Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-05-04
SOIL INCUBATION is NOT UNDERSTOOD
Agricultural wiancko, of the Indiana

Agricultural Wiancko, of the Indiana
experiment station. says:
The many inquiries which come to
the station about bacterial inoculating
material for clover and other legumes
indicate that there exists among our
farmers a widespread but erroneous
notion as to what may be expected to
result from the application of such ma
terialS.
Many highly eXtravagant claims for
incubation are being made by un-
scrupulous concerns advertising the
materials for sale, and the farmer is
led to believe that inoculating the
seeds of legumes. or the SOIL upon
which they are to be grown, with GER
tain forms of bacteria, is all that is
required to make them produce enor-
NOUS crops, besides wonderfully en-
riching the soil These claims are in
nearly all cases very far beyond the
truth, and many farmers are being
induced to spend money for something
which will not produce what is claimed
for it.
1t is quite true that leguminous
plants, of which the clovers are famil-
lar examples, require large quantities
of nitrogen for their proper develop
ment. 1t is also true that through the
which live on their roots, these leg
umes can secure their needed nitrogen
from the air in the soil The bacteria
live upon the fine rootlets of the plants
and produce small tubercles or nodules
in which the nitrogen of the air is
elaborated into forms in which it is
available to the plants. Each legume
has a form of bacteria peculiar to it
self. Whether or not this is present
can be easily ascertained by EXAMINE
:ing the very fine rootlets for the
.noduleS.
The introduction of the bacteria is
called incubation. Such incubation,
where the legume to be grown is new
to the soil. 1t may be effected either
by the use of pure cultures, such as
are advertised tif they are genuine),
or by scattering over the field small
quantity Ga hundred pounds or more
per acre. of soil from field where the
particular legume to be grown has
been successfully produced. When in
oculation has once been effected,
whether by nature or by artificial
means, that soil will always produce
the crop so long as other conditions
are right, even though the crop may be
absent for years at time and fur
thermore. that soil can be used TO IN
oculate other fields.
In Indiana, alfalfa, for instance, is a
comparatively new crop. and the soil
in most cases does not contain the
necessary bacteria. incubation is,
therefore, necessary wherever the crop
is to be grown for the first time. In
the case of clover. however, the crop
has been so long and so widely pro-
duced in the state that the bacteria
must be everywhere, and fresh inocu-
lation is not necessary. Many farmers
who find clover falling on their farms
are grasping at this idea Of incubation
as remedy. They are spending good
money for nothing.
Wherever clover has been success
fully grown and now fails, or does not
produce profitable crops, the failure is
most likely due to a lack Of mineral
plant foods in available forms. or an
Imperfect physical condition of the soil,
or both. This has been brought about
by long continued systems of inju-
dicious cropping. by the removal Of AN