The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1905-05-03

partment Of Agriculture being the
Cow department" and regard it as it
is, one Of the highest scientific
branches of the Governments work.
One Of its highest paid clerks ranks
as stenographer and typewriter on the
rolls, and he receives salary that
would make most men of his profess
sion grow green with envy, but NIr.
Stenographer and Typewriter is uni
versity graduate, al expert linguist
and translator, aud an all round man
of the world. But what have far
mer Wilson's people to do with such
a man, you say? There is hardly
corner Of the world which has not been
secured by the scientists of the De-
partment of Agriculture in search of
new varieties of forage and food crops
which are capable Of domestication or
oe bybridiziug with old varieties, and
the reports that como from Algeria,
Siberia and from the interior of China,
and the south Of Africa, from the
mountains Of Peru and the plains of
Australia to be used for the benefit Of
the American farmer, have to be gone
over by careful hands. In this way
we have gotten our durum wheat,
which is revolutioniziug farming in
the arid regions, prose and emmer,
Egyption rice, and dozen other exot-
los which are becoming staples of
American farm industry.
But the most important achieve
ment of the scientists of the Depart
ment of Agriculture is in discovering
q method Of obtaining plant food from
the air. Benjamin Franklin drew the
lightning from the clouds AMI for a
hundred and fifty years we have look
ed back to him as the father of cleo
trical science. The Department of
Agriculture is doing quite as impor-
tant work by somewhat similar
method, although not quite as spec
tacular in its manifestations. We
have read from time to time lugubrious
articles based upon surpassed danger
OF nitrogen famine. We haze been
told the nitrate beds of Peru were
rapidly becoming exhausted, that the
Guano Islands were few in number
aud small in extent, and that the un-
avoidable outcome must be famine
and world wide ruin because Mother
Earth had for untold thousands Of
years been giving up her store of nj
trogen to supply plant life. We knew
we were living and breathing in an
ocean Of nitrogen, but the way 10
bring the need and the supply together
was the problem. Meanwhile the far
mers, every fell and spring, have been
spending many weary hours of preci-
ous time carting to their fields expen-
sive fertilizers to do work which
nature bad means Of doing far more
effectively. Agriculturists knew that
alfalfa, clover and cow peas, would
renovate .wornout land. We knew
that white beans would grow on Cape
Cod. Gradually we found out, and
indeed years ago, that these and other
leguminous plants had on their roots
nodnles or knuokles to Twh;ch were
attached little bacteria which per-
formed quasi-ohemioal function and
transmitted the nitrogen of the atmos-
phare into plant food. And we knew,
too, in . general way, that these bac-
terra could, be cultivated like the an
titoxine. Then we learned that If
these bacteria existed in the: soil in
abundance they affixed themselves to
the roots Of the plants in greater num-
bers ahd drew down more Of the life
giving nitrogen. with this as q clue, !,
the German Department Of Agrieul-
ture, several years ago, started series
Of experiments in an, effort to. repro
duce the bacteria. They could grow
the bacteria and produce the culturs,
but before they got to the hands Of
the farmers they had lost their power.
Then we discovered that in China and
Japan there was soil which contained
these germs in abundance, and chat
they would multiply very rapidly. 1
So we brought over ship loads Of the
soil from the Orient, but this was too
Expensive and Ineffective. Within
1.-The last few. ysa:s our farmer friends
inthe department. have been making
q preparation from which the farmer
Ihimself could grow the culture and re-
produce The bacteria. And they will
send you, upon the properly authenti-
Gated request, three little tubes, the