The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-10-20
NEGOTIATING THE GROUND.

|
Der Gilbert H. Grosvenor contributes
an article setting forth in detail a
most remarkable discovery in scientific
agriculture. 1t promises to add untold
millions to the wealth of our Ameri-
can farmers. DR.. George T. Moore, in
charge of the laboratory Of plant ply
siology, United States department of
agriculture, following the lead of a
wrong road, made the discovery which
has now passed far beyond the eXpe-
rimental stage. 1t is this: BY the cul-
tivation of bacteria, there is restored
to the soil in extraordinary quantity
the essential element of plant food, nj
trogen. which all grains require.
| Drain the soil of it's plant food and it
| becomes barren These bacteria more
| than restore the loss, and at cost of
! less than one cent an acre
Here is the basis of the discovery:
Free nitrogen forms seven-tenths of
gen and use it, and you can fertilze
the whole earth and keep it rich Pro-
fessor Noble, of Germany, captured a
tiny germ. invisible to the naked eye
which takes the nitrogen from the air
| and puts it into the earth and DIR.
Moore developed the germ to do SER
vice for mankind. The agency which
| this germ employs is any leguminous
plant-peas, beans, clover, alfalfa,
! lupin, vetch, etc. These germs have
! been named nitrogen fixing bacteria.
| Examine the roots of a healthy bean
or clover plant and you will see a
number of rounded bulbs, called nod
| ules, or tubercules, on the roots. which
| look as if diseased or bitten by worms
or insects. All legumes have these tu-
| bercles. 1t was noticed by scientists
! that plants with good sized tubercules
| tiourished while those with very small
ones looked starved and wthered,
and they concluded that there must be
a connection between tubercles and
vigorous plant life. Examination of a
dissected bulb under the mscroScOpe
revealed it to be packed with bacteria ;
further investigation showed that these
| bacteria We're necessarily absorbing
free nitrogen from the air and con-
verting it into forms suitable for the
plants digestion.
professor Noble isolated the nitro
! the germs and put them on the market
| Overlooking one factor he failed to
pursuing the laboratory work in an
other direction, corrected his prede-
| cessors error and succeeded in de-
VelOping d permanent type of bacteria
with five or ten times more power to
! fix free nitrogen than the original
| germs had possessed. Legumes inoc-
ulated with the bacteria developed
! great tubercles and grew to great size
even in the poorest soil. This remark
! able statement is made by the author
| of the article: The nitrogen fixing
! power of the bacteria developed by DR..
/ Moore, is 50 extraordinary that seeds
! soaked in the solution will sprout and
/ produce luxuriant plants in quartz
sand which has been previously ignit-
! ed to a red heat in order to drive out
all nitrates.'
DR.. Moore patented his discovery.
but decided the patent to the depart
ment of agriculture in trust for the
! American people. He next expert
mented with plans for distributing the
bacteria and found that by using some
absorbent, like cotton, a small piece
of which will soak up millions of the
organisms, and then by allowing these
cultures to dry, the bacteria can be
/ sent to any part of the world and yet
7
eminent mails to applicants the moe
ulating material free of charge. with
/ instructions for using it, so simple that
| Il boy could hardly go wrong. \ cake
| sufficient to inOculate seeds for one to
! four acres costs the department four
cents. Different cultures are sent for
| different crops.
! And the results. They read like the
| story of Jack and the Baen Stalk
! The figures which follow are taken
! from crops on farm in Maryland
| where in exactly the same soil inocu-
! lated seeds of the hairy vetch and
seeds not inoculated We're planted side
! by side; patch not inOculated, 5S1
pounds: inoculated patch, 1901 pounds
an increase of more than eight times
Crimson clover under similar cOndi-
tons yielded: UninocuIated, 312