Green Manuring. 



5 



direct mode of inoculation should prove satisfactory, it will 

 be a distinct advantage over the methods described by 

 M. Grandeau, as the application is simple and inexpensive, 

 and the inoculation of each kind of leguminous plant with 

 its own peculiar organism can be easily ensured. 



In connection with the various methods that have been 

 described for the purpose of supplying nitrogen to legu- 

 minous plants by means of their specific organisms, it must 

 be borne in mind that these processes will not produce satis- 

 factory results unless there is a proper supply of organic and 

 -mineral manures, as potash, lime, and phosphoric acid, in the 

 soils on which the crops are cultivated. 



M. Grandeau has a long chapter showing how the power 

 of assimilation and fixation of nitrogen has been most exten- 

 sively and beneficially utilised in Germany by M. Schultz, 

 who has made sterile land fertile, and turned a waste into 

 fruitful fields, by a system of green manuring [engrais verts) — 

 ploughing in leguminous plants of several kinds, but mainly 

 lupins. M. Schultz's experiments were made at Lupitz, in 

 Saxony, upon light sandy soil, which naturally only yields 

 a crop when plenty of manure is supplied, and then the 

 produce barely covers the outlay. In rainy seasons M. 

 Schultz noticed that this poor land produced luxuriant 

 growths of yellow, white, and blue lupins, and it occurred to 

 him that it might also be possible to make it yield other 

 crops suited for the food of man. After forty years of 

 continuous experiments he has formulated a system of 

 cultivation which has completely transformed land con- 

 sidered quasi barren in 1855, into fertile soil growing 

 remunerative crops. 



The basis of this transformation is the cultivation of 

 leguminous plants, notably lupins, in alternation with 

 cereals, potatoes, and other crops, and the rational use of 

 mineral manures, lime, potash, and phosphoric acid, but 

 without any direct application of nitrogenous manures. 

 This system has answered so well that intermediate 

 cropping with leguminous plants has now extended over 

 the whole of M. Schultz's estate of 600 acres. This system 

 is known throughout Germany as the Lupitz method of 



