FIXATION OF FREE NITROGEN 795 



nitrogen in the form of protein of their bodies to the soil, and 

 after death the complex nitrogen compounds are broken down 

 in the nitrification process, being finally rendered available for 

 the nutrition of crops which may be grown upon the soil. Such 

 indirect transference of free atmospheric nitrogen to crops which 

 are themselves unable to make direct use of it is of the greatest 

 importance to plant cultivation, and it may be expected that in 

 the comparatively near future greater practical use will be made 

 of these nitrogen-fixing bacteria. 



(iii) By other organises : Alinit. — A bacterium said to have 

 the power of fixing the free nitrogen of the air has been 

 isolated from the soil by Herr Caron of Ellenbach. 



The organism, assumed to be a new species, was named 

 Bacillus Ellenbachensis a, and pure cultures mixed with some 

 indifferent material were put on the market and sold under the 

 name alinit. 



The inventor asserted that by using these organisms he was 

 enabled to obtain a considerable increase of yield of the common 

 cereal crops, an increase comparable to that produced by a 

 dressing of a nitrogenous manure. 



For use the alinit is first mixed with a considerable amount 

 of water, and the seed grain is then soaked in it. It is suggested 

 that the organisms multiply in the soil when sown with the 

 grain, and by their activity free nitrogen of the air is fixed and 

 ultimately handed on to the growing cereal crop. The organisms 

 thus appear to behave towards cereals much as the nodule- 

 organisms behave towards leguminous plants, in both cases free 

 nitrogen of the air being fixed and handed on to the crops in an 

 assimilable form. 



Stoklasa, who has investigated the nature and properties of 

 the bacterium present in alinit, considers that the organism is 

 identical with Bacillus megatherium De Bary. He maintains 

 that it is able to assimilate free nitrogen when living , in soil 

 containing little or no combined nitrogen if a suitable supply 



