The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1905-06-06
Weekly-Sl a Year.

discouraged and giving up the fight for alfalfa. i
regard the crop as one of too much promise to be
abandoned account of failures for one or two z
years even The excessive rains this season are &
more favorable to weeds than to alfalfa; there
fore we will have to help the alfalfa in It's battle
against the weeds. The mower is the most eHec-
tive weapon I know for this purpose. The fre-
quent of 1T will be death to the weeds and LIE
to the alfalfa.
I can bear testimony to the advice of DIR. Free
man to those who contemplating planting al-
falfa to begin now to prepare the land. and the S
best way is to sow the land In peas. l believe 1t
will grow better after crop OF peas or some
legume than it will after hoed crop. Such a
crop may assist in noculating the soil which is
necessary for the successful growth of alfalfa or
any leguminous crop.
In connection with what Mr.. Parker has writ
ten here, direct attention to new Depart. Z.
lnent of Agriculture Bulletin just issued on In
oculation of Soil by Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria
From this we quote the following:
When Failure Is to Be Expected.
incubation will fail where other conditions
| (aside from the need of bacteria) are taken
| into account, as the following:
III In soil that is acid and in need of 4I12g
Lining to correct acidity is import LIT lor
| the proper activity of the bacteria as or the
! growth of the plants.
| ~ In soil that responds in marked way to
| fertilizers such as potash phosphorlc acid, or
! lime.
The activity of the bacteria in securing nitro.
gen from the air and rendering it available to the
legumes does not do away with the need tor such
! fertilizng elements potash and phosphorus.
| 60 It must also be remembered that lnocula-s
| ton does not "act like magic" 1T Will not over
| come results due to bad seed improper prepara-
ton and cultivation of ground, and decidedly adj
verse conditions of weather climate.
In the use of cultures, also, failure IS almost
| certain where the directions are not carefully
studied and intelligently followed.
/ (4 AS the physics, the chemistry, and the biol
ogy of soils are studied in the laboratory and by
means of actual feld-plot trials to determine
yield and quality of crops and the effect OF one
CROP on the following crops, the very great COM
! nlexity of soil and farm management becomes
more manifest.
The value of rure-bred bacteria, whether asso-s
i ciated with the crop existing independently IN
the SOIL as is true of fertilizers, not be pre-
7 dicted with certainty any soil without trial
Success on similar nearby lands may be taken as
, good evidence But unlike fertilizers, bacteria
should in time be inexpensive that each farmer
can afford to try them for each legumlnous crop
: on each field or soil type on his farm Inc metn-
DDS of distributing in dried form and the easy
methods of multiplying on the farm IN sumcent.
ouanatites to noculate fields will make IL posi-
bic TO have all fields inoculated at all times.
: life ;s . business we are all apt to mismanage;
either living recklessly from day to day. or suffer
ing ourselves to be gulled out OF our moments py
1 CHI