The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1881-11-19

BACTERIA IN THE SOIL.-Professor Thomas
TAYLOR, Microscopic of the United States Agri-
cultural Department, has recently published
some of the results of his observations in regard
to the nature and mission of bacteria, their inn
portance in maintaining the equilibrium Of
natural laws, and their action in soils. Abiding
to this latter branch of the subject, Professor
Taylor remarks:
while bacterian fermentation or putretaction
is an essential part of the process which fits dead
organic matter to become food for plants the
former appears TO be an Incidental source of one
of the common practical difficulties encountered
by the farmer and horticulturist, viz the ten
dency of soil to become sour. Some of the lower
forms Of fungi are denominated acid formers,
and the mode in which these act will, l think,
illustrate the process by which sourness Of soil
is brought about. If we dissolve little sugar in
water, add small quantity of yeast fungus and
subject the solution to a suitable temperature
fermentation ensues-the sugar is converted
into alcohol and carbonic acid and in process of
time the alcohol is oxidized becoming acetic
acid. As the results OF some late observations,
am convinced that similar change takes place
during the progress of those lamentations of
which bacteria are the agents, and that these
organisms, though in q less distinctive sense,
might also be called acid formers. So far as my
observation extends, solutions in which baCterian
ferments are in active progress invariably become
calculated; and have also found that soils in
which bacteria and micrococci are revealed by
microscopic examinatiOn-and find them in all
soils of average fertility-give perceptible acid
hI-1
THAT acidity is often produced in excessive
quantities may be due in part to the character Of
the unmarketable substances left upon the land
in the operations of agriculture, such as the
stalks of corn the stubbles of the smaller cereals
decayed grasses, the fallen leaves and twigs of
fruit trees, and the roots of field and garden
plants in general. In all Of these there is pre-
ponderance OF cellulose, which substance is re-
solvable successfully into starch, dextrine and
glucose, and from this last, as from the solution
Of sugar III the experiment above referred to- is
ultimately produced acetic acid.
The naturalization of the excess of acid in the
soil is not the least of the ends subserved by the
use of lime and other alkalies in agriculture:
but another means which contributes 10 keep
its quantity within wholesome limits is thorough
watered with sufficient frequency and copious-
ness 1t soon becomes sour, and gardeners have
learned by experience to leave at the top of each
hower-pot water space of two inches, more OF
less, depending on the size of the pot By ILL
ing this space with water as often as necessary
the soil is kept sufficiently free from organic
acids, which are washed out through the aperture
below; and this is precisely similar to what takes
place in any well-drained field"
Thorough Drdindge.-Tie above Investigations
give US another reason, to the many already
known, for the necessity of good drainage for
healthy plant growth. The best conditions for
plant growth, so far as concerns the physical
nature of soils, are those which allow free and
through them, and this cannot be secured with
ont drainage which admits Of the immediate
removal of excess of water; the ercess is simply
that portion not retained or held in the pores of
the soil, which then causes saturation and stag
nation, with all their evil influences, upon the
roots of plants. With free drainage we have
what might be termed drenching process, such
as takes place in the case where plants are grown
in wire hanging baskets, where the soil is sup
piled solely by water absorbed in it's pores, and
where excess of water cannot possibly be re-
tanned; and how much of the value of drainage
depends upon this drenching or cleansing process
becomes an entirely new factor in vegetable
physiology The following paragraph is note
worthy in this connection:
Hct Water for PIdatS.-1t has long been
known that the roots Of plants encased in earth
EouId stand water so hot as to be quite uncom-
artable TO the hand NJ. WillermOz, in the