AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1665, 8 March 1883, Page 4

AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT.

A very interesting experiment has been carriwl out by Mr W. H. Hargood, a farmer oil the Mend ipa. Tliafc gcntlen\'an', with ihe view of ascertaining' what "quantity, 'if any, "of nutritious matter such plants as beans draw or imbibe • from thc-air around us, set on 'May '30 ■'eiglit horse beans in a wooden box which was' filled with silver sand washed 'thoroughly clean, placing" the box some tfistauccfribove the ground to prevent aiiytiling being absorbed therefrom. The beans came up in due senson, and progressed well in growth and blossomed, the plants producing altogether 24 pods, in which weie a total of 47 beans. During the entire existence of the plants nothing whatever was supplied to them b,ut pine water. When the stalks and leaves were black and dead, anil the pods ;rjpe, the plants wero drawn fiom tho 9,1m1. KootH, haulms, pods, and leaves and all wcie further dried in an open place under co\cr from wet for three weeks, the whole mass, including tho beans in the pods, then weighing, after being thus thoroughly dried, 10 V) giains, the 47 beans by themselves weighing 329 grains. Tho eight beans that were set weighed 56 giains. Others have tiicd similar experiments, and it has been at.ked by them, and with reason, " From what source has this increase in weight been derived?" Tho plants could not have fed on the sand in which they grew, ,/md the water they consumed, being to all intents and purposes pure, could contribute nothing to their sustenance, and yet the 56 grains of bean seed enlarged to 1010 grains of organic substance, or nearly 20 times its original weight, in about 13 weeks. The total of 47 beans found in the pods weighed, as before stated, 329 grains, or close upon six times the weight of thu seed planted. At the same time as tho above beans were planted, the writer set nine other horse beans in another wooden box, fixing it a foot and a half from the ground us in the previous ca&e, and filljug it also with clean-wa&hed siher .sand. These plants ueie watered with a weak solution of inaiuue, composed of supcrphosph ite ot lime, muriate of potash, and sulphate of lime. They came up and grew well and bloomed, and when they weic ripe the roots weie diawn and all thoroughly dried, and treated exactly as to the other test, the whole then weighing 2880gis, and notwithstanding, as is generally known, beans are themselves rich in nitrogen. These experiments arc very ciuious and interesting.