34 



AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



Instead of living in nests in trees like birds or in the 

 ground like moles and worms, these tiny germs, less than 

 one twenty-five thousandth of an inch long, make their 

 homes on the roots of these plants. Nestling snugly 

 together, they live, grow, and multiply in their sunless 

 homes. Through their activity the soil is enriched by the 



addition of much nitro- 

 gen from the air. They 

 are the good fairies of 

 the farmer, and no 

 magician's wand ever 

 blessed a land as much 

 as these invisible folk 

 bless the land that they 

 live in. 



Just as bees gather 

 honey from the flowers, 

 and carry it to the hives 

 where they prepare it 

 for their own future 

 use and for the use of 

 others, so do these root 

 tubercles gather nitro- 

 gen from the air and fix 



it in their root homes, where it can be used by other crops. 

 You were told something in the earlier pages of this 

 book about the food of plants. One of the main elements 

 of plant food, perhaps you remember, is nitrogen. Just 

 as soon as the roots of the leguminous plants begin to 

 push down into the soil, the bacteria, or germs that make 

 the tubercles, begin to build their homes on the roots, and 



I 



FIG. 24. SOJA BEANS AND COWPEAS, 

 Two GREAT SOIL IMPROVERS 



