The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-22
TAPPING THE AIR FOR FERTILIZER.
Farming to Become the Most 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 agriculturalists. thus enabling the masses of those inter- ested in the soil to secure some of tn e advantages of this expert knowledge.
 The March number of this magazine contains an article by E. 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 hat he could see, but it Is only since the discovery and improvement of the magnifying glass that he has begun to think and make use of the creatures un- til recently unknown. The domestication of the horse. cattle. hogs. chickens. fruit. vegetables. grain-the study and breed ing of animal and vegetable Hfe-ha as been marvellous in results.
 That there is life not seen by the naked eye. yet can be seen thiough the microscope and their value understood. makes 1t possible to domesticate and breed as with visible life and adopt this life to mans needs.
 MT. Mather deals with nitrogen bac- teria in the cir use to renew and build up
 
 themselves to the roots of leguminous plants. and by so doing extract nitrogen from the air and feed it to the plant
 These bacteria also store nitrogen in nodules on the roots which is left in tn c soil after the crop Is harvested. The United States Governmental fact. all the leading governments of the world, have for some yeare 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 sev- 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 most of the cultures died because of lack of nots- ture which Is necessary to keep tho bac- teria alive. This difficulty has been over come by Dr. George Earp-Thomas, of Bloomfield. N. J., who for the past four or five years has cultivated thu nitrogen bacteria in his laboratory and has been able to ship tn em in sealed tubes with ventilated stopper and containing jelly. Thus the bacteria are given sufficient air and food to keep tn em alive, and by this process he has been able to keep the nitrogen bacteria alive three and four years.
 When the tube containing the bacteria is received by the farmer he keeps it un- til he is ready to plant then dtlutes 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 legumtnous or pod bearing plants. such clover. alfalfa. beans. peas, peanuts. The inoculation of th csc seeds not only increases the crop from 10 to 500 per cent. but stores in the soil from 700 to 2,000 pounds of nitrates for the fertiliza- t1on 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 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 tn at vast areas of what as been consid- cred useless land will be made to produce profitable crops. thus greatly increasing their value.