Soils and fertilizers . agriculturalexperiment stations and from the U. S. Department of Agri-culture, Washington, D. C. It must be borne in mind that when soil is used for inocula-tion it must come from a field that has produced a good cropof the same kind of legume that is to be planted on the inoc-ulated field, also that the soil must not be allowed to becomevery dry, as that is likely to kill the bacteria. The soil is applied after plowing and is harrowed in. If inoculation is to be successful, the soil on which thelegume is to be planted must be of a nature favorable to thel
Soils and fertilizers . agriculturalexperiment stations and from the U. S. Department of Agri-culture, Washington, D. C. It must be borne in mind that when soil is used for inocula-tion it must come from a field that has produced a good cropof the same kind of legume that is to be planted on the inoc-ulated field, also that the soil must not be allowed to becomevery dry, as that is likely to kill the bacteria. The soil is applied after plowing and is harrowed in. If inoculation is to be successful, the soil on which thelegume is to be planted must be of a nature favorable to thelegume, otherwise growth will not be normal in spite of THE GERM LIFE OF THE SOIL 139 inoculation. The conditions favorable for legumes are thesame as for most upland crops, namely good drainage andgood tilth, while for red clover, peas or alfalfa the soil shouldhave an abundant supply of hme. Not only is the yield of an alfalfa crop greatly increasedby the presence of the nitrogen-fixing organisms and also ?fJo animal. - ^inrcRMeDuirc —I J . ? ? tXniTRIFIcAJIOn7- -.,*/*—-- /l/lmNIFICATIOII niTRincnTioti< Fig. 25. — The cycle through which nitrogen passes in its movementsamong soil, plant, animal and atmosphere. Solid lines in the diagram indi-cate the usual transformations of nitrogen. Dotted lines indicate the occa-sional transformations. of lime, but the percentage of nitrogen that the crop containsis thereby increased. 178. Nitrogen fixation by free living germs. — In addi-tion to the nitrogen-fixing bacteria described above, thereexist in many soils germs that are able to take nitrogen fromthe atmosphere and convert it into nitrogenous organic mat-ter without the aid of a host plant. How extensively theseorganisms operate is difficult to say. In poor land they areoften effective in recouping the supply of soil nitrogen, butit is doubtful to what extent they function in rich soil. Atthe Rotharasted Experiment Station one of the
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