Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-05-06
FARMER AND PLANTER.
The COW PEA is A TREASURE.

W ~ ~ - NhGeNO - ~ ~
properly Utilized, Its Value for Recuperat.
Ing Exhausted Land Can Not be Over
estimated.
What valuable and wonderful trehs-
u'e the south possesses In the COW peal
Poperly utilised one can hardly over
estimate its value as crop for main-
timing fertility or for recuperating
eshaufted land. 1t presents the para
doS of producing forage crop of ex-
,reding value, which may be taken
i'om the land, and yet leave the land
ticher and more productive than IL was
before, The explanation of this para
ooX involves two peculiarities, one,
TIE power of this plant to appropriate
the free nitrogen of the air; the 9TH
er, its great root power for ex-
tracting insoluble, unavailable plant
food from the sol and third, pos
sesscd in common with some other
plants, its having deep, strong tap-root
which enables it to forage through
deeper layer of earth, drawing not only
on the surface soil but the subsoil also.
It's power of appropriating the free
nitrogen of the air, long suspected and
often asserted, but without direct proof,
has of late years been substantiated by
abundant and convincing proof. 1t
does The work through the assistance
OF certain microbes which make their
home on its roots, penetrating them
and forming little knots or tubercles
on them. These microbes feed on the
roots of the pea, and to that extent
do harm, just as clubfoot of cabbages
and nodulcs on peach apple roots do
harm. But the harm done by the mi
crobe on the pea root is greatly more
than compensated by it's supplying to
the pea in available form nitrogen from
the air which is always present in cul-
tivatcd soils. How it does this is not
as yet known, but that it does is shown
by taking soil and sterilizing it-that
IS, subjecting it to heat, which will
destroy all living organisms in it
then planting peas in portion of this
sterilized soil, and mixing with an
other portion of the sterilized soil some
OF the tuberclcs taken from roots of
peas, and then planting peas also in
this inoculatcd soil. The peas in the
inoculated soil win develop luxu-
rious growth and have tubercles
on their Iaats. Those in the
sterilized sol. aot inoculated will
make very little growth and have
no tuberclcs on their roots. Such ex-
periments have been made again and
again with most uniform results. The
pea and the microbe thus lead com.
bined life, mutually beneficial to each
other The technical name for this
combined life is "symbiosis" word
of Greek derivation, which means com.
bined life.
As the supply of nitrogen in the ain
is practically inexhaustible, it can be
seen how !. crop of peas with the aid OF
these microbes can appropriate a part
of the available nitrogen of the soil
and yet return to the soil, in its roots
and fallen leaves, as much or more nj
trogen than that taken by it from
the air When n crop of peas is
turned under it always restores more
nitrogen TO the soil than it took from
it. by the frequent introduction of 4
pea crop in rotation it is possible tc
keep up the supply of available nitro
gen in the soil indefinitely without the
aid of commercial or other fertilizers
One very great advantage of the COW
pea over clover and other leguminou,
plants which possess similar powers, il
that it will grow on poorer land thar
these others, indeed will make fail
growth on land too poor to grow al
most any other crop, and is therefore ;
wonderful recuperating crop for restor
inc exhausted soils.