s we can't safely blame it to the soil.

Mr. Moyer: What do those black soils in the western part of the state
need? They have a whitish deposit on top.

Mr. Alway: Drainage. That is alkali.

Mr. Kochendorfer: I have a ten-year apple orchard that I disked last
year and kept it tolerably clean this spring. There were a lot of
dandelions sprung up that I mowed down the middle of July, and since
then they have grown up again. Will they take nitrogen the same as
clover?

Mr. Alway: They won't take any from the air. They will act like so much
rye, but when they die and decay nitrogen will be gathered from the air
and added to the soil by bacteria that live upon the decaying vegetable
matter.

Mr. Kellogg: Did you ever hear of them dying?

Mr. Alway: Dandelions? If they are plowed under.

A Member: Is it practicable to grow soy beans in this soil? Can they be
gotten at a reasonable price, and can we mature them here?

Mr. Alway: They mature here without any serious difficulty. There are a
great many different varieties. If you order them from a distant seed
house you may get a variety that will mature in Louisiana but not in
Minnesota.

A Member: How about cowpeas?

Mr. Alway: Cowpeas are disappointing thus far north. In Minnesota they
are not nearly as satisfactory as the soy bean. In an unusually warm
summer they are satisfactory.

A Member: With the soy bean do you have to plow in the whole of it?

Mr. Alway: Yes. The whole plant ought to be plowed under.

A Member: Would it be practicable to feed soy beans in an orchard?

Mr. Alway: Yes. You don't get quite the same benefit from the green
manure when you pasture as when you plow under.

A Member: How about the hairy vetch? Does it grow here?

Mr. Alway: Yes. It grows here. It is not a bad crop at all.

* * * * *

POISONING TREE SCALE.--We take the following from _Scientific
American_ as worth consideration by the owners of orchards and lawns:

A correspondent in _Science_ relates the following rather startling
experiment in killing tree scale by poisoning the sap of the tree. He
says:

"I have in my ground a plant of Spanish broom about a dozen years old
and with a trunk about four inches in diameter which has for several
years been seriously infested by cottony cushion scale (_Icerya
purchasi_). I have tried various sprays, have put scale-eating beetles
on the tree, and at one time cut all the branches off and spray