326 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
April  14,  1901. 
liouates  are  as  much  essentials  as  the  trio  to  wliich  your  attention 
IS  so  otten  and  so  ignorantly  directed.  They  are  e.ssential  foods 
foi-  our  advantageous  soil  organisms,  while  they  are,  directly  or 
indirectly,  exterminators  of  disadvantageous  micro-bodies. 
h’or  nitrification  those  compounds  are  of  extreme  importance, 
hut  not  in  that  role  pictured  in  hooks.  There  it  is  universally 
stated  that  the  nitrifying  organisms  manufacture  free  nitric 
acid,  and  that  that  somehow  or  other  finds  out  and  links  arms 
with  the  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  soil,  and  converts  that  into 
nitrate  of  lime.  Such  a  view,  to  be  expi'e.ssed  in  lecture  halls 
or  in  hooks,  by  men  who  presume  to  po.se  as  teachers  of  science, 
is  most  unpardonable.  Nor  can  I  understand  how  students  can 
sit  and  swallow  such  rubbi.sh,  because  presumably  if  they 
are  attending  a  course  in  agricultural  .science,  they  must  know 
something  of  chemi.stry  and  of  the  properties  of  albuminoid 
or  protoplasmic  bodies.  Anyhow,  to  say  or  to  believe  that  a 
lirinri  protoplasmic  thing  can,  from  the  day  it  starts  to  perform 
its  life’s  functions,  continue  dining  its  whole  existence  to  mic¬ 
turate  free  nitric  acid,  is  saying  or  believing  in  what  is  an 
absolute  impo.ssibility.  Free  nitidc  acid  must  nece.ssarily  coagu¬ 
late  the  living  protoplasmic  body  it.self,  and  I  have  yet  to  learn 
that  that  is  compatible  with  life  and  work. 
The  product  of  nitrification  in  a  properly  cared-for  soil  is 
inaiiily  nitrate  of  lime.  Now,  we  might  for  a  moment  or  two 
consider  what  is  the  importance  of  this  process  and  product,  and 
how  does  that  product  compare  with  nitrate  of  .soda.  Nitrate  of 
•soda,  being  soluble  and  diffusible,  can  and  does  enter  the  plant 
unchanged  and  practically  alone  ;  and,  mark  you,  this  is  the 
carrying  into  the  plant  the  comparatively  useless  soda,  which 
cannot,  under  any  conceivable  conditions,  perform  the  functions 
of  lime  or  magnesia  within  the  plant. 
By  way  of  illustrating  this  feature,  let  us  look  at  the  role  of 
soda  on  the  one  hand,  and  lime  on  the  other,  as  a  neutraliser  of 
the  poisonous  oxalic  acid  found  abundantly  in  the  leaves  of  some 
plants.  If  yon  use  nitrate  of  .soda,  the  salt  formed  would  be 
oxalate  of  soda,  which  is  soluble,  useless,  and  dangerous,  and. 
what  is  still  worse,  there  is  no  as.sociation  between  nitrate  of  soda 
added  to  soils  and  the  microbic  products  which  are  ever  pre.sent 
when  iiitriiication  is  going  on  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  artificial  nitrate 
of  sotia  is  alone,  and  goes  into  the  plant  practically  alone,  while 
nitrate  of  lime  formation  is  unfailingly  associatc'd  with  solution 
of  the  other  essentials,  if  the  soil  be  kept  right,  and  the  plant  i.s 
thus  supplied  with  a  complete  food  at  once.  I  should  have  men¬ 
tioned  that  calcium  oxalate  is  imsoluble,  and  has  its  fixed  position 
within  the  jilant. 
The  result  of  using  nitrate  of  soda  is,  as  a  rule,  a  rush  of 
something  green,  which  fills  the  eye  but  not  the  pocket.  Grain 
so  grown  must  be  relatively  rank  in  the  .straw,  which  is  always 
liable  to  lodge,  never  more  to  rise,  except  with  the  fork,  and  the 
grain  itself  is  always  late  of  ripening,  with  the  corresponding 
risks  of  late  harvesting.  Potatoes  so  grown  must  be  soft  and 
waxy,  and  bad  keepers,  and  the  same  reasoning  applies  to  Turnips 
and  Mangolds,  which  never  can  possess  the  amount  of  nutritious 
matter,  and  cannot  therefore  produce  so  much  beef,  mutton,  or 
milk  as  nitrogen  from  any  other  source  where  it  is  “  available  ” 
— I  mean  to  soil  organisms.  I  have  stood  alone  in  these  views  for 
many  years,  but  at  last  some  continental  investigators  have 
confirmed  my  observations,  and  it  is  now  accepted  as  undeniable 
that  Barley  grown  with  nitrate  of  soda  is  very  undesirable  for 
use  in  the  lirewery,  nor  it  profitable  to  the  distiller. 
Before  leaving  this  subject  of  calcium  oxalate  formation  in 
plants,  I  would  like  to  suggest  here  another  point  of  the  new 
soil  science,  which  is  this.  When  calcium  oxalate  within  the  leaf 
is  expo.sed  to  sunlight,  the  oxalate  is  decomposed,  oxygen  is  given 
off,  and  thus  we  can  easily  account  for  the  elaboration  of  elemen¬ 
tary  carbon  hydrates  from  this  oxygen,  water,  and  the  inhaled 
carbonic  acid. 
Now  I  said  that  soluble  silicates  took  up  part  of  the  lime 
added  to  soils.  Many  people  and  books  say  that  silica  is 
essential  for  .straw;  that  silica  gives  a  backbone  to  straw. 
Do  any  of  you  believe  that  ?  Silica  is  the  principal 
con.stituent  in  glass;  is  it  possible  that  gla.ss  could  make 
a  good  backbone  either  for  straw  or  for  those  men  of  straw  who 
go  about  lecturing  and  teaching  such  things?'  Take  it  from  me, 
that  lime  judiciously  added  to  soils  tran.sforms  soluble 
silicates  into  insoluble  silicates,  and  prevents  the  soluble 
silica  wandering  into  the  plant,  with  these  results,  viz.,  that  you 
will  have  straw  with  much  less  glass  in  it,  straw  which  conse¬ 
quently  must  contain  much  more  cellulose.  It  will  bend  with  the 
wind  and  not  break,  it  will  po.ssess  a  correspondingly  increased 
feeding  value,  and  it  will  put  money  in  your  pockets.  Now, 
gentlemen,  make  no  mistake.  These  arguments  apply  as  much  to 
pasture  or  hay  as  it  does  to  grain  crops,  roots,  or  tubers,  and  I 
hesitate  not  for  one  moment  to  tell  you  who  may  be  in  the 
dairying  industry  that  if  you  act  on  my  sugge.stions — for  your 
grass  and  Turnips — you  will  produce  more  milk  and  better  milk, 
and  your  profits  must  be  enhanced. 
That  also  is  a  fragment  of  the  new  soil  science,  and  according 
to  this  science  every  fertile  soil  must  of  necessity  contain  an 
abundance  of  the  various  groups  of  advantageous  organisms ; 
those  organisms  must  have  inherently  in  the  soils,  or  there  must 
be  added,  all  the  constituents  which  are  essential  to 
their  life’s  work,  and  these  are  not  confined  to  phos¬ 
phates.  potash,  and  nitrogen.  Moreover,  the  forms  in 
which  “essentials”  are  present  are  highly  important. 
For  example,  it  is  generally  said  that  the  lime  added  to  soils  in 
the  form  of  sulphate  in  all  di.ssolved  manures  is  more  than  suffi¬ 
cient  for  the  requirements  of  crops,  bnt  that  view  is  most  cer¬ 
tainly  erroneous,  for  it  is  the  same  in  .soils  as  in  fermentation. 
’^I’he  carbonate  of  lime  is  much  more  easily  decomposed  by  the 
living  bodies  involved  than  is  any  other  lime  compound.  There¬ 
fore  it  is  mnch  more  serviceable  because  more  “  available.” 
You  can  therefore  understand  that  the  science  of  manuring 
is  more  complex  than  is  suggested  by  the  rule  of  thumb  system 
which  has  .so  universally  obtained,  and  which  has  brought  so 
much  discredit  on  most  of  the  experiments  of  the  past.  Ton 
know  that  farmyard  manure  disappears  much  more  rapidly  from 
a  light  .soil  than  from  a  heavy  one.  But  why  is  that  so?  Gentle¬ 
men,  always  be  ready  and  persi.stent  with  your  whv’s,  whether 
you  encounter  difficulties  in  your  own  work,  or  hear  inexplicable 
statements  from  those  peripatetic  lecturers  who  now  swarm  the 
land.  'I'he  only  explanatioji  which  used  to  be  forthcoming  was 
that  light  soils  were  hungjy  soils;  but,  gentlemen,  that  means 
nothing!  Our  ex])lanation  is  at  once  self-evident.  Germ 
.activity  is  much  greater  in  a  light  than  in  a  heavy  soil.  Now 
this  knowledge  guides'  us  in  choosing  the  forms  in  which  we 
should  apply  pho.sphates  and  nitrogen  to  such  soils  ;  these  should, 
of  course,  be  of  the  nature  of  bone  or  fish  manures,  or  Liebig’s 
preparations — meat,  meal,  etc.  Then  there  is  the  slow  decom¬ 
posing  .shoddy  and  leather,  but  take  my  suggestion,  and  confine 
the  use  of  these  to  your  back  and  your  feet. 
In  like  manner,  we  must  consider  the  situation  in  choosing 
our  potash  salts.  To  use  kainit  on  land  in  pioximity  to  a  sea¬ 
girt  shore  liable  to  be  swept  by  gales  blo\ying  landward  is  always 
risky,  because  such  land  invariably  contains  enough  common  salt 
already;  and  to  be  adding  more,  as  you  would  by  using  kainit, 
than  is  compatible  with  the  comfort,  life,  and  work  of  our  friends 
the  invisible  toilers,  who  di.slike  over-saited  food  just  as  much  as, 
or  more,  than  we  do,  is  a  mistake.  It  follows  also  than  on  such 
land  it  is  a  mistake  to  use  muriate  of  potash,  and  therefore  you 
should  confine  yourselves  to  the  use  of  sulphate  in  such  positions. 
AVhen  we  come  to  medium  or  heavy  lands  remote  froin  the 
sea.  if  in  a  district  with  a  heavy  rainfall,  it  is  always  advisable 
