JAMAICA. 



BXJLTjBTlISr 



OF THK 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRIOULTDRE. 



Vol. II. JANUARY, 1904. Part 1. 



NOTES ON NITRIFICATION. 



By H. H. Cousins, M.A. (Oxon), F.C.S. 



The last legacy of Death is the first food of Life. 



This axiom of Nature, when referred to the nitrogen contained in 

 living things, finds its justification and realisation in fact by the rela- 

 tionship of nitrates to the decay and the re-creation of the materials of 

 which all forms of life are composed. The last stage in the decay of 

 nitrogenous matter from plants and' animals is that of the nitrates 

 formed in the soil, and this again is the first stage in which the dead 

 matter is taken up afresh by the growing plant and re-created into the 

 substance of living matter. 



In the tropics t^is cycle is appreciably accelerate 1 by conditions fa- 

 vourably adapted towards swiftness of decay and a regeneration fre- 

 quently miraculous in the speed of its attainment. 



A knowledge of the process of nitrification underlif s an intelligent 

 comprehension of ihe principles of soil management, of cultivation 

 and manuring. 



Since the hurricane, the favourable conditions for the progress of 

 nitrification have painted the entire vegetation of Jamaica a darker 

 and fuller green from the free supply of nitrates which our plants and 

 trees have recently obtained 



The most valuable commercial form of nitrogenous fertilizers for 

 use in a tropical country of free rainfall, as in the cultivated areas of 

 Jamaica, is Sulphate of Ammonia. 



An attempt will be made to give an account of the process whereby 

 ammonia derived from organic decay or the commercial fertilizer is 

 converted into nitrate for the direct nutrition of a crop. 



Nitrification. 



Although plants are able to feed upon ammonia dissolved in the 

 soil water, they rarely do so under normal conditions. It has been 

 found that during the growing season of the year, i.e. contiuuouslv in 



