52 CLOVERS 



reduced as to be a comparatively insignificant factor in 

 its relation to crop production. It is possible, how- 

 ever, and not altogether improbable, that by the aid 

 of electricity a manufactured nitrate of soda or of 

 potash may be put upon the market at a price which 

 will put it within reach of the farmer. The power 

 of legumes to increase the nitrogen content in the 

 soil should allay apprehension with reference to the 

 possible exhaustion of the world's supply of nitro- 

 gen, notwithstanding the enormous waste of the 

 same in various ways. 



The more common sources of loss in nitrogen 

 are, first, through the leeching of nitrates into the 

 drainage water; second, through oxidation; third, 

 through the use of explosives in war; and fourth, 

 through the waste of the sewerage of cities. When 

 plant and animal products are changed into soluble 

 nitrates, they are usually soon lost to the soil, un- 

 less taken up by the roots of plants. When vege- 

 table matter on or near the surface of the ground is 

 broken down and decomposed, in the process of oxi- 

 dation,there is frequently much loss of nitrogen, as in 

 the rapid decomposition of farmyard manure in the 

 absence of some material, as land plaster, to arrest 

 and hold the escaping ammonia. Through explo- 

 sives used in war there is an enormous vegetable 

 loss of nitrogen, as nitrate salts, which should 

 rather be used to preserve and sustain life than 

 to destroy it. The waste of nitrogen through 

 the loss of sewerage is enormous, nor does there 

 seem to be any practicable way of saving the bulk 

 of it. 



