1 Jan., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 11 
An interesting account is given by M. Grandeau of the results of the inocu- 
lation of soil with bacteria adapted to the different leguminous plants, which, he 
shows, may increase enormously the assimilating power of these plants. In- 
oculation is accomplished by broadeasting on the land to be planted varying 
quantities of finely comminuted earth taken from a field which has borne a 
crop of the same species of lesuminous plant which it is intended to cultivate. 
Among numerous experiments in this direction, M. Grandeau cites some made 
by Professor Friihweh at Meedling, with yellow lupins, serradella, Ornithopus 
sativus, and Lathyrus silvestris, in calcareous soil. Of two plots of land planted 
with serradella, one was treated with a small quantity of earth impreenated 
with bacteria from previous cultures, and the other was not so treated. On the 
9th of August it was found that the crop on the plot that had-been inoculated 
was more than three times the weight of that on the plot notinoculated. In the 
former case the roots of the serradella were covered with nodules, in the latter 
case they were absolutely wanting. ; " @ =, 
_ The land on which the lupins were grown was inoculated with earth from 
soil that had previously borne lupins. On one plot the quantity of impregnated 
earth equalled about 8 ewt. per acre, and on another 16 ewt. per acre; the 
third plot was not inoculated. The plants on the first plot reached an average 
height of 15% inches, and the weight of the crop on this plot was double that 
on the plot not inoculated. The crop on the second plot was more than one- 
third larger than that on the first plot, and three times larger than on the plot 
not inoculated. Inoculation had apparently doubled and trebled the crops 
according to the quantity of bacteria-infected earth supplied. M. Grandeau 
states that the result of the experiments on two other beds equally demonstrated 
the advantage of inoculation. ; 
In some other experiments the quantities of bacteria-infected earth applied 
ranged from half a ton up to one and a-half tons per acre, and the results were 
equally marked; but, as M. Grandeau admits, there are many questions as to 
the influence of the inherent fertilising qualities of different soils, as to the 
effect of this or that leguminous plant, and as to the quantities of earth to be 
employed for purposes of inoculation, which require continued investigation. 
Nevertheless, the value of the process seems to be sufficiently established, and 
it may be adopted by practical men, especially as it involves but slight:expense, 
and its results promise to be most advantageous to agriculturists, 
Experiments can be made in two ways—Ilst, By broadcasting some 
hundredweights of earth taken from land that has yielded a good leguminous 
crop upon the field which is to be sown with leguminous plants. 2nd, By 
watering the field with water which has been in contact with earth from land 
which has yielded a good leguminous crop. i 
There is yet a third method of inoculation—namely, by means of the 
preparation known as “ Nitragin,” to which M. Grandeau does not allude in 
the Htudes Agronomiques. This, however, appears to be even more simple and 
economical than either of the methods described by him, and it only remains 
to ascertain its actual value from the results of varlous experiments which are 
being conducted by scientific agriculturists in this country, and by investigators 
and cultivators in Germany. S Nitragin is the pure culture of the nodular 
organisms found on the roots of leguminous plants; the method of obtaining 
these was discovered by Dr. Nobbe, of Tharand, in Saxony. The culture is 
placed in a bottle containing a nutrient solution, as agar gelatine, upon which 
it grows, and the bottle is hermetically sealed and kept from the light. 
“Nitragin” can be obtained in this condensed bottled form, derived from the 
nodules of several species of clover, lupins, beans and peas, tares, lucerne, 
sainfoin, and other leguminous plants, and suitable for application in order to 
promote and stimulate the growth of crops of the same species as that froni 
which it was evolved. If this new and direct mode of inoculation should 
prove satisfactory, it will be a distinct advantage over the methods described by 
M. Grandeau, as the application is simple and inexpensive, and the inoculation 
of each kind of leguminous plant with its own peculiar organism can be easily 
ensured, , 
