The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-01-19
BACTERIA in SOIL
DR.. Maxwell Gives Reasons for
New Theories.
NITROGEN FROM SOUR SOILS
Can Be Obtained by Grow
ing Crops.
Study of Vegetation on Lava Beds
Leads to Investigation of
Much Practical Value.

Following is an extract from the re-
port on fertilization read before the
Hawaiian Planters Association by
Walter Maxwell, director of the Ha-
waiian Experiment Station and Labo-
| ratoriesff:
Concerning the, conditions chemical
which control the activities of the bac-
terra capable of causing nitrifcation,
we are pursuaded that the views set
| forth today, under great accentuation.
are inadequate and partly erroneous,
which may be due 20 the concentration
cation to a small series of domestic
plants, and to drawing general conclu-
slons from data obtained from the OBJ
servation of a few special examples.
That this is actually the case it is only
necessary to withdraw our notice from
isolated examples and consider the
luxuriance of vegetable production.
amid extremes of chemical conditions,
covering the whole of the plant king
dom. Recently in connection with a
study of the causes of the rapid de-
composition of lavas, data have been
obtained bearing upon the relative
acidity of juicss or saps of different
orders of pants, and their action IN
rock decomposition. An example is TAX
Ell of the analysis of some ferns CF'iIi-
ciEeaD whose place in botanical order is
located almost midway between the
lowest and highest types of vegetable
life. The acidity of these fern juices was
found to be some five times greater
than the normal acidity of sugar cane
juice. During growth, the extremely
acid juices of these plants act most
potently upon the mineral bodies form
ing the medium where they grow. |
When these plants die and decay this |
great acidity is given to the soil and |
the soils from which we obtained ferns |
for examination were so acid as to turn |
litmus paper instantly red. Moreover, |
the water accumulated in these soils
gave very acid reaction. This great |
acidity of fern juices, and their action |
upon rocks and lavas, has led us to
place the fern amongst the most not
ent of soil makers. In the report On
soils we state that the fern is already
beginning to take possession of the la
va flow near Waiakea, which is only
10 years Old
No plant organism is formed how
ever. without the aid of nitrogen IN
the ferns examined by us the nitrogen
content of the green leaf was O.459 per
cent, and of the green stem O.O6S per
cent, while the analysis of sugar cane.
including the leaves. gave Ola per
cent of nitrogen. These data indicate
that one of the two theories held by
on the subject of plant
growth must be untenable-the data
show that bacteria exist in the soil
which are able to conduct notification
in highly acid media, or that plants are
capable of taking up nitrogen in a non
form.
II we carry our considerations back
to an earlier geological time-to a pc
riod when, as set forth by the charac-
of the carboniferOus age, the
vegetable kingdom was more exclu-
sively possessed by what we today call
the lower orders of plants. we become
more adequately aware of the ability
o. plant life 10 exist in such extremes
of chemical conditions. During that
age, geological records indicate that
existed with a measure of
that has not been conceived
o. since; and yet the soil and water
media are properly supposed to have
been marked by extremely acid condi-
tons.
We. therefore. are pursuaded that
bacteria exist in soils certain of which
are most active in slightly alkaline,
others in slightly acid. and finally 9TH
ars in highly acid media. In illustra-
ton of this persuasion we may leave
foT a while the subject of soils and
consider the behavior of known fer
nent organisms in solutions of OF
ganic bodies. We have recently re-
Deated a number of observations upon
he conditions affecting the fermenta-
ion of the juice of the sugar cane.
We have noted that whilst small ad-