256 



results obtained by any intelligent farmer are as wonderful as 

 these. 



For instance, take the case of a Maryland farmer who had 

 formerly been able to cultivate only one third of his land ; he had 

 been obliged to abandon two thirds because of the hopelessness 

 of getting anything from it. Now, at no expense to himself and 

 at trivial amount of labour, he had reclaimed the worthless two 

 thirds and made it more productive than the other third. He had 

 incerased the yield of his farm, his irkcome, fivefold ; a generous 

 living is now before him. 



And what did it cost the government to help him so generously ? 

 Eight cents ! The farmer had used two cakes to inoculate the 

 seeds for seven acres, each cake costing the government four 

 cents to manufacture. 



But there are even other wonders that these little nitrogen-fixing 

 bacteria work. It has already been explained how legumes enrich 

 the soil by bringing back nitrogen to it. The same bacteria that 

 increase the harvest of beans or clover or alfalfa tenfold enable 

 the plants to leave many times more nitrogen in the soil than they 

 would have done if uninoculated ; in other words, they make the 

 soil many times more fertile, so that the crop of cotton or wheat 

 or corn or potatoes planted next year is many times larger. Thus 

 the rotating crop the year following inoculation derives an equal 

 benefit from the inoculation. For instance a crop of crimson 

 clover, not inoculated, added to one acre of land 4'3 pounds of 

 nitrogen ; a crop of crimson clover, inoculated, added to one acre 

 of precisely similar land 1 43 '7 pounds of nitrogen, an increase of 

 33 J times ; a crop of inoculated hairy vetch added to one acre 1 5 

 times more nitrogen than a crop of uninoculated hairy vetch. 



Cotton planted after an inoculated crop of red clover gave an 

 increased yield of 40 per cent. Potatoes, after an inoculated crop, 

 yielded an increase of 50 per cent. The wheat crop increased by 

 46 per cent., the oats 300 per cent., and the rye 400 per cent. The 

 table below shows the effect of inoculated legumes on various 

 crops. 



The germs can be used in any climate. It must be clearly 

 understood, however, that only leguminous plants — beans, clover, 

 alfala, peas lupin, vetch, etc. — are directly benefitted by the 

 nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Where the soil is rich in nitrates, the 

 crop is not appreciably increased by the use of the inoculating 

 bacteria ; but where the soil is poor, the harvest is increased many 

 times. 



There is not a section of the United States which will not profit 

 by Dr. Moore's discovery. Nearly every State has its wornout 

 farming-land, bringing despair to the economist who laments our 

 careless handling of the fields and who wonders how the country 

 will support the hundreds of millions soon to be ours. The bacteria 

 means intensive cultivation with a vengeance, and should give 

 him hope. It is impossible as yet to calculate by how much they 



