The Pulaskian., 1917-04-20

SequenC1y make flCHer 1eeuS IudH uOu- legumes.
 SoiI-Transfer Method.
 A practical and effective method of introducing inoculation is to transport soil from field containing the bac- teria needed. Soil from fields of al- falfa, sweet clover and bur clover is interchangeable as regards inocula- tion; likewise from fields of red, al- sike crimson and white cloyers; also from fields of the vetches and field peas. In the case of cowpeas and soy beans, however, each requires it's par ticular strain of bacteria for inocula- tion. Soil for inoculation should be free from obnoxious weeds It should be taken from the first five or six inches of the surface and spread at the rate of 200 to 400 pounds per acre on the field to be sown. Nodule bac teria are killed by much strong sun light, so the inoculating soil should be spread during cloudiness, early morning, or late afternoon, and har- rowed in soon after.
 Soil-coating Method.
 Where inoculating soil is scarce, economy may be practieed by making thin mixture of chip glue and water, sprinkling this over the seed to be sown at the rate of about q quart of the liquor to bushel of seed. then mixing enough of dry inoculated soil with the seed to make 1t sufficiently T Ta6 thus becomes coated over the sur face of the seed and is carried into the soil with the seed.
 Legumes and Cropping Systems.
 Leguminous plants, because of their relation to nitrogen-fxing bacteria, are called nitrogen gatherers. If legumi- nous crops are not grown as a part of the cxopping system of farm, the nitrogen supply of the soil is apt to become depleted, especially where ni- trogenous fertilizers are not purchased and freely used. The latter way of keeping up the nitrogen is expensive and is seldom profitable, except for truck gardening or other intensive farming. The safer ands more practi- cal way in most instances is to main tain the supply of nitrogen by growing | legumes, which, besides furnishing ni- trogen, keep up the needed humus sup ply in the soil. Every second to fourth crop in the rotation should be legu- minous, depending upon whether the soil is generally fertile; whether the crops of the farm are chiefly sold or | fed and, in the latter case, whether the manure produced is carefully pre- served and returned to the soil
 The place which leguminous crops should occupy in any cropping system must depend upon the crops of the TO- tatlon, the length of the growing sea- son, and the legumes grown. The best returns are realized, as a rule, by fol- lowing legumes with strong growing cultivated crops, such as corn, cotton, potatoes or tobacco. Winter grain crops may well follow cowpeas or soy beans and the nitrogen which is fixed in the soil by the legumes is valuable to the early growth of these grain crops.
 From the farming standpoint legu- minous crops may be classified in three groups: O) Warm-season annu- als, which include cowpeas, soy beans, peanuts and velvet beans; CD cool season annuals, such as crimson clo- yer, bur clover, hairy vetch and field peas; and (3) biennials and peren- nials, including alfalfa, sweet clover, alsike clover, red clover and white clover The purpose which the legume is to serve on the farm must determine from which group it should be selected.