The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-19
Getting Nitroeen Frorn dc Air.


| One objection offered to the practice of
| green manuring is the fact that the land
is generally occupied for full year with
| out any income, says the Farm and Home
| AS a rule this is not necessary. as many
! of our crops are taken from the soil early
enough to allow of the growing of sec
| ond crop Tor blowing under If the soil is
! left unOCCupied after the early maturing
crops have been harvested, there is a
! waste of nitrogen through the drainage.
| The nitrogen compounds Of the soil are
| rapidly lost unless there is some crop
| ready at all times to utilize them.
! Glover or vetches can be sown with the
/ grain crops in the spring at no addi-
tional cost except the seed, and as soon as
the grain is harvested they will occupy
! the ground and make a valuable supply
/ of plan t-fOOd for some hOed crop the next
| season. One of the best clovers for this
| purpose is the scarlet or French clover.
| This is commonly 'claSsed as an annual,
but If grown from seed produced in Della
ware or New Jersey it will prove hardy
and gives heavy growth for blowing I'M
/ der as early as the middle OF May. 1t
/ should be sown not later than the middle
/ Of August. t'Orelgn-grO Wn seed should
never be used, as it is not hardy in this
| climate.
! One drawback in growing clover is the
/ fact that it will not thrive on the poorer
| classes of soils. Lupines, are a crop how
! ever, that viii do well on light, sandy
soils. In Germany large tracts of barren
| lands have been made productive by plOw-
| ing under this crop. The plant makes
| rapid growth, and if sown as late as Aug.
! /, will give quite heavy crop before the
| ground freezes, as it is not injured by or
binary frosts.
Cow peas are the great crop for green
manuring in the south, and can also be
! grown successfully at the north. These
should be sown not earlier than June !,
and not later than July /. They can be
plOwed under in September, in time for
sowing the winter grains
There are also several varieties Of sofa
beans that are valuable Tor green manur-
ing, or the seed may be utilized for feed
ing, as IL produces one of the most con-
! centrated Indigenous feeds. The sofa
bean seems better suited to the northern
part Of the country han the cow pea. The
| varieties grown for their seed have been
brought from Japan within few years,
and have not been widely disseminated.
1t is not difficult matter, however, to OBJ
tain varieties well suited for fodder or
green maruring
Difficulty has been experienced, at
times, in making a success OF growing GER
tain Of the legumes In cases Of this kind
I >.
which play so important part in the ac-
QUESTION of nitrogen, were lacking. II
has been found that the bacteria which
produce these tubercles may be trans
ported by taking the soil from one
region TO another. In growing so a
beans for three years prior TO 1898, the
| Storrs tCtl eNpt. station has not been
able TO discover tuOercles on the roots of
plants.
= This wear lot of seed was obtained Of
! the experiment station at Amherst, Mass.
The roots OF The crop grown at that sta
ton in 1892, from which this seed was
saved, were covered with tubercles. Six
hundred pounds of soil were applied to
the plot OF One-tenth acre when the seed
was sown by this station. This soil was
taken from the Amherst field where so a
beans were grown the year before. A
small quantity of the seed was also sown
in the grass garden of the station, quite a
distance from the larger plot, and in this
case no imported soil was used.
On the plot where the imported soil
was added the tubercles were abundant
and the crop made a rank, vigorous
growth and produced a good quantity of
seed. The so a beans sOwn in the grass
garden made a spindled growth and pro-
duced very little seed.
II is doubtless true, generally speaking
that The best use TO make of the legumes
is 10 feed to animals and carefully save
all the manure, but there are times when
land, which would otherwise be idle.
might be occupied by one Of these nitro
gen gathering crops. Through green ma
nuring this land may be kept supplied
with organic matter. and nitrogen and
the cheaper mineral constituents may be
economically added from some of the com
mercial forms Of fertilizers