CONCLUSION 301 



an example, take the growing of clover in the 

 farm rotation. For several hundred years the 

 farmers of the Far East have made a practice 

 of growing clover and grain in alternate rows. 

 The rationale of the practice was simply that 

 they had discovered, in terms of money loss or 

 gain, that grain removed an element from the 

 soil which the legume restored. It was not 

 necessary for them to "take the works apart" 

 to find out what made the wheels go round. 

 It was quite sufficient to them that good re- 

 sults did follow such practice, as time had 

 verified to their satisfaction. 



The Western nation, however, is not satis- 

 fied to see an effect without investigating the 

 cause. Hellriegel took the works apart, so to 

 speak, and showed us that the root nodules of 

 the legumes contained nitrogen-fixing bacteria. 

 With this secret in hand, we were able to iso- 

 late the families of bacteria peculiar to each 

 legume, and, once having isolated them, to 

 propagate them and scatter them on our 

 plowed fields in profusion. 



Nevertheless, having learned the why of the 

 process, still we have not been able to surpass 

 the farmer of Asia in the intelligent use of 

 legumes. Every advance that science suggests 



