Green Manuring. 



3 



a good dressing of nitrogenous manure — nitrate of soda, 

 sulphate of ammonia, or farmyard manure. If the foliage of 

 the plants is utilised for cattle, the stems and roots remaining 

 in the ground contain enough nitrogen to ensure a full yield 

 of cereals or other plants. 



An interesting account is given by M. Grandeau of the 

 results of the inoculation of soil with bacteria adapted to the 

 different leguminous plants, which, he shows, may increase 

 •enormously the assimilating power of these plants. In- 

 oculation is accomplished by broad-casting on the land to 

 be planted varying quantities of finely comminuted earth 

 taken from a field which has borne a crop of the same species 

 of leguminous plant which it is intended to cultivate. Among 

 numerous experiments in this direction, M. Grandeau cites 

 some made by Professor Frlihweh at Msedling with yellow 

 lupins, serradella, Ornithopus sativus, and Lathy rus stlvestris, in 

 calcareous soil. Of two plots of land planted with serradella, 

 one was treated with a small quantity of earth impregnated 

 with bacteria from previous cultures, and the other was not 

 so treated. On the 9th of August it was found that the 

 crop on the plot that had been inoculated was more than 

 three times the weight of that on the plot not inoculated. 

 In the former case the roots of the serradella were 

 ■ covered with nodules, in the latter case they were absolutely 

 wanting. 



The land on which the lupins were grown was inoculated 

 with earth from soil that had previously borne lupins. On 

 one plot the quantity of impregnated earth equalled about 

 8 cwts. per acre, and on another 16 cwts. per acre; the third 

 plot was not inoculated. The plants on the first plot reached 

 an average height of 15I inches, and the weight of the crop 

 on this plot Avas double that on the plot not inoculated. 

 The crop on the second plot was more than one-third larger 

 than that on the first plot, and three times larger than that 

 on the plot not inoculated. Inoculation had apparently 

 doubled and trebled the crops according to the quantity 

 of bacteria-infected earth supplied. M. Grandeau states 

 that the result of the experiments on two other beds equally 

 demonstrated the advantage of inoculation. 



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