INOCULATION OF PLANTS.
The expectations which seem to have existed in some circles ot the ie\olutjon in agricultural methods which would be brought about by the discoveries connected with nitrogen-forming bacteria have gradually come down to a more mundane le-* el. In this country of fertile and well-culti-vated fields the results have been more or less of a negatne character, but in some half-barren districts of America the application of inoculation has p-roved of great advantage. According to a bulletin itsued by the United States Department of Agriculture, nearly every legume has its own particular strain of nodule bacteiia. For example, that ol the clover is different from that ot lucerne, and that of the jow pea from that of the soy bean. In planting a leguminous crop for the first time, it will therefore often hayipcn that no tubeicles will form on the roots, because the proper kind of bacteria is not present in the soil. These may be supplied by scattering soil from a field where the crop in question has been recently grown, or by using an artificial culture of the proper bacteria. After the field is once thoroughly inoculated tliere ii*> rarely any difficulty in gettin« an abundant supply of root tubercles. The same strain of bacteria will often inoculate different ;losely-related legumes. Thus lucerne, bur clover, and sweet clover are tubercled by the same strain ; a different strain inoculates moat kinds of vetches, as well ac the field and garden .peas; still another strain is apparently used by red clover, white clover, and alsike clover ii common. There is a marked variation among different legumes, both in the extent to which they are naturallj tubercled and ir the ease with which different ones may be artificially inoculated. Natural inoculation presupposes the existence of the proper germ in the soil, and this is nearly always present over areas where a particular legume has been generally grown. Thus red ;lo\er is practically always naturallj inoculated in the north-eastern quarter of the United States, and cow pea? in the south-eastern. Lucerne is naturally tubercled as a rule in the west, while in the east artificial inoculation is usually necessary. Artificia-1 inoculation is usually accomplished with ease as regards cow peas, red clover, vetches, field peas, and most other legumes. Soy beans, howevei, frequently give negative results. Sweet clover ie jnuch more readily inoculated than lucerne, though both ase the same strain of bacteria. In some cases the tubercle germs occur in sufficient abundance on the 6eeds to provide inoculation. This occurs more particularly on seeds that are tra-mped out by oxer oi which otherwise become (Covered with dust from tbe field. An interesting illustration of this occurred in 1906 in the case of guar, an East Indian legume. Neither this plant nor any closely related species had previously been grown in this country. Nevertheless, at Chillicothe, Texas, the plants were abundantly tubeiclcd.— Mark Lane Express.
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Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 9
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487INOCULATION OF PLANTS. Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 9
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