THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. IV. No. 1. JUNE, 1897, 



GREEN MANURING. 



In the seventh series of his Etudes Agronomtques, M. 

 Grandeau, the Inspector-General of the French Agricultural 

 Experiment Stations, publishes some interesting notes 

 concerning the important functions of leguminous plants in 

 the fixation of nitrogen. After alluding to the discoveries 

 made by M. Pasteur, who demonstrated the incessant and 

 colossal action of bacteria, which had hitherto been ascribed 

 to chemical agency, M. Grandeau briefly describes the 

 character of the investigations undertaken by Hellriegel 

 and Wilfarth, whose labours were suggested and influenced 

 by the work of Pasteur. 



Hellriegel for some years cultivated various cereal and 

 leguminous crops in sterilised soil, and added their necessary 

 alimentation in the shape of nutritive solutions of phosphoric 

 acid, potash, and nitrates. In the case of the cereals the 

 resulting crop was distinctly in proportion to the quantity 

 of ammonia placed at its disposition, and in no case did the 

 cereals develope when supplied with nutritive solution in 

 which nitrogen was absent. On the other hand, the legu- 

 minous plants differed extremely in their growth. In some 

 pots the plants flourished, in others they barely existed, 

 though the conditions were exactly similar. Upon exami- 

 nation, it was found that in the former case there were 



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