78; Tex, Bull 83s Var Bulisisa7e we 
Va. Bul: 105; Wis.; Rpts. 22:3) 242 and) 23: 2815 See, also, Circ s16,.0inee 
of the Secretary, U. S. Dept. Agr., Mar. 1906. 
“Brand (6); Buffum (11); Moore and Stone(7o); Wiancko (108); 
Watson (106); Wilson (111); Williams and Kyle (109). 
® Spillman, W. J. Quoted by Coburn (15, p. 9). 
eNCabumaAcnss p.s) + 
Stone (99) gives the mean temperature at Ithaca for each of the three 
winter months (December, January and February) from 1888 to 1904. He 
also discusses the winter killing of alfalfa in New York in 1904. 
