The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1904-12-23
A Revolution In Agriculture.

| LII. ocO. i. hOoic, VI INC ucpdIIIucul
Of agriculture at Washington, publish
ed in the October Century an account
of series of experiments carried on for
some time looking to the restoration of
the fertility of worn out soils. 1t seems
to be the most important advance in
agricultural science yet made for it en-
ables the owner of poor. unproductive
land. incapable of Yielding crops that
pay for the labor required to produce
them, to bring up the fertility at once,
and at minimum expense, to that of
the best and most productive land.
BY this means of vaccination Of the
soil, yislds are produced at cost of but
few cents an acre for the material.
that would involve the use of from $50
to $40 per acre for fertilizer, on lands
that have become practically worn out
and their fertility long ago exhausted.
This is not theory, but fact attested
by many witnesses and the article in
question is accompanied by illustrations
showing piece of clover, ragged, small
and uneven, which had not been treat
ed, while adjoining was some of the
same kind, rank and solid, which had
been inoculated with eight cents worth
of the nitrogen fixing bacteria"
These words give the secret. BY
means of a certain treatment given to
the clover bacteria. DR.. Moore, who is
Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry,
al, Washington, is able to produce mil
lions upon millions of minute organism,
which attach themselves to the roots of
clover, peas, BEANS vetches, and other
leguminous plants, and bring the free
nitrogen from the air and convert it in
to plant food to such degree that the
results are wonderful and of the utmost
Importance to the agricultural world.
Here are some Of them: Two pieces of
hairy vetch, grown side by side, yielded
as follows: Uninoculated, 5S1 pounds,
inoculated patch 4,5O1 pounds; crimson
clover under similar conditions, unin-
oculated 1878 pounds, inoculated, 5000
pounds, the first being an increase of
more than eight times and the latter Of
over twenty times. Potatoes after an
inoculated crop gave an increased yield
of fifty per cent, wheat fortysix per
cent. and oats over 800 per cent. The
writer of the article in question says
that cit is impossible as yet to calculate
by how much the bacteria will enhance
the yield of our crops, and the crops of
the world, but the results already
achieved prove that in time the gam
will be enormous. The results are so
that if Nautilus were living,
he would have to revise his calcula-
tions of the time when the world would
become so crammed with people that it
cannot feed them.
One of the most important elements
Of the food of plant is nitrogen, which
it absorbs through its roots from the
soil, and succession of crops so drains
the ground of its plant food, that in
time the richest of ground will grow
worthless. There are thousands of
acres Of this land everywhere, mainly
IN the east and our own county, as well
rs every county in the state, has a gen.
erous supply of it. We ship thousands |
Of tons of this nitrogen from Chill, at |
great expense; but the free nitrogen we |
have all about us. for it forms seven
tenths of the air we breathe. 1t has |
been Of no use to us because we had no |
means of bringing it to the soil and we
have been taking nitrogen from the soil |
so much faster than we could put it |
back, it has been predicted that we
would eventually have a nitrogen fam
inc, but now man has captured a tiny
germ, invisible to the naked eye, which |
can take from the boundless store of |
nitrogen in the air and put it into the
earth.
For ages farmers have observed after
a crop of clover alfalfa, peas, or any of |
the leguminous crops, heavier yield of |
wheat has been obtained, and thus has
arisen the old and profitable rule of ro-
tation of crops. But the reason that |
certain plants have exhausted the soil |
and others enriched it has remained a
mystery until an ingenious German
some years ago discovered that clover,
beans, ETC., obtained their nitrogen not |
from the soil but from the free supply
in the air, and that they absorbed much
more than they could use and left much |
of it in the soil. The manner In which
they do this is another instance Of the
and mysterious laws of ma
ture by which the balance is maintain
ed.
Dig up healthy clover plant and you
will find on the roots number of |
bulbs, which at first sight
might appear that it has a lot of sores
on it-that it was diseased or had been
by insects. The nodules, as
they are called, vary in size from pin
head to that of n potato, and scientists
soon discovered that those plants of |
clover, peas, ETC., which has the largest
nodules hourished most, while those
with small ones 1oolxed spindIino and