Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1906-03-30
A SERIES OF INTER
ESTING EXPERIMENTS


ley township, are among those who
have made interesting experiments in
inoculating the ground.
The experiment relates to one of the
most remarkable scientific discoveries
of the age. A few words of explana-
tion may prove timely. In the first
place it should be stated that there is
a curious relation between the soil
and the atmosphere. Four-fifths of the
air--consists of nitrogen, which is as
mothers milk to plant life. Wheat,
rye, oats, ETC., would perish from lack
of that very element of their compost
tion, but for the fact that the roots of
the grain draw nitrogen from the soil,
not in its pure state but in the form of
soluble compounds called nitrates. In
order, therefore, that the life of the
grain may be maintained nitrogen
must pass from the air to the soil, and
there be formed into nitrates. The
soil like growing wheat cannot absorb
pure nitrogen direct from the air. The
grain draws the nitrates from the
ground and when the harvested crop
is carried away the soil is left sterile
and another crop can be raised upon it
only after it has been artifically ferti-
lized with manures to supply the miss
ing nitrates.
1t is no secret even with the unset
entific farmer that crop of clover
grown up on exhausted soil will ferti-
lize it and leave it richer. This prop
erty of growing upon an exhausted soil
and supply it with nitrate belongs to
particular group of plants called leg
luminous plants, to which clover. peas
and beans belong.
The experiments of the department
of Agriculture in the incubation OF
the ground" was prompted by the
question How does the clover man.
age to take its supply of nitrogen, not
from the soil as wheat and other grain,
but from the air?''
The answer is that bacteria are the
{ agents that give to clover and Other
leguminous plants the power to take
nitrogen from the air. These bacteris
-, are found in the roots of leguminou.
. plants, where in response to the irriga
tion that they cause little modules o.
tubercles are formed which swarm
Q with the cro-organism. Plants tina
possess such bacteriafi lied tubercle
or their roots are able to live in the
sterile soil, drawing all the nitrogen
they need and more, too, from the ex
Z haustless store of the atmosphere
The surplus they leave in the grount
nitrates.
By means of cultivation there hav,
1 been produced a type of nitrogen fxin,
bacteria far more powerful and vigor
GUS than their nature-bred ancestors
$ The bacteria are dried in bits of cot
1 ton, which can be sent through th
mails and the department does thu
sending them together with direction
to farmers who choose to apply TO
{ them.
The progressive farmer who desire
to avail himself of the wonderful dis
i covery upon receiving the bacteri,
4 soaks them in water containing sugar
potassium phosphate and magnesif
i sulphate and then inoculates seeds tina
are about to be planted by dippin;
them in the solution. Or else they in
oculate the soil itself by moistenin,
9 a little earth with the solution anC
then spreading it upon field as the,
1 would spread manure.
The seeds of leguminous plant
, should be chosen for the experiment
The incubation has no direct effect OIL
3 other plants. The treated seeds ar,
planted in sterile or worn out sol
1 where no grain, corn or the like will
3 grow. The clover springs up with ex
traordinary luxuriance, ten or twenty
times as abundantly as it would hav,
grown from ordinary seeds. Owing t.
the use of prepared bacteria a supply
} Of nitrogen of such abundance i.
drawn from the air that the surplu.
which remains in the ground in the
form of nitrates is far greater thar
that left by an ordinary clover crop
The soil having been fertilized the
, next step is to SOW it with grain ant
the results as reported are astonishing
, Wheat, potatoes, ETC., grown ON sol
fertilized by inoculated clover show
an increase of from 40 to 400 per cent.
above their ordinary yield.
That the above is not in any way
overdrawn is we'll attested by the
splendid experiment conducted by Mrs.
Jones and her son on the Maus farm,
the detailed result of which has been
furnished the office of the News and
is as follows:
Plot No. l, an acre in extent, was
seeded to Canada peas and oats in
April. The seed was treated with in
oculating material obtained from
Washington, d. c., and attained a
luxuriant growth. 1t was ploughed
down in the latter part of July. In a
short time a second growth came on,
which was again ploughed under when
a crop of oats came up. Crimson Glow
er was sown also and was allowed to
remain on the ground as a mulch dur
ing the winter.
Plot No. 2, one-half an acre in ex-
tent, without any fertilizer of any
kind was seeded to sofa beans in July
and the growth was exceedingly rank,
and strong. This was cut down and
mown into hay for experimental pur-
poses. The one-half of an acre pro-
duced ~ tons of feed, which when
fed to COWS caused an increase in milk
owing to the protein contained in the