The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1904-12-23

THE NEW SOIL INOCULArION.
the better production Of certain crops
has been an established fact of farm
practice for a number of years.
Very recently new attention has
been given to the possibilities of the
practice through improved methods,
for the dissemination of which the
L. S. Department of Agriculture is
chiefly responsible. a recent arti
Gle in the Century Magazine, well
written and illustrate d, has attracted
much attention and is, dOubtlessly
without intent, leading to much mis-
conception and error as to the true
facts of soil inoculatiOn and the
range of its adaptations. Already
the common press, and even the
agricultural journals, are devOting
much space as to the possibilities Ol
the supposed new applications OF
science to the aid of the farmer. The
impression is generally conveyed in
these articles that wonderful new
discoveries have been made, by the
staff of the government department
of agriculture, which will revolution
ize agricultural practice. ! have,
therefore, thought best to present
the real facts relative to tins new
incubation, in the hope of possibly
forestalling some of the disappOint-
ments sure to follow the attempt to
realize some of the impossibiities
which these press stories would
make easy.
1t is unfortupate that these reports
and assertions, based on the semi
official article in a great magazine,
with illustrations furnished by gov
eminent officials, must necessarily
pass as partly inspired and possess
in great degree the sanction and
authority of official action, carry
the weight of the national depart
meut. The impression conveyed, II
not wholly true to fact, makes the
government responsible for the er-
rors and disappointment resulting
from this misunderstanding of facts.
TO Judge from some OF these press
articles sterile soils We're to be made
impossible, the use OF fertilizers be
forever unnecessary and that bOunti-
full crops of all kinds were hereafter
to be assured by the simple sprinkiing
of the soil with wonderful new
yeast to be furnished free BY the
beneficient department in Washing
ton.
The real facts are: That the
growth of but one variety of plants
may be induced by incubation, and
that only the single element of plant
food, nitrogen, was influenced by
II, l., h Of iC
nothing new in all this, Every i'll
trlligent farmer for generation has
known that the leguminOus crops
were soil improvers, that peas, clover
and their kin improved the produc-
tiveness of soils by their continued
growth thereon. Further, that not
all soils naturally possessed the
conditions essential to the growth OF
these crops, but that these condi-
lions were to be secured by inocula-
ting the soil where such crops did
not thrive, by small quantities OF
soil from places where legumee
would grow well. The two scientific
facts on which these practical meth
DDS were based were thoroughly
worked out by two German scientists,
Wapermann and Noble! The for
mer proved the renovation power OF
the legumes to be located in the
nodules found on their roots, and
discovered that the cause of their
action was due to the presence of in
Vulnerable bacteria which possessed
the function of fixing atmospheric
nitrogen, thus securing this element
from the air and making it available
to the plants on which the nodules
grew, and increasing the store of
this plant food for the use of subse-
uuent crops. Noble went further
and established the possibility of de-
veloping and applying these bacte-
ria artificially, and made soil inocu-
lation an accepted part of farm prac-
tice.
The work of the department. of ag-
riculture begins at this point, and
consists solely of the method Origi-
mated by DIR. Moore of the botanical
division, of extensively propagating
the bacteria and preserving them il
a portable form, so that they were
durable and portable. He has made
soil incubation a commercial pro-
cess and greatly facilitated and in
creased the ease and practical etfec-
tiveness of soil incubation, but he
achieves results only such as the use
of inoculated soil, or infusions of
leguminous roots before accomplish
ed The Moore method is a great
improvement on previous ones, but
it Involves no new principle and ac-
complishes no new result.
The practical advantages aud wide
adaptations of the Moore method
are worthy of great praise. The
originator, and the department OF
which he is an efficient officer, are
entitled to credid for useful achieve
ment.
| The press has made much of the