The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-05-16
FARMERS COLUMNS.
THE GEORGIA EXPERIMENT STATION,
EXPERIMENT, GA.
cow PEAS:
Fertilizer and Variety Tests.

The following extracts and condensa-
tons from Bulletin No 26 of the Georgia
Experiment Station may prove interest
ing:
! Since the fact has been established
that leguminous plants have unques-
tlonably the power of acquiring the
free nitrogen of the atmosphere, and
are not dependent upon a supply from
the soil, a new interest attaches to
| legumes in general, and in particular to
that king of land renovators-the Cow
Pea-DottchOs etdng
| Formerly, under the supposition that
reservoir of nitrogen in the subsoil
was tapped by the permeating rootlets
OF the plant for the amount necessary
for its consumption, the legumes were
, not rated at their full value, since the
eventual exhaustion of this reservoir
| III there was one) appeared but ques-
ton of time.
However, the experiments by Prof
Hellriegel at Bernburg, Germany, have
| thrown food of light upon the sub
ject. The discovery has there been
made OF definite relation subsisting
between certain heterogeneous and
the acquisition of nitrogen by legumes.
BY series of carefully planned and
sklllfully executed tests with sterilized
| StAAAN1 WI LO11IlCSC1 has cSGd DllSl0u
! almost beyond question that the root
gals or tubercles affecting the roots of
the legume family are the product of
microbes or bacteria, through whose
fundamentally and operation atmos-
| pherlc nitrogen is acquired and stored.
This function of the heterogeneous
forming the root-galls is beyond dis
pute, whether these organisms are BAG
| terra or not. Their mode of obtaining
and transferring the nitrogen, however,
| is as yet unrevealed.
| The fact has been definitely estab-
llshed, also, by the tests alluded to.
that wherever these bacteria or mN
crobes are present-and they exist in
nearly all cultivated soil--the legume is
practically independent of supply of
nitrogen, either in the soil or admins
| tered as q manure. In steriliZed sand
Supplied, of course, with all the other
elements of plant food except nitrogen);
the young plant will terminate and
grow vigorously until it has exhausted
all OF the nitrogen in the seed, when
the growth is checked or suspended for
awhile until the root-galls or tubercles
have an opportunity to form, and the
J heterogeneous begin to get in their
work, when the plant at once com
mences to change color, and again
grows vigorously to maturity. even
where the sand is sterilized by a heat
of SIS degrees +. In this treatment no
attempt is made to exclude the bacteria
| where the apparatus is SO arranged as
to prevent their access, the plant droops
and dies.
The fact being established that the
legumes are capable of deriving their
supply of nitrogen from the air. four
fifths of which consists OF this element.
chemically uncom bined, it should ma
terially encourage the agriculturist.
With some $4,000 tons of pure nitrogen
resting on every acre of his farm, new
er diminishing or changing and renew
| able as fast as used, he has thus IRE.
sented ready to hand, a supply SO ex-
haustless that the Chilean nitre beds
sink into utter insignificance beside it
He need no longer dread the ultimate
exhaustion of his pitiful subsoil reser.
voir, but rest calmly in the faith that
as long as the heavens endure, his chief
and costliest element of fertility is Sc.
cure.
Nor is this all. Formerly it was sup.
posed that by far the greater portion OF
the manurial value of legumes. espe-
cially OF the Cow Pea, was contained in
the vines, and only relatively small
stubble. 1t was hence deemed neces-
sary to return the vines directly to the
land in order to secure a maximum ben
eft, their value as feeding stuff being
thereby lost.
This misconception. however, has
now been quite effectually corrected by
observations and experiments conduct
ed by both the Connecticut (Storrs) Ex-
pertinent Station and the Georgia Ex-
pertinent Station. The former Station
has shown that a much larger proper
ton OF nitrogen than was at first sup
| posed is contained in the roots and
I stubble. and that the vines may be used
for forage with economy, provided the
stubble is plowed under
The Georgia Station has experimental
| on this line for two years the results of
each years tests being practically the
same. In each case crop of cotton was
made to follow series of plats sowed
| in Cow Peas. which were disposed of in
different ways. The following conclu-
sionS were reached
/. The best disposition of a crop of
Cow Peas is to convert the vines into
hay Tor ensilage.)
.. The next best is 10 permit the peas
| to ripen and gather Tor pasture them. J
3. Moving the vines and permitting
them to lie on the surface and blowing
under in November was decidedly bet
ter than turning the vines under in Au-
gust
4. Turning the vines under green
| gave the poorest economical results.
This being the case, the mission of
the Cow Pea broadens, and it's value
and Importance increase proportional
ly. That it stands today at the head of
all soil renovators it least for the
| South-is beyond question. Its pre-em-
inence over clover and other legumes is
due mainly to the fact that it will grow
and thrive on the poorest soils, which
clover will not do. When land at the
South will grow clover successfully it
doesn't need renovation it is the worn
out, thin, CALLED land. of course, that
most requires manhring. Clover would
undoubtedly build up such land if it
could be induced to grow there but it
will not grow there. Cow Peas wiz.
FERTILIZER TESTS.
The result of the experimentation of
previous years having fairly establish
ed the fact that it does not pay to feed