. Agriculture for southern schools. passthrough the loose soil to the tubercle, where the tinyworkmen are ready to use it for the farmers benefit. What the cowpea or clover plant does with nitrogen.—Let us consider what becomes of the nitrogen a tuberclesends up in the sap current to the cowpea or clover planton which it is growing. A part of it is deposited in theroots of the cowpea, another part in the stem, anotherportion goes to make the leaves, and still another parthelps to make the seeds. All clovers and most otherlegumes use their fertilizer nitrogen manufactured in thetubercles just a
. Agriculture for southern schools. passthrough the loose soil to the tubercle, where the tinyworkmen are ready to use it for the farmers benefit. What the cowpea or clover plant does with nitrogen.—Let us consider what becomes of the nitrogen a tuberclesends up in the sap current to the cowpea or clover planton which it is growing. A part of it is deposited in theroots of the cowpea, another part in the stem, anotherportion goes to make the leaves, and still another parthelps to make the seeds. All clovers and most otherlegumes use their fertilizer nitrogen manufactured in thetubercles just as the cowpea does, and they enrich thesoil in the same way. Even if the farmer mows and hauls away the vines for HOW TREES AND PLANTS IMPROVE THE LAND 91 hay, there is still left in the land the nitrogen that wasstored in the roots and lower part of the stem and in thefallen leaves. Even the roots and stubble of legumes,therefore, can enrich the land, both in nitrogen and invegetable matter. The enrichment is much greater if the. Fig. 58. — A Field of Velvet Beans, one of the Best Soil-improving Plants tops, as well as the roots, are plowed into the soil, eitheras soon as growth is finished or after being eaten byanimals pasturing on the field. Shall the tops of soil-improving plants be plowed intothe ground? — The plants that most enrich the land arethose that make the richest hay and pasturage for horses,cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry. The farmer often asks, Does it pay better to use the vines or tops of cowpeasor clover as food for live-stock or to plow them into the 92 AGRICULTURE ground as fertilizer? The best answer is that lettingthese crops pass through an animal does not greatly lessentheir value as fertilizer. The starch, sugar, and fat that theanimal takes out of its food have no value as a live-stock ought to be kept on all farms to con-sume the legumes that arc grown. The farmer can, there-fore, make a double use of the leguminous crops: h
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