The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-03
CONDUCTED BY PROF. .. F praeAR. Q


 legumes, from tiny spheres to swellings as large as marbles, while the lobed, fiattened forms are sometimes grouped in clusters much larger.
 It has been a matter of common ex- perience when sowing legumes on new land that the first two or three seed ings fail to make stand. A catch may be secured, but the plants do not persist. After losing two or three sea- sons the crop usually becomes estab- lished, and thereafter there Is little difficulty unless too long period elapses between successiev sowings of the same legume The establishment of the crop after repeated failures Is explainable in two ways, both of which are probably concerned. The bacte- ria adapted to form root nodules are introduced with the seed and chan and gradually spread and increase, or or ganisms already in the soil, but previ- ously associated with some native le- gume acquire, after a few years, the ability to infect the sown crop. If fig ures could be gathered representing the annual loss of seed and labor from such attempts to establish clover, peas. etc, on new land the aggregate would doubtless convince the most skeptical of the economy, and. in many cases, the absolute necessity of at- tempting some form of artificial inocu- lation. Especially is this true with al- falfa, the crop so earnestly desired by every wide-awake farmer. who has stock to feed or a market for hay. The fact that this crop once established yields three to five cuttings of hay a year, and makes a meadow or pasture more nearly permanent than any other plant of equal feeding value. justifies the grower in going to any reasonable trouble or expense to furnish the prop CT conditions for growth.
 Cultural methods were long thought to be the secret of success, and end less have been the experiments to de- termine the sure method, but the fact is now recognized that no amount of care in the preparation of the seed bed and subsequent handling will ensure success where the nodule forming bac- teria are lacking.
 Consequently there has arisen tho practice of using soil from an old field to spread upon the ground or drill in with the seed. This method is the na- turai and obvious one, and, where cli-
 matfc and soil conditions are favorable. the inoculation thus brought about makes the difference between success ana fallure Soil for such purposes has. within recent yaers, been adver-
 tised for sale and shipped long dis
 tances and herein lies the chief objec- ton to the soil method. Along with
 the beneficial organisms in the soil are distributed weed seeds, fungus dls- eases and insect pests The history of the spread of such plagues by less de- Hperate means contains too many in | stances of vast damage wrought to per mt viewing the matter as a slight risk | Justified by the end. The expense in- volved Is, likewise, a considerable item A o tw IAt writer visited during the past fall, had imported ton of Illinois soil to se- cure start with alfalfa. This was considered sufficient for five acres only; TOT inoculating 500 or even 50 acres 1t can readily be seen that the cost would
 be prohibitive.
 Several years ago the Secretary of Agriculture. who for years had been
 interested in extending the use of le- gumes as soil renovators, took up the | investigation of the bacteria so neces-
 sary to their successful growth. with a view to securing pure cultures capa- | Die of use in the field. At that time
 there was commercial product manu-
 factured in Germany known as "Nitra- | gin," the invention of a distinguished
 botanist, Professor Nobbe, of Tharandt.
 which in laboratory tests promised to | be the effective means sought. In field
 practice. however, nitragin proved for | the most part without beneficial ef-
 feet. The cultures were sent out in | tubes containing colonies of the bac- l terta growing upon solidified medium,
 rich in nitrogenous food materials. The
 price was one dollar per tube, the con
 tents of which, dissolved in water | would treat the soil of half acre. | Many failures were, no doubt, due to
 deterioration in transit, but a more
 fundamental fault lay in the method of | growing the organisms. Nitrogen was | so easily obtainable in their food sup | ply that. by disuse of their natural | power, they soon lost the ability to utilize or. "f1x" free nitrogen-the nitro gen of the air. Overfed, they became inert and failed to produce nodules | when brought in contact with the host
 plant.
 In the Laboratory of Plant Physi-
 ology of the Bureau of Plant Industry | at Washington, experiments were un- l dertaken to discover an artificial me- l C&dm which would permit a satisfac-
 tory growth and at the same time pre-
 serve the nitro fixing power of the organisms-thati is, to secure a virulent | culture. The keynote was struck after | trying numerous combinations, in the
 omission from the medium of any com bined nitrogen, forcing the bacteria to
 utilize for their very existence the ni- l trogen in the air about them Far from producing overfed or lazy organ
 isms, the result of such rigorous train ''ing is the production of a strain of
 bacteria which are, so to speak, nitro gen-hungry." A further step was
 made in finding that this medium need not be solidiied with gelattine as pre- viously supposed, a solution in water | of few simple salts furnishing a basis | of growth after the organisms are once | isolated The method of distribution | was now to be considered. Tubes or bottles offered too many risks in ship ping, as well as other difficulties of a practical nature. Various absorbents were tried, and it was found that cot
 ton soaked in the liquid culture would | take up the organisms and bits of the cotton so treated would serve as start | CTS for the new cultures. The final
 step was taken when 1t was demon-
 strated that this impregnated cotton
 could be dried and kept for the space | of year. and when again immersed | in water would produce effective cul- | ture. It then became an easy matter | to send to any quarter of the world a | dry culture" whose action, under the proper conditions, could be predicted with as much certainty as that of yeast cultures or yeast cakes so commonly used as Ieaven. To hasten the growth | of the organisms 1t was found expedi- ent to furnish with the cotton starter certain nutrient salts-viz., sugar, po- tassium phosphate, magnesium sul- phate, properly proportrNned. With the food thus supplied, two days gives a | -4L 70 tacfario sufficient to change