48 Report OF DEPARTMENT OF BACTERIOLOGY OF THE 
SUMMARY OF THE OBSERVATIONS ON THE EFFECT OF LIME. 
It should be remembered that in all of our experiments with 
alfalfa we have continued our observations over two seasons. 
The first winter is so severe a trial of the suitability of the 
conditions for the growth of alfalfa that observations made the 
second season are especially valuable. 
In the larger proportion of the experiments the lime was ap- 
plied at the rate of 1500 lbs. per acre. This application was 
usually in the form of stone lime which was distributed over 
the plat in small piles and allowed to slake, after which it was 
spread with a shovel and thoroughly worked into the soil some 
days before sowing the seed. 
A summary of the observations made on experiments begun 
in the seasons of 1905-06-07 is given in Table VI. 
TaBLE VI -—-SuMMARY ON Errect or LIME ON ALFALFA 









No lime Lime 
Year Success Improvement} Success 
nae a fee + “7 
1005S Hat toa) eS ne 0 5 (05 0 2 3 
1906: aed: oy ey grat ok Vee 1 21 22 0 fi 15 
LOOT SBR tera ts pad he ee RGN 10 27 27 6* | 18 19 
Totalar ices ioe de See Pie 11 53 54 6 | 27 37 

* Data lacking for four experiments. 
From this table it is seen that the use of lime resulted in an 
improvement in 54 of the 64 fields where it was tried. In some 
fields the improvement produced was so slight that it was barely 
observable but in a large number of cases it made the difference — 
between failure and success. It will be observed that there 
were but 11 successful plats among those which had not been 
