The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-05
NO PLANTS LAZY
Col, Mitchell Tells Children OF
Their Industry.
They Feed the Soil as Well as
All the People.
LEGUME FAMILIES PRECIOUS
Each One Is q Wonderful Lit.
tie Fertilizer Factory.
Lots of Interesting Things Can
Be Found in a Garden.
BY COL. r.. w. MITCHELL.

The school children of our country
are very dear to the writer. because
of his associations with them as
teacher for a number of years, and it
is a real pleasure to write and tell
them stories on the printed page OF
my actual experiences
Several years ago 1 raised a nice
vegetable garden and where the peas
and beans grew I intended to SOW
turnips the latter part of July.
pulled up all of the old vines to
turn back into the soil, as that adds
humus and makes decayed organic
matter.
further observed on the root
lets of the pea and bean plants little
nodules or very small bulbs. did not
find them on the rootlets of on1ops
lettuce, radishes or other garden vese-
tables, so this caused me to lnvesti-
gate further, because my curiosity was
aroused, and 1 also wanted to md out
what good those little nodules WERE
that grew on the rootlets of the pea
and bean plants. l knew that the
Great Creator never had plant do
a useless thing.
In investigation I found out that
the pea and bean belonged to a GER
tain vegetable family known as the
legumes If they belonged to the
legume family and onions. lettuce and
radishes belonged to the non-legume
families, / wanted to learn something
about their folk.
Plants Very Industrious.
On further investigation of this
1egume family, I found they were won
derfully industrious. Besides furnish
ing us with nice line OF vegetables
for table use, they were active in stor-
ing up in the ground certain plant
food that it took out of the soil air
known as nitrogen.
The air we breathe is composed of
oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and
it is the latter element that is acted
upon by the micro-organism in the
soil.
While the soil air is passing thru
the little capilleries in the ground
these live organisms, that can not be
seen with the naked eye. take this nj
trogen out of the soil air. and form
| it into these little nodules, then attach
this valuable fertilizer to the rootlets
| of the legume plants.
Finding that these facts existed,
began to explore a little farther and
| found another micro-organism that
began to tear apart these little nodules
and let off a certain gas that was in
! them This gas jumped onto the lime.
potash magnesia iron and other min
| erals that are in the soil and began to
! pulverize them and to make the real
| plant food; known as nitrate salts. This
is how the soil water is made, and all
| plants must have this form of food to
| live and thrive on.
Must Have Plant Food.
Upon further investigation, 1 found
| out that if we did not use fertilizers
| that contained nitrogen, or sow or
plant seeds that belonged to the
legume families, we would be without
the proper kind of plant food to de-
velop the non-lcgume plants. and thus
leave us without a variety of foods to
| eat.
! Go out into the alfalfa, red clover
or peanut fields some day and dig up
one of these plants. and you will find
these little nodules attached to their
rootlets. These, as well as some 9TH
ers, belong to the legume families.
! This is further evidence that the
| farmer can raise a good crop of most
anything he plants upon ground where
red clover alfalfa or peanuts have
been plowed under, because it is rich
in nitrate salts.
How grateful we should be to the
| Creator for doing things for us, tina,
we can not do ourselves.