1980-07-11_REVISION - M1977493 (8)

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Legumes, if properly inoculated, can fix their nitro- gen from the air. Legumes are also high in protein (high nitro- gen to carbon ratio within their plant tissue) , which means that once the plant has dies, it can decay considerably faster than grass and release nitrogen to the soil . The knowledge of legume performance and adaptation is limited in the upper subalpine area. The objective of the legume study was to determine the potential of six commercially available legume species for re- vegetation purposes on three different sites at Climax. Three sets of plots were seeded with six species of legumes on September 17 , 1976 . Each set of plots were replic- ated two times . One set was seeded on good topsoil . The other two sets of legume plots were seeded on a nitrogen-deficient subsoil (glacial till) but in two different microenvironments to evaluate the legumes ' potential for building up the soil nitrogen. The plots occupied an area of 4 , 608 square feet and each individual plot was 12 ' by 211 . The legume species used in this study were : Alfalfa Birdsfoot trefoil Cicer milkvetch Red clover White clover Alsike clover All species were seeded at the rate of 25 lbs./A. Each legume was inoculated with the appropriate Rhizobium for N-fixation. The plot area was fertilized with 200 lbs. P2O5/A as 0-46-0 and 100 lbs. K2/A as 0-0-60 . The 1977 observations indicated that initial estab- lishment of cicer milkvetch was good and establishment of the other legume species was poor to fair. 9. 6 NATIVE SPECIES STUDY ON TAILING, 1976 This was a preliminary field study on Climax tailing to evaluate the performance of some native grasses, fortis, shrubs and trees. All the plants and seeds used in this study 9-12