1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 19 



atmosphere in great abundance, and there has been much 

 dispute over the question, whether or not plants get their 

 supply of nitrogen from the ground or from the atmosphere. 

 If they can get it from the atmosphere, then there is no 

 need of furnishing this important element, nitrogen, in 

 fertilizers. Professor Atwater, following up the work which 

 was started by the French chemist Ville and carried on by 

 Boussingault and others for several years, has found that 

 some plants do actually avail themselves of the nitrogen in 

 the atmosphere. He found that clover, beans and other 

 leguminous plants, can and do gather nitrogen from the air. 

 He states very strongly that he is convinced-— and from the 

 evidence given in this bulletin I think he is right — that they 

 can take up nitrogen from the air and store it in the soil, 

 where it can be used as food by other plants. What does 

 that mean? I have a few figures here which show what it 

 means. In New Hampshire we use $200,000 worth of 

 fertilizers every year. One-third of the cost of these 

 fertilizers is in nitrogen ; therefore, $66,000 of this $200,000 

 represents the cost of the nitrogen that is contained in these 

 fertilizers. The farmers of New Hampshire are paying every 

 year $66,000 for nitrogen. In Massachusetts they are pay- 

 ing very much more. How much is paid in the whole 

 country I have no idea ; but the point is, that a portion of 

 this, at least, can be saved. Now, it has been known for 

 some time, it has been brought out very clearly by the 

 experiments of Lawes and Gilbert, that clover, in their 

 countiy, under their conditions, takes up nitrogen ; and 

 there it is the custom to grow clover and plough in the 

 stubble to furnish a supply of nitrogen for the succeeding 

 crop, say of wheat. Now, if there is stored up in the 

 atmosphere a supply of nitrogen, and if the leguminous 

 plants can gather and make use of this as food, then we can 

 save this great expense which is incurred in furnishing it to 

 the plants in the form of nitrate of soda or in other forms. 

 This is another point which has been brought out before the 

 country by an experiment station. What its value will be 

 to the whole country, nobody can tell. I have simply 

 undertaken to give some idea of its value to the State of 

 New Hampshire, as an illustration. 



