The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1890-12-17

broth, the nitrifying organism can make
living amidst the most barren sur
rOundings. Thus havefound that they
grow abundantly and produce the char
acteristic transformation Of ammonia
into nitric acid in a liquid which is prac-
ticdlly destitute of organic matter OF any
kind. Indeed it is only in such starva-
ton media that these nitrifying organ
isms succeed in establishing their supre-
macy, for in more nutritious media they
are crowded out by other organisms.
Thus in strong liquids, such as sewage,
which is rich in food for most micro-or-
ganisms, we find no nitrification taking
place, but on the contrary an abundance
OF ammonia.
In such liquid. however, the nitrify-
ing organisms bide their time, waiting
until their less discriminating brethren
have consumed all the available store of
nourishment and are perishing from want;
then they step in, make themselves mas
tiers of the situation and convert the am
mOnia into nitric acid in the way al
ready described.
These acids combining from nitrates
the most common of which are those of
potash lime, soda and magnesia. Not
considering their cost or other qualities
they all are SO quickly assimilated or
leach so readily as to be uncertain or I'M
reliable applied to fruit trees.
/ have looked in vain in agricultural
chemistries for satisfactory explanations
of the assimilation of sulphates, for the
general opinion prevails that nitrogen is
absorbed only as nitrates. The researches
OF the French chemists Olivier and Plan
chud, although not carried into this
quarter, furnish the key as to the grad
ual assimilation of the sui pilates Of COM
mercial fertilizers. They discovered in the
sulphur springs Of France, both in the
water and it's scum, microbes which con-
verified the sulphates into sulphur, the
lime, etc. becoming carbonates.
Planchud found that one gramme Of
carbolic acid to the litre arrested the re-
ductiOn of the sulphates and six grammes
killed the microbes.
We see much less in print now than for
merly as to injury to the land from sui
phuric acid used to reduce insoluble to
soluble phosphates.
Land does not become plaster sick from
any corrosive action of the stlphate Of
lime, but from inability to furnish the
y
the crops started from the nitrates the
plaster has made available. L have never
seen any deterioration of soil where the
necessary mineral elements were FURNISHED
by sulphates.
Mr.. E. H. Hart and myself last winter
put down q six-inch artesian well on the
dividing line of our groves and after the
freeze used the sulphur water for irriga-
ting. We have a clay sub-soil at two to
three feet, and made the water run in
bitches on the ridges or swells and then
down the drainage burrows between the
rows of trees. In a few hours the water
would rise by capillary attraction and
show wet on thesurface of the land some
times a foot above the water level in the
bitches.
1t beats ''Father CoIe'' and ''The water
led captive" It also beats rain for there
can be no teaching of fertilizers. Early in
June made on my own grove a lightap-
plication of a fertilizer composed entirely
of sulphates, giving it one watering be-
fore the rains, which began soon after.