The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1881-08-27
cloymb4A grssHtlssat'ss4r Wheat.

whee S {a.sa Iid8 iisail2ble nitre-
gen m.sle soil for 3 paying cE0p4 while
in a crop OF clover q much larger qQap-
tity of nitrogen is.earried from the field
than in crop Of wheat, This looks
very much, like eating our cake and
having it too, which we have been taught
from childhood up to be an limpossibit-
ty. Can the curious fact be explained,
or1do,apnarenti4 imppbsible things hap
ben in the ordinary course Of nature?
1t is customary to account for this re-
lation Of the two crops by suPposing that
clover gets IT'S nitrogen largely from the
air, through its abundant foliage. 9qtin
its large quantity of stubble and sreots
transfers the necessary supply Of nitro.
gen to the soil for the wheat crop. Near
Hal who adopt this explanation 60 no
further than to suppose that only chem
ically combined nitrogen Of the atmos-
phere, which exists there as ammonia or
nitric acid, is thus carried, to the soil.
Vile, who is we'll known as a writer on
agricultural chemistry, his work on
chemical manures having been transla-
ted from the French, and whois accept
ed as authority too often Simply because
what he has to say is well presented, and
the reader has no opportunity to verify
his conclusions, goes much further and
,af1irms that. the, plant can assimllate
'os feed Upon ,t1esssor' 'urcdmOined
nitrogen. AS this, nitrogen makes
up iseventylniie parts in 100 OF
tho atmosphere, while of the
combined nitrogen there are but a few
parts in thousand million, the auestion
is al, important one, and it woufd seem
that it might be- easily answered; but
thousands on thousands of opinions and
observations Of farmers themselves can
not settle it;, it can be solved only by
careful experiments IN which plants ore
:. forced to grow without any other nitro
gen Than that in their seeds, and this
free nitrogen. Three such series OF ex-
periments have been madeleine
by that veteran" agricultural chem
ist, Boussingsult, another by Vile
and tithe third by Lawes,i Gilbert
and Pugh. y The plain meaning
Of the results ofth first and last serieS
is that agricultural plants can not thrive
at all on make any normal amount of
growth ifcon6ned to these two sources
Of supply, while Vile draws the opposite
conclusion from his results. No one
T. who knows the whole history Of these
investigations is willing to adopt Ville's
conclusions. Although the last and
,ASda klatDtaba Series Of experiments
was performed after his own, by men of
acknowledged reputation for scrupulous
teae Soss 6iissay t aess a5lSt Jn the
reliability jot his investigations, he has
tSe dsePe5shcy. Fiat n still adde's
a'by hi first, conclusion is shown by the
recent translation above mentioned,
!, where he aatlirms that free nitrogen is the
most suitable form for luguminous
plants. ID u ,ntl'
Now, if this is not true, and we insist
tha.ppVrfng to,tha last evidence it is
not, the farmer who puts in clover to
get q good wheat crop thereafter is
ITALY q :4lss;ng lsmes sRa 1i in tine the
soil, and drawing upon his.stpck of that
substance both for the. clover and the
Wheat Ind i npt! ahbg anything of
fopse&lende ito h1 afaea4e SUPPLY of
nMnt nutrients; It is 0elusNe teaching,
Tor wito, believes I'm vt and grows
,c1oveyiNneb without manure is robbing
.Ns s6A AstAad 81 enriching it. Those
s~whUi1ayVEfyvFtihc most cuEefuf study
TO the comparative growth of clover and
wheat find no evidence that the former
sg q "a g. Of t. he l' s,'
y ts,. I. &c Es 1s.ta 81 e %g:
continued experiments, that 81 in soils
poor lid asailAble br. accumulated nitro
gen both the growth and the after effect
ofclover were less thar In soils richer ~
available nitrogen ''-'s that clover can
be grown less frequently than cereals on
the same soil without manure" and
that it can be grown continuously only
where the soil ID more than c0mmody
rich in available nitrogen as well as 9TH
er plant food; at the same time he has
proved by chemical analysis that clover
stubble leaves the surface soil richer
than before in nitrogen. II
These observations point plainly to
the conclusion that clover, like other
plants, looks to the soil for everything
except its carbon; and ii bene6ting a
subsequent crop BY supplying it with a
larger quantity Of available nitrogen, it
only moves this nitrogen from one part
Of the soil to another where the cereal
can get It more easily. It mag possess a
greater power Of transforming nnavail-
able 9itFqge9 ipto fyailaap(e nitrogen.
rapid and almost its entire growth in the
early 'p&ts II tAeaseasUh, while clover
occupies the whole vegetative season.
Many experiments indicate that nitrates
: q compounds. of nitric acid. contain the
J 6ifSg3ai ~ fit most bfli@d foSm as
j Rt bHlpfrate a1ePtce4 s4in the
ton Of nitrogen in other form, and are
most abundant in late Summer and ear.
y Autumn, when elqyeniasilg growing
while TIE cereal 4 either of the ground
81, a The yi tu glel II ri 0i The new
s s1s Rss'a q sas,, ' IL
~ greater depth and rats food FROM I
1neavor x,nImxsSn ~ al SHkAai SGA sso~o..N