Agriculture . ant. In addition there are many weeds belonging tothis same family. To speak of clovers as being grasses is bot- anically incorrect, since inform or shape and in modeof growth they are entirelydifferent. The most notice-able difference is in theshape of blossoms. Theleaves also are different inshape and in a plant of cloverwith a plant of timothy orwheat. The stalks also aredifferent, and the roots arequite different. Pull up alarge red clover or pea plant,and also a wheat plant, andcontrast their roots. Which is the more fibrous and matted? Theclovers send t
Agriculture . ant. In addition there are many weeds belonging tothis same family. To speak of clovers as being grasses is bot- anically incorrect, since inform or shape and in modeof growth they are entirelydifferent. The most notice-able difference is in theshape of blossoms. Theleaves also are different inshape and in a plant of cloverwith a plant of timothy orwheat. The stalks also aredifferent, and the roots arequite different. Pull up alarge red clover or pea plant,and also a wheat plant, andcontrast their roots. Which is the more fibrous and matted? Theclovers send their roots deeper into the soil. Observe, also, thelittle knots, or balls, or tubercles on the clover roots. Thesetubercles play a very important part in the nourishment of theleguminous plants. They are filled with many little livingparasites, something like yeast cells, that grow and feed uponthe free nitrogen of the air, from it forming compounds thathelp to nourish the plants. Now we have already mentioned. Fig. as-—Root of a legume showing knotsor nodules or tubercles. THE LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 59 that wheat, for instance, will readily feed upon nitrogen in theform of nitrates ; but if we apply nitrates to clover no effect isproduced. The wheat cannot take up the free nitrogen ofthe air, but the clover can, through these root clover does not grow well; and when pulled upvery few, if any, of these little tubercles are found upon theroots. If, however, some soil in which clover has been growingwell, or the washing from such soil, is applied to the weakclover, the plants soon begin to thrive and the tubercles areseen growing upon the roots. These tubercles possess thepower of taking up free nitrogen from the air in the soil. Ifwe can get leguminous plants to grow in a poor soil and thenturn them under, they will decay and produce humus rich innitrogen that will give rise to nitrates (by nitrification) for thebenefit of the wheat or other grain crop that com
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidag, booksubjectagriculture
