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NITROGEN is 
the most im- 
portant and ex- 
pensive plant 
food. The air is 
four -fifths ni- 
trogren — the soil 
is full of air — 
hnt plants can- 
n o t absorb it 
without the aid 
of the nitrog'en 
g^atheringf b a c - 
terla. 
Tie Improred German Soil Inoculator, Nobbe-Hiltner Process 
Restores and Msuntains Soil Fertility 
To insure a 
stand— increase 
the yield — buUd 
up your soil — 
always i n o c u- 
late CIiOVEBS, 
AI.FAI.FA, 
VETCHES, 
PEAS, BEANS, 
tiS, 
COW PEAS 
with 
NITROGEN 
High Bred Nitrogen -Gathering 
Bacteria for Clovers, Alfalfa, 
Beans and Other 
Legumes 
NITRAGIN 
is based on the greatest discovery ever made in 
Agriculture. But before you can realize Just what 
it is. and why it is of such great value to all land 
and farm owners, there are a few underlying facts 
you should know. If you already know them, so 
much the better. 
Let us begin with the soil. Soil is ground-up 
rock, mixed with decayed and decaying vegetable 
matter. To be productive, it must contain plant 
foods. There are three chief plant foods, two of 
these are called Phosphorus and Potash. Certain 
crops feed extensively on one or both of these two 
plant foods, and so the soil suffers until they are 
replaced. But, as a rule, wise farm methods will 
furnish the soil all the phosphorus and potash it 
needs. Deep-rooted plants, like alfalfa and the 
clovers, bring them up in large quantities from 
the sub-soil below. 
But what about the other plant food, nitrogen? 
Why do we hear so much more about nitrogen 
than all the other plant foods put together? Be- 
cause it is the element that causes the growth of 
leaf, stem and stalk. Without it there would be 
no growth. Crops remove it in great quantities. 
It escapes as gas. Rains and drainage waters 
wash and leach it away. On top of this, nitrogen 
is far more expensive than all the other plant 
foods combined. Whether you buy it in the form 
of nitrate of soda, dried blood, tankage, or cotton- 
seed meal, it costs between $50 and $60 a ton. 
Nitrogen is not expensive because it is scarce. 
You will be surprised to learn that there rests 
on every acre of ground — rich and poor alike — 
more than thirty-seven thousand tons of it. Yes, 
there are thousands of tons of it resting on every 
farm; and yet the farmer often does not use a 
pound of it, but drives to town and exchanges his 
hard earned money for some fertilizer containing 
only a small per cent of nitrogen. 
The vast, inexhaustible quantity of nitrogen 
which rests on every farm is in the air. Four- 
fifths of the air is pure nitrogen. For years men 
have tried to take it out of the air by electricity 
and put it into the soil, but thus far all such ex- 
perimens have been — from an economical stand- 
point — failures. 
For ages man has known that clover, instead 
Page 78 
of wearing out the soil, very often makes it richer 
and more fertile than it was before. Why? No- 
body knew. The secret never became known until 
about 25 years ago and what led to its disclosure 
was this. 
In 1886 a noted German (Hellriegel) found out 
that clover, lucerne (alfalfa) peas, beans, in fact, 
all plants which bear their seed in a capsule, or 
pod, very often have little round bushes, or knots, 
growing on their roots. You should know, by the 
way, that all such pod-bearing plants are called 
legumes. 
Every legume that is healthy and vigorous has 
these little knots. (Scientists call these knots 
either tubercles or nodules.) 
Many people have imagined these tubercles to 
be some plant disease or other. But Hellriegel 
noted that those which had the greater number of 
tubercles on their roots had the greater strength 
and vigor; that those wihout tubercles did not 
thrive well, but had a pale, sickly appearance. 
He further discovered that these tubercles were 
filled with millions of germs, or bacteria, and that 
these bacteria feed the legume plants all the 
nitrogen they need; that they then fill their 
tubercles full of nitrogen, and that they get their 
entire supply not from the soil, but from the air. 
In other words, Hellriegel discovered that Nature 
herself has a way of unlocking nitrogen from its 
vast reservoir, the atmosphere, and putting it 
where it will enrich the soil. She does it by 
means of certain germs that live in the roots of 
legumes. Practically no other germs and no other 
lar n plants but legumes have this wonderful 
power. It appears, too, that while there is but 
one species of nitrogen-gathering germs, yet each 
legurme requires its particular kind, or strain 
lor instance, the germ that feeds alfalfa with 
nitrogen from the air, differs from the germ that 
feeds peas, vetch, etc. 
Thus Hellriegel taught the world why it is that 
clover and all other legumes enrich the soil. In 
1 a. tnc rship with tliese germs they tap the air for 
their nitrogen. They don't take it from the soil, 
the way wheat, corn and all non-leguminous plants 
’ list do. What is more, when a legume is 
cut or plowed under, its tubercles of course decay 
What IS the consequence? All the nitrogen stored 
up in the tubercles, together with millions of 
nitrogen-gathering germs, is distributed in the 
soil. This gives the soil enough nitrogen for the 
wheat, corn, oats, or any crop which follows. This 
is why you hear so much these days about plow- 
ing under legumes, or green-manuring, as it is 
