The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-03-27
TAPPING THE AIR
FOR fertilizer.
Farming to Become the Nest Scientific
Of Pursuits.

The National Magazine IS taking the
lead among magazines in bringing to the
attention OF the public the great strides
being made by expert agricul,uralists.
thus enabling the masses of those inter-
ested In the soil TO secure some OF the
advantages OF this expert knowledge
The March humber OF this magazine
contains an article by F.. S, Mather. deal
ing With soil bacteria. their uses. advAn-
taGes and disadvantages.
Man. during the ages that he has lived.
has made use OF most every living thing
that he could see. but II Is only since
the discovery and Improvement of the
maSnifying glass that he has begun to
think and make use of the creatures I'M
til recently unknown. The domestication
Of the horse, cattle. hogs. chickens, fruit.
vegetables. grain--the study and breed
ing of animal and vegetable life--has
been marvellous in results.
That there is life not seen by the
naked eye. yet can be seen through the
microscope and their value understood.
makes 1t possible to domesticate and
breed as with visible life and adopt this
life to mans needs.
Mr.. Mather deals with nitrogen hac-
terra in their use to renew and build up
exhausted soil. Nitrogen bacteria attach
themselves to the roots OF leSuminous
plants. and by doing extract nitrogen
from the air and feed IT to the plant.
These bacteria also store nitrogen In
nodules on the Ioots which Is left in the
soil after the crap Is harvested. The
United States Government--in fact. all
the leading governments of the world,
havs for some years been giving much
attention to the study and use OF nitro
gen and all soil bacteria. and the agri-
cultural experts of various governments
have produced wonderful results by
using the nitrogen bacteria. For sew
eral years the u. S. Agricultural Depart
ment made an attempt to aid the farmer
by sending out cultures on cotton. but
this plan was not successful. as mos, OF
the cultures died because Of lack OF mos-
ture which Is necessary to keep the bac-
terra alive. This difficulty has been over
como by DR.. George Earp-Thomas. OF
Bloomfield. N. j.. who for the past four
or five years has cultivated the nitrogen
bacteria in his laboratory and has been
able to ship hem in sealed tubes with q
ventilated stopper and containing jelly.
Thus the bacteria are given SUFFICIENT air
and food to keep tn EN- alive. and by this
process he has been able to keep the
nitrogen bacteria alive three and four
years, 4
"nen the tODe containing tne bacteria
Is received by the farmer he keeps 1t un-
til he Is ready to plant. then dilutes the
jelly in water and sprinkles the solution
on the seeds which are left to dry and
when dry are planted.
The nitrogen bacteria Is used only for
leguminous or pod bearing plants. such
as clover. alfalfa. beans. peas. peanuts.
The incubation OF these seeds not only
increases the crop from 10 to 500 per
cent. but stores in the soil from 700 to
1000 pounds of nitrates for the fertiliza-
ton Of future crops. Thus land Is re-
newed for any crop one cares to plant.
A New Jersey farmer bought land for
$500 per acre. This land vas considered
worthless for farming. but by the use Of
the nitrogen bacteria he was enabled to
produce large yields Of alfalfa. Such
land would not grow alfalfa without in.
oculation. Similar results are being pro-
duced in many instances by farmers and
by agricultural stations. which means
that vast areas Of what has been consid-
cred useless land will be made to produce
profitable crops. thus greatly increasing
their value