The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-01-27
The New Agriculture.


rroac ing per lection. Nature is to be made,
raro1gh mans ingenuity and scientific in
vss.igatioa, to play her full part in fertili
zatiol of soil aHd plants, and through her
to1ntitul largess in this direction to thus
add p mans wealth and double the staple
PRODUCTS of the earth. the new agriculture
in coaUradistinction to old methOts-has al
raa Nv dawned, but they who till the soil
and they VIII reaprewards from crops have
scarcely caught the first rays of the inev-
table day.
By the strange coincidence of the happy
Conclusion. almost within the same m lnth,
in different parts Of the world, of three of
the most important Investigations and ex-
pariments that have engaged the attention
Of savants, the present year may be- rem
dared dist Ic5ly memorial in the annals of
hum IN progress. The results of these re-
searches were announced % in the Bulletin
de In Societe ChjBsiqte of Paris, Nov. 50,
tA the October bulletin Of the United
states Ag .icultural Experiment Station at
Mansfield. Conn, and (} in thu st. Paul
DaiIv NeuS, Oct IL, and the Rural, World
of st. Louis, Nov. Z. The discoveries therein
noted are not only correlative as to subject
matter, but in part are dependent one upon
another for practical application; each one
has involved years of study and expert
Inent. and cir final development at the
same moment by parties widely separated
and mostly unknown ID each other Is one of
the most remarkable features of their his
tory.
The general subject to which reference is
here made is well characterized in Scince
of Nov. 10 IN these words: 1.-The future
welfare of our race, material, intellectual
and moral, depends upon the food supply,
or in other words, upon the product of the
soil This, il turn, reduces itself es3en-
italy to "a question of phosphoric acid, pot
ash and nitrogen. Enough Of the first two
for indefinite time to come is assured in the
deposits of phosphates and potash salts al
ready discovered, but the probability of
sufficient supply Of nitrogen has been ques-
toned. This costliest Of the fertllizing Gle
lnents e .capes from our soils into the air
and into the sea, aud is taken away by
crops, and not completely returned. Artl-
fetal fertilizers promise to meet but a small
fraction of the coming demand. If, as has
aum osphere a re not available to plants, the
outlook is dark enough; but if the farmer
may use ais crops to gather 1t, without
price. we may dismiss our solicitlde. With
the assurance that plants obtain nitrogen
from the air, the fear Of starvation for the
overpopulated earth Of the future may be
ignored. That research is bringing the
brighter answer to this problem there
seems to be most excellent ground to hope"
The Connecticut Investigations conducted
by Prof Woods, chemist of the Mansfield
experiment station, prove that plants do
obtain nitrogen in large amounts directly
from air IL contact with their roots. and
this is confirmed by the independent re-
searches of Profs. Hellrieged and Wolff in
Germany. The details of these experiments
It is unnecessary to relate here.
The Paris Bulletin gives the conclusions
Of the great chemist Berthelot, sustained by
host of others working separately, that
the absorption, or more exactly, the fxa-
ton of the free nitrogen of the free nitro
Gen of the atmosphere by the
soil itself is ole Of the fundamen-
tai processes of natures economy. NJ.
Berthelot says: "a few years ago it was
everywhere taught that the free nitrogen of
the air played no part in vegetation nor in
agriculture. 1t was the classic doctrine
with the exception of few scattered pro-
tests. At the present time this doctrine
seems abandoned. The change in the opln-
ion OF sayants has been brou.G ht about IF it
is permitted to me to recall it, by my re-
searches both upon bare earth and upon
earth covered with vegetation, pursued
methodically during six years with va
rlety of experiments and a multiplicity of
Notifications which it is not my part to esti-
mate. Ny researches have brought about
others which have verified their general re-
suits, at the same time leading to new dis
coveries
1.-The influence of leguminous plants,
affirmed for long time by NJ. G.. Vile, has
been confirmed with an unforeseen signifi-
canoe by my labOrs and by those of NM
Hellriegel and Willfarth carr led on stimuli
taneou,ly. TIE experiments of both, as
well as those of NJ. Deherain and of NJ.
Joulie, have established the fxation of
of nitrogen by the vegetable earth. I have
shown that this fixaton acts under the in
and Willfarth, as we'll as NJ. Brial, have
confirmed and defined the role of these
micribes. Finally, have established that
bare earth provided with its microbes
first sandy and clayey soil, and then veg
etable earth, so-called) had the faculty of
fixing nitrogen as well in the absence of
superior vegetation as with the help OF
legumiaous plants. My experiences on this
point nave been repeated by NJ. Frank OF
Berlin, by NJ. Pichard and in d manner
more decisive still by NJ. Tackle.
An these discoveries and observations
upon the earth, and living beings which are
there developed, bear upon the associated
phenomena which have studied simulta-
na0usly upon the bare earth, the microbes
aAd superior plants-phenomena which it
Is not possible to treat separately and OF
which the combination and the concurrence
place beyond all doubt the fundamental
TACT Of the fxation of the free nitrogen
OF the atmosphere by the cooperation Of
mineral matter and of living organisms il
the soil"
Hero are eminent authorities in America