Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-01-16
"On Board the
Good Ship Earth :
Getting Food Out Of the Atmosphere
By Herbert Quick

North and his nitrate beds2 Well,
said science. at the present rate OF
shipments, they will last only a few
decades. at most--sonle said 30 years,
some S00-because nobody knows just
how much Colonel North had. And
then? Why. then. with that illimit-
able sea- of nitrogen about our heads
we shall all gradually die out of star
vationh There was no way out of it
human life is based on plant life,
and plant life ON nitrogen, and the
fixed nitrogen supply is approaching
exhaustion So said science through
Sir William Crookes.
But the good farmers of the world
always felt that Sir William was i
bit off They knew that when they
planted clover, beans, vetch, peanuts,
or any other eguminous-that Is, pod
bearing-crop, and plowed 1t under,
the soil seemed richer in nitrogen
afterwards. Science said that that
couldn't be- For" said science, 'ail
the nitrogen the legume gets, it gets
from the soil, and you can't get any
more by blowing back what you've
Just taken out! Moreover, the scien-
lists proved by experiment that
the pod bearers don't secrete nitro
gen from the air.
But said the good farmer,
scratching his head, at is richer for
all that!''
"Nonsensei' said science.
And then the most wonderful dis
coyery of agricultural science con-
WINGED the wise men that the farmer
was right Science found that on
the roots of these leguminous plants
are little knobs like tiny potatoes,
and in the knobs millions upon mil
lions of little plants called bacteria,
SO small as TO be invisible to the
naked eye. We used to think they
were disease-gallsi Suddenly through
the patient researches Of science the
mistakes of science We're corrected,
and we were informed thatsthese bac-
terra, unlike the big plants, have the
power to take free nitrogen out OF
the air to the ground, and fix it SO
the other plants can get it!
Science threw up its hat. we
needn't starve for lack of NITROGEN!
Colonel Norths descendants can't
look forward to the time when the
other passengers on the good ship
Earth will come crawling on their
bellies. begging nitrates, suppllcating
for the privilege of living on board .
while longer. We can get our nitro
gen out of the air.
When God started to build a world
He started from the bottom. When
the plants were evolved they had to
be plants which could get nitrogen
from the air, because there was none
in the rocks. The first plants were
one-celled plants which could do this.
When the clover began business the
bacteria came around and asked the
privilege of building houses in which
70 live on the clover roots. Certain
w." said the clover. But you've got
10 pay rent "All right" said the
bacteria. We'll furnish the nitrogen
IL you'll look out for the other table
board and the matter of lodging. Is
It a go?'' Its go!" said the legume
And they have been partners ever
since, each living on the other, and
all taking nitrogen out of the air fol-
themselves and other plants.
In the crust of the earth there is
only a trace of nitrogen, and all there
is, SO far as I know, is in the soil
1 suppose that all of it which is in the
soil has been taken from the air by
the bacteria and fungi-Colone
Norths and all the rest. If these
tiny, tiny passengers had not come
aboard millions of years before u:
we could never have come into being
Despise not the day of small things
The basis of all life is the life which
lis too small to be seen by the micro
| scope.
often wonder what we should have
done about North's monopoly i
Crookes had not been mistaken
Would the other passengers have rec
| ognized his paper title to the power
| to starve them? / wonderi Thu
courts, of course. would have stooC
UP for Colonel North.
(See tomorrow's Evening Star fol
announcement of the next article il
J this great series).