The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-12-09
North Nebraska's Soil Richest in the World


for a deeprooting plant like alfalfa,
which has such remarkable value as a
restorer of the nitrogen which has
been used up by preceding cereal
crops. And here follows the very i'm
portant question as to the nitrogen
supplies which plants require. Can
we supply this indefinitely without
calling upon the commercial fertilizer
manufacturer?
This is serious question, for unless
natural conditions are favorable for us
to do this inevitably there Is only one
thing before us--these supplies will
have to be brought from somewhere
else If they cannot be manufactured
on the land.
On my own farm thirty-two crops of
cereals have used up one-third of the
nitrogen which was in the original
prairie. Doubtless what is true on
my land is true on other farms where
there has been no other rotation ex-
Cept corn, oats and wheat.
The query now arises, is there a
crop we can plant which will replen-
ish or at least maintain without de.
pletion our nitrogen supplies? And
are our soil and moisture conditions
favorable to grow that crop? ! say
without hesitation they are, and | can
also say that unless we plant this
crop there is trouble ahead for us.
Crop 70 Renlenish Nitronep
AS l have already stated, the nitro
gen that plants require and use has
to be obtained from the air, and that
we have limitless supply to draw
upon. How this transference from air
to soil or plant took place, and how
this gas was transformed into a sub
stance which plants could use to nour.
ish and develop their bodies, puzzled
investigators for many years. Men in
England, Germany, France and in
other European countries, as well as
our own, tried to find out just how the
thing was done, and through the years,
especially during the last ten years,
many important discoveries along this
line have been made, so that now we
know that it is through the agency of
minute bacterial life which exists in
the soil, whose business 1t is to take
hold of the nitrogen gas and fix it in
the soil; and then there are other
little fellows who live with them, who
convert it into ammonia, then to nj
trite, and finally into nitrate, in which
form the plant can use it, but there
are other little chaps whose home is
in the soil and who have peculiar
liking for clovers, alfalfa, vetches and
other legumes, and when these plants
send out their small rootlets, attach
themselves to them, make a nodule on
the root, begin to multiply rapidly and
in some mysterious way feed the plant
with the nitrogen it needs-in fact,
seems to supply, at least for a while,
all that it does need, so that the soil
upon which these different legumes
grow Is not further depleted of it's nit
rogen, but it is rather increased. Now
to raise such crops as alfalfa and
clover successfully, these small organ1
isms must be present, and so that they
can be present, conditions in the soil
must be congenial for them, if the
proper mineral elements are not in
the soil, they cannot live there, and if
they do not have moisture and warmth
they cannot live and multiply and do
their tasks. Now it is unquestionably
a fact that we have all the necessary
elements in this soil of ours to make
it very happy and congenial place
for these valuable little workers to
pursue their trade, and the earth takes
care of so efficiently the moisture
which falls, that this is certainly an
ideal place for this wonderful combina.
tion of legumes and bacteria to carry
on the perpetuation of our soil fer
tility.
Value Of Alfalfa.
To illustrate: On the field | have
referred to which has been in alfalfa
eight years--and this is the oldest one
| have. other fields having been plowed
up which show very great ability to
raise crops-the weight of the alfalfa
roots to the acre contained in the first
lOOI was J,oup luo
pounds of nitrogen, worth in the mar
ket $3.50, equivalent to ten and one
half tons of fresh barnyard manure.
In the first ten feet of the field there
were 9,459 pounds of roots, containing
172 pounds of nitrogen, worth $2S.67,
equivalent to seventeen tons of fresh
barnyard manure. Now this is not
taking into account the amount of
leaves that had fallen from the alfalfa
which adds very materially to
the store of fertility matter, and not
alone does the alfalfa dig down deep,
but in filling up the tunnel which it
digs with organic matter, it adds
largely to the soils ability to store up
moisture, and it doubtless obtains a
amount of its mineral
supply in the lower depths, where it is
so abundant, also the breaking up of
the subsoil by its great root system,
which makes it easier for succeeding
crops TO root deep, and | hope to find
cut next year how much deeper corn
will go down in an old alfalfa field