JAMAICA. 



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BULLETIN 



OF THE 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



New Series.] JANUARY, 1897. ^^t'. 



SOIL FERMENTS IMPORTANT IN AGRICULTURE. 



By Dr. W. H. Wiley, Chief of the Division of Chemistry, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, in Year Book of U. 8. Dept. of 

 Agriculture for 1895. 



( Continued ). 



THE STORAGE OF NITRATES. 



Attention has already been called to the fact that the activity of the 

 nitrifying ferments in a soil is, as a rule, greater than the needs of the 

 growing crop. For this reason the waters of drainage are found to be 

 more or less impregnated with nitrates. The sea is eventually the 

 great sorting ground into which all this waste material is poured. The 

 roller processes of nature, like the mills of the gods, grind exceedingly 

 slow and small, and the sea becomes the blotting cloth by which the 

 products of milling are separated and sorted out. Not only do the 

 drainage waters carry nitrates, but also potash, phosphoric acid, lime, 

 and other soluble materials of the soil. As soon as this waste material 

 is poured into the sea, the process of sifting at once begins. The 

 carbonate of lime becomes deposited in vast layers or by organic life is 

 transformed inte immense coral formations or into shells. Phosphoric 

 aoid is likewise sifted out into phosphatic deposits or passes into the 

 organic life of the sea. Even the potash, soluble as it is, becomes col- 

 lected into mineral aggregates or passes into marine animal or vege- 

 table growth. 



All these valuable materials are thus conserved and put into a shape 

 in which they may be returned sooner or later to the use of man. In 

 the great cosmic economy there is no such thing as escape of any 

 valuable material from usefulness. The nitrates which are poured into 

 the sea are sooner or later absorbed by the seaweed or other marine 

 vegetation, or served for the nourishment ®f the animal life of the 

 ocean. It is highly probable that the great deposits of nitrates found 

 in certain arid regions, notably in Chile, are due to the decomposition 

 of marine vegetation. There must be present in the sea vast fields of 

 vegetation which, growing in water largely impregnated with nitrates, 

 becomes highly charged with organic nitrogenous matter. In the 

 •hanges of level to which the surface of the earth is constantly sub- 

 jected, the depths of the sea often becomes isolated lakes. In the 



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