60 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



^a) It is hoped next year to discuss somewhat fully in the report 

 the close relationship between bacteria and fertilization. Space is lack- 

 ing to give the subject adequate treatment here. Suffice it is to say that 

 soil bacteria (minute plants invisible to the eye, present in countless 

 myriads in agricultural soils) are most potent factors in plant growth; 

 that a large share, though not all, are helpful thereto; and that their 

 well being is closely dependent upon a mildly alkaline reaction of the 

 soil. Such a condition is promoted by liming. 



(b) Under ordinary circumstances clover and allied plants are de- 

 pendent on soil bacteria for certain forms of plant food. Conditions 

 favoring bacterial growth help the clovers to grow. 



(c) Lime is a well known disintegrater of organic matter, rendering 

 inert material more available, freeing nitrogen, promoting nitrification, 

 and often making a base to unite with the nitric acid formed through 

 bacterial action. 



(d) The ravages of certain forms of insects and of fungi a.e 

 lessened, and those of others increased through liming. The develop 

 ment of the potato scab fungus, for instance, seems to be favored by 

 liming, so that this practice should not precede the growth of that 

 crop. On the contrary, lime seems a specific when used against club-root 

 of cabbage, etc. 



It should finally be said that one form of lime, the sulphate (gypsum 

 or land plaster), whether a natural product or an artificial one, exer- 

 cises a function which the other forms do not. It is a fixer or fastener 

 of ammonia through its power of forming with that material compounds 

 which do not evaporate. Lime drives off ammonia, but plaster holds it. 

 When mixed with decaying nitrogenous organic matter, the loss of 

 nitrogen in the form of ammonia resulting from that decay is decidedly 

 lessened. Plaster is therefore used to quite an extent on piles of fer- 

 menting manure or in stables. When used in the barn it is sprinkled in 

 the powdered form in the trenches behind the cattle, perhaps a third 

 of a pound daily to an animal being used. The reasons for its beneficial 

 action are not well understood, and, sometimes, it unaccountably fails 

 to accomplish its work. 



Gypsum also tends to favor the progress of the nitrifying process, and, 

 like other forms of lime, frees potash and phosphoric acid. Indeed, it 

 is perhaps more efficient in this latter capacity than are the other forms 

 of lime. ' 



BUYING PLANT FOOD. 



How may these four forms of plant food best be bought? They may 

 best be supplied in three ways — from the clover seed sack, the feed sack 

 and the phosphate sack. They may be worked out of the soil by culti- 

 vation and the like, but they are brought onto the farm best in these 

 ways. 



The clover seed sack increases the plant food content of the soil in 

 two ways. Clover roots bring plant food from lower soil levels to the 

 upper ones. They run deep into the soil and translocate plant food into 



