THE NITROGEN PROBLEM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 6

THE NITROGEN PROBLEM.

In consideiing the question whether tho production of nitrogen for manual purposes by mechanical means is practicable the very important point must not be overlooked — How will the Nitrate Committee, the monopolists of nitrate of soda, treat the competition of the artificially prepared article? The best that can be said of the recently-discovered processes for fixing atmospheric nitrogen is that they can produce a nitrogenous fertiliser of equal value to nitrate of soda at a. slightly lower cost than the current prico of the' Chilian article. This at first sighfc is encouraging to farmers, but when we read that a nitrate company has declared a dividend of 150 per cent, for the first year, and possesses deposits of the salt which will supply requirements for a generation to come, the doubt is at once awakened whether such a fat monopoly will bring down its prices and squeeze out the manufacturers — as they may be termed — or will absorb them by some of the means well known to " rings." The price of Chilian nitre can well be reduced — it has been raised 70 per cent, during the last 6even j'«ars, though there has not during that time been any increase, whatever in the cost of production. It would appear that the farmers' best course is to claim the assistance of Nature, by pressing into their eervice the leguminous plants which possess the property of appropriating the atmospheric nitrogen and rendering it available for the present and succeeding crops ; in other words, grow clover, peas, and other plants of the family and plough in the green tops and roots. The practice of sowing red clover or grain crops is one of the wisest and most profitable which can be followed. The clover will provide valuable feed for lambs after the grain crop has been harvested, and again the following season, if desired, ploughing ifc in in the second autumn; or it ran hf ploughed in in the first autumn or following spring, according to the crop which is to succeed it. The application of a, dressing of superphosphate when sowing fcha grain will benefit the clover as well as the wheat. Most New Zealand soils are sufficiently rich in potash, and require little or no addition of this fertiser. The ploughing in of a pood crop of clover has been proved to add as much as 1001b per acre 1 of nitrogen to the soil, by which the succeeding grain or root crops have fully benefited. Eating down the clover with sheep has been ascertained to benefit the soil to almost the same extent, the difference being the quantity of nitrogen which' is removed in the bodies of the animals. Continuous cutting of the clover, allowing it to decay on the land, ploughing shallow every two years, and re-sowing red clover increased the nitrogen contents of the sou in five years by nearly 3001b per acre ;_ in this case ateo it was found that a similar result attended the feeding of the clover by sheep instead of cutting it and allowing it to decay. Thus increasing the soil fertility and producing fat lambs can go hand in hand.