CHAPTER III 



BACTERIA, OR SOIL FLORA, AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO 

 SOIL FERTILITY 



BACTERIA! What on earth have bacteria to do with 

 rubber-growing? " will have been the exclamation of 

 many when noting the references to them in the last chapter. 

 The answer is short and simple Everything! If it were not 

 for the active assistance given by the bacteria present in the 

 soil there would be no possibility of cultivating any rubber at 

 all. The rubber trees would be non-existent, and so, in a very 

 short time, would be the rubber-grower himself. 



To give rubber-growers some brief information upon the 

 subject of bacteria, so far as these affect agricultural and, 

 more especially, horticultural operations, is the object of this 

 chapter. 



It must be recognized that the rubber-growing industry 

 can never be brought to a high plane unless those engaged in 

 it have high ideas of what it may be and should be. The rubber- 

 grower has to take into account an extensive soil flora, the very 

 existence of which was never imagined till within a very recent 

 date, and of whose existence and activities in relation to the 

 successful growth of rubber very few planters know anything 

 at all. Yet it is certain that the rubber-grower of the future, 

 if he is to be efficient, and if he is to attain to an understanding . 

 of the elements of the fundamental basis of tree culture, must 

 not only know of the nature and existence of these microscopic 

 soil plants, but he must also comprehend something of the 

 effect of these bacteria upon each other and upon the trees 

 which he cultivates. He should, he must, understand the 

 conditions under which they produce ammonia, nitrites and 

 nitrates, increasing the fertility of the soil, and the conditions 

 also under which certain of them in turn destroy compounds of 

 nitrogen in the soil and reduce its fertility. 

 B 17 



