The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-05-19
VACCINATING THE GROUND
The Wonderful New Discovery Enabling the Farmes
to DO Away With Nitrogen Fertilizers
BY Raymond Porter. Author Of -
SeVenty-fiye-thousand-pound
MeteOrite," etc.

This article has been revised by and
has received the approval of the Unit.
cd States Department of Agriculture,
The up-tO-date farmer no longer
spends hundreds of dollars annually
in buying fertilizers for his acres. In.
stead, he sends to the Department Of
Agriculture in Washington and re-
ceizes a little package Of bacteria
and with these he vacCinates his soil
enables his plants 10 draw their nitro.
gen from the air instead of from the
ground, and increases his crops from
100 to 1900 per cent.
What this invention means in dol
lars and cents to the country at large
and to the farmer in particular is
something almost beyond computation.
Imagine each acre Of wheat and each
acre OF potatoes, following a crop of
inoCulated legumeS, producing as
many bushels as two acres formerly
produced. Imagine each acre of peas,
of beans, Of clover, of yetch and OF
alfalfa producing as much as ten acres
formerly produced. Imagine the in
crease in the income of the farmer.
Imagine the decrease in the price of
food stuffS for the general consumer.
Imagine thousands upon thousands OF
acres that have been abandoned be.
cause Of worked out soil, that now
may be worked at a profit far greater
than ever.
Nothing experimentative remains
about the application of these bac.
TARA. The invention is settled and
practicable beyond dispute, for, the
United States Agricultural Depart.
ment itself says so. Farmers through,
out sections in the entire land have
experimental with the bacteria dur.
ing the past two years and the re
suits have proved simply marvellous
From two to tWCnty-fold crops have
been grown on these vaccinated lands
Worthless, barren ground, literally toe
poor to grow weeds, has been vaccin
ated and made to produce crops foul
times as large as those taken from
tho average unYacCinated soils. Hero
ara few specific instances:
A field Of poor ground was divided
into halves, and one of the halves
was Vaccinated by the new method
The untreated half of the field pro
duced only 200 pounds of clover to the
acre. The inocuIated field produced
1000 pounds to the acre.
Similarly, two fields of vetch were
experimental with, the untreateL
patch yielding 5S1 pounds and the
treated patch 45O1 pounds to the acre
or an average increase of almost
per cent-a single vaccinated acre pro
ducing as much as eight unvaccinatec
acres.
Again, adjacent fields were treated
and left untreated, the soils produc
ing respectively 1922 and 372 pounds
of crimson clover to the acre. In 9th
er words, the vaccination repaid very
nearly $50 for 81.
A Maryland farmer who had beer
obliged to abandon two.thIrds of hi;
farm because it was worked out IN
creased his output 500 per cent, simply
by Vaccinating his soils. Scores O
similarly abandoned farms were re
claimed.
To understand the simple principle
of this revolution in agriculture it Il
necessary only TO bear in mind that nj
trogen is one Of the chief foods o
plants. Potash, iron, etc, a plan
must have to thrive, but nitrogen Il
one of the most important of all tn
elements in plant diet.
Ordinarily, plants take their nitro
gen out of the ground through tn
medium of their roots. and each sue
cessiye crop draws on the nitrogen
supply of the soil, so that, unless tn
drain is balanced by putting bacl
just so much of the valuable food
the ground will become lean and poo
and, eventually, useless. Up to now
the method of putting back the nitro
gen exhausted by the crops has beer
by using fertilizers. Every fall AM
spring the farmer carted hundreds W
on hundreds Of loads Of costly ma
nure, spreading it with untold labor
Guano he spread, and expensive tel
tllizerS costing from $50 to SIS a ton
He even had to scatter nitrate of sod
(saltpeter) shipped more than a thou
sand miles, all the way from Chile