Part 3
In general agriculture in Illinois, whether it be grain farming or ordinary livestock farming, the growing of legumes is absolutely essential as a part of any economic system which shall maintain the fertility of the soil; and for the successful growing of legumes the presence and assistance of the proper species of nitrogen-gathering bacteria are also absolutely essential. These facts being granted, it certainly follows that when sowing any legume on land, where the same legume has never been grown before, or perhaps where it has not been successfully grown within recent years, we should always consider the matter of inoculation; and, unless there is good reason to believe that the soil has been inoculated by the washing from other higher lying land where these bacteria are known to be present or by applications of manure made from that legume, or by some other such incidental means; or unless there is evidence that the bacteria are carried with the seed in sufficient quantity to effect a satisfactory inoculation (as appears to be the case with the cowpea), then we should inoculate the soil directly with the specific bacteria required by the legume which we desire to grow.
While some Illinois soils are becoming deficient in phosphorus and in lime, especially in the southern part of the state, and while phosphorus[8] and ground limestone can be applied to such soils with marked benefit and profit, especially for the growing of legumes, there is abundant evidence that one of the dominant causes for the failure or unsatisfactory growth of some of our most valuable legumes, and on some soils the sole cause of failure, is the absence of the proper nitrogen-gathering bacteria.
There is no reason to believe that any of the different species of nitrogen-gathering bacteria will live in the soil for more than a few years[9] in the entire absence of any legume upon which they naturally live, and the accumulating evidence strongly indicates that the bacteria which are present in places in our soils, such as the red clover bacteria, now found abundantly in many places in the state, especially in northern and central Illinois, the cowpea bacteria more common in southern Illinois, and the alfalfa or sweet clover bacteria, which are becoming prevalent in some sections—that all these have been, and are being, gradually introduced and extended almost entirely by mere chance. Of course if the wagon-wheel, which carries the mud along the road, carries with it sweet clover seed from one place to another, it may also carry the sweet clover bacteria which live on the sweet clover roots.
It now seems absurd to suppose that there were red clover bacteria in Illinois soil before red clover itself was grown on Illinois soil, unless the same bacteria live also upon some other legume which was native to our soils. There is some evidence that the vetch bacteria are native to our soil, possibly living upon the native wild vetches. At any rate, tubercles commonly develop on vetch roots without artificial inoculation. Investigations are in progress to ascertain whether the notorious failure of crimson clover in Illinois may not be due in part, at least, to the absence of the proper bacteria. (It has been stated by some writers that the bacteria of crimson clover and those of red clover are identical, but we already have some reason to doubt the accuracy of this statement.)
FOOTNOTES
[1] It should be remembered that there are ten essential elements of plant food each of which is of equal importance to the plant, for if the plant is deprived of any one of the ten essential elements it is impossible for it to develop and mature. Carbon has no market value as plant food because the plant obtains carbon in the form of carbon dioxid, a gas which is present everywhere in the atmosphere and which the plant inhales through its leaves. Both hydrogen and oxygen are without market value because they are the elements which compose water, a liquid compound which plants absorb through their roots. Calcium, magnesium, iron, and sulfur have no market value as elements of plant food because they are present in practically all soils in abundance as compared with the amounts required in plant growth. The three elements nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, do have market values, because they are required by plants in very considerable quantities, and they are present in most soils in rather limited amounts, and when the available supply of any one of these elements becomes too much reduced in a soil the crop yield also becomes reduced. For further information regarding the use of these elements of plant food on Illinois soils, see Circular No. 68, “Methods of Maintaining the Productive Capacity of Illinois Soils.”
[2] Technically this first step is preliminary to, and not a part of, nitrification.
[3] Among the scientists who were prominent in making these discoveries regarding the action of bacteria in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen were Hellriegel, Willfarth, and Nobbe in Germany, Atwater in America, Lawes and Gilbert in England, and Boussingault and Ville in France.
[4] It may be well to call attention to the fact that there are numerous instances where two different kinds of plants live together in intimate partnership relation. If only one of the two plants receives benefit from this relationship or association, then the plant receiving the benefit is celled a parasite. Thus the mistletoe is a parasite upon the elm or gum or other tree on which it lives. The mistletoe draws its nourishment from the tree. The tree is injured rather than benefited by the mistletoe. Dodder is also a parasitic plant, living upon other plants, except during the early part of its growth. Ticks and lice are common examples of animal parasites living upon other animals.
In some cases a relationship exists which is not parasitic but symbiotic. The term symbiosis, which is commonly used by biologists to define this relationship, means living together in mutual helpfulness. The association of bees and flowers may serve to illustrate this mutual helpfulness, although this is not an example of intimate symbiosis. Thus the bees obtain their food from the flowers and, in turn, the flowers, many of them, are incapable of producing seed or fruit unless the pollen is carried from the male flower to the female flower by bees or other agencies. It is well known that plant lice and ants are mutually helpful.
Likewise the association of nitrogen-gathering bacteria and leguminous plants is a relationship of mutual helpfulness and this is one of the best illustrations of what is meant by symbiosis. The legume furnishes a home for the bacteria and also furnishes in its juice or sap most of the nourishment upon which the bacteria live. The bacteria, on the other hand, take nitrogen from the air contained in the pores of the soil, and cause this nitrogen to combine with other elements in suitable form for plant food which is then given up to the legume for its own nourishment.
Another illustration of remarkable parasitism, if not, indeed, one of true symbiosis, is found in the common lichens living upon rocks and trees. The lichen is not a single plant, but two plants—an alga, which lives upon the wood or stone, and a fungus which lives upon the alga. Algæ also live in the free state separate from fungi, and the present opinion of botanists seems to be that when the two are associated in the form of lichens this association is not detrimental, but rather beneficial, to the alga, as well as to the parasitic fungus. If this is true, then it is another case of true symbiosis. (There is reason to believe that the fungus has some power to feed upon atmospheric nitrogen, and then to furnish combined nitrogen to the alga upon which it lives.)
In the symbiosis of leguminous plants and nitrogen-gathering bacteria we have a partnership or relationship of immeasurable value to agriculture. Here is a class of plants (legumes) that are capable of consuming or utilizing nitrogen in quantities larger than could possibly be obtained from ordinary soils for any considerable length of time. They have no power in themselves of taking nitrogen from the atmosphere, and to them the symbiotic relation with this low order of plants (the nitrogen-gathering bacteria) is especially helpful, and for the best results it is absolutely necessary.
[5] There are some noteworthy exceptions to this rule (see following pages for illustration), and there is some evidence that, by a comparatively long process of breeding, or evolution, the bacteria which naturally live upon one kind of legume may gradually develop the power to live upon a distinctly different legume to which they were not at first adapted. Of course this process of forcing bacteria to live upon a legume to which they are not naturally adapted has little or no practical value because it is unnecessary if there is a species of bacteria which naturally lives upon the same legume. On the other hand, if, by any such process of breeding, or evolution, a species of nitrogen-gathering bacteria could be developed which could live on a non-leguminous plant, as corn, for example, it would be of incalculable practical value. As yet the efforts of bacteriologists, working on this problem, have given only negative results, so far as known to the writer.
[6] In this connection attention is called to the fact that the so-called “spot disease” of alfalfa, which is not uncommon in the western states, especially during wet seasons, became somewhat prevalent in Illinois in 1903. When the effect of this disease becomes marked, the leaves turn yellow and growth is retarded. If this occurs the alfalfa should be clipped. This is the only effective remedy known to be practicable. Seeding alfalfa with a light nurse crop is gaining favor in Illinois.
[7] Some of these observations have already been reported in the agricultural press. (See, for example, the Breeders’ Gazette, September 9, 1903, page 391, and September 16, 1903, page 442.)
[8] Steamed bone meal is the most economical and satisfactory form of phosphorus for use on Illinois soils, unless ground rock phosphate (not acid phosphate) shall prove to be still more economical. Experiments to determine this are in progress.
[9] Just how long the bacteria will live in a soil without a leguminous crop upon which they can feed is not definitely known. Certainly they live for two or three years, but probably not more than five or six years. Further investigation is needed to establish the length of time the different kinds of bacteria may remain in the soil under different conditions.