The Evening standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1910-1913, 1910-10-01
How to Inoculate Legumes
By Karl F. Kelerman, Plant Psychologist United States
Department of Agriculture
Department of Agriculture

THE value of legumes-plnntS belonging
L TO the pea family. such clover9, al
falfa, cowpeas, SOY beans. peanuts. field peas.
vetch. etc-as green mdnures or soil reno
vators is due to certain bacteria which de-
veop nodulcS upon the roots of these plants
and which have tho power OF rendering the
free nitrogen OF the air available for plant
growth, Without these bacteria, legumes.
like other crops. exhaust the soil Of it's COM
bined nitrogen. In many regions certain
types OF these important bacteria are abun-
dant In tho soils In other localities they
must be imported. or. in other words. the
legumnous crop to be grown there must be
inoculatcd
The incubation OF new field may be
secured either by the soil-transfcr method
or by tho use of pure cultures of the proper
bacteria
1t is useless to attempt to bonont crops
other than lcgumes by treatment with le-
guIne cultures. Tho only way by which a
nonleguminous crop. such corn cotton.
can be benefited by the leeume bacteria is
either to grow an inoculntcd lcgum1nous
crop the previous year and turn under the
stubble or even tho cntIro crop as u green
manure. to grow an inoculated leRumin-
Gus crop between the rows of the crop which
1t is desired to benefit No great Increase
IN crop can be expected from the latter
method.
Extensive experiments conducted by tho
bureau of plant industry, we'll expert
ments carried on by other Investigators in
this country and in Europe. have demon
strated conclusively that each species of
lcgume may be inoculated more successfully
by using the bacteria isolated from that
species than by using bacteria isolated from
some other species. In other words. the red
clover bacteria, which will produce q very
successful inoculatlon when applied to n crop
of red clover, viii give little. IL any bcnc6-
cial action when applied to cowpeas or soy
beans and vice versa.
The soil-transfcr method consists In
scattering over the new ground at the rate
of 200 800 pounds to the acre. soil either
from a healthy old field of the same crop or
from a new field OF the same crop that shows
abundance of nodules the roots To IA
cilitato even scattering the inoculated soil
should be thoroughly mixed with several
times its weight of ordinary soil. and may
be either drilled or broadcastcd. II the soil
is broadcasted 1t should be narrowed in i'm
mediately. and If possible this should be dono
toward evening or on cloudy day. as bright
sunshine IS very harmful TO the bacteria.
Tho method of incubation by pure cul-
lures depends to a certain extent upon the
type of culture which may be used Gener-
ally speaking. however. a bottle OF pure cul-
ture Of tho proper kind of bacteria Is opened
shortly before tho seed is to be planted and
the culture mixed with the proper quantity
OF water and applied to the seed In such a
way that all OF the seed may bo moistened
though not soaked. Tho seed should be
planted as soon as practicable after this
treatment; that is. as as 1t is sufFl-
cicntly dry for convenient handling. Drying
rnay be facilitated by adding dry. siftcd
Garth. preferably from the field in which
the lcGuminous crop Is TO be grown It Is