144 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



unbelievable in its contrast to the barren, heath-covered 

 soil only across the wall. 



Most plants crave nitrogen; men work for it; women 

 and children starve and die for it by thousands every 

 year, while nitrogen exists in unstable compounds, and 

 if we do not use care it is soon gone from us. Infertile 

 soils are nearly always nitrogen-hungry. With enough 

 nitrogen in our soils we could easily support two blades 

 of grass where one grows now, with all that that implies 

 in added comfort for greater numbers of men and women 

 in the world. 



Air and Our Nitrogen Supply. There are few spots 

 on the world where nitrogen is found in such combina- 

 tions that it can be mined and used. Over each acre of 

 soil there exists about 75 million pounds of atmospheric 

 nitrogen. The one way that we can get it changed into 

 form that we can use is by means of the bacteria in the 

 soil. True, the electrician with command of tremendous 

 electric power, can secure nitrogen compounds that the 

 farmer may use, and this is being done in a small way in 

 Norway and elsewhere, but the farmer may have on his 

 own place a complete establishment for nitrogen-gather- 

 ing that will work silently and surely, day and night dur- 

 ing the growing season. In order to have this, however, 

 he must first store in his soil a supply of carbonate of 

 lime. It is true, then, that adding carbonate of lime to 

 a lime hungry soil, and then planting it to legumes, is as 

 though one added nitrate of soda to the land. Nitrate of 

 soda will do wonders in making crops grow, but it is 

 costly to buy. When one grows clovers, cowpeas, vetches. 



