The Nitrifying Bacteria.
The nitrifying bacteria are those which have the power to form nitrates. In the following brief discussion of this subject we include at least three species of bacteria which by their combined or successive action have the power to transform organic nitrogen into nitrate nitrogen, which is a suitable form of nitrogen for plant food. For the exact information which we now have regarding the nitrifying bacteria we are indebted to the researches of Pasteur and Schlösing and Müntz of France, Winogradsky of Russia, Warington of England, and others.
The nitrogen in the soil is almost entirely in organic compounds; that is, the nitrogen (which is a gas in the free, or uncombined, state) is united or combined with other elements, notably with carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, in the form of partially decayed vegetable or organic matter. (By organic matter we mean matter which has been formed by the growth of some organism, either plant or animal, as grass or flesh.) Plants cannot use the free nitrogen of the air as plant food, neither can they use the organic compounds of nitrogen which occur in the soil. There are at least three different kinds of bacteria, and also three different steps or stages involved in the process of nitrification, the nitrogen being changed from the organic compounds first into the ammonia[2] form, second, into the nitrite form, and third into the nitrate form. During the process the nitrogen is separated from the carbon and other elements composing the insoluble organic matter, and is united or combined with oxygen and some alkaline element (as calcium) to form the soluble nitrate, such as calcium nitrate, which is one of the most suitable compounds of nitrogen for plant food. Calcium is the alkaline element contained in lime or limestone. The name calcium nitrate indicates just what elements this compound contains; namely, calcium, nitrogen, and oxygen. (In the names of compounds the ending -ate always means oxygen.)
This is the general process of nitrification in which the nitrifying bacteria transform or transfer the nitrogen from insoluble organic compounds into soluble compounds in which it may serve as available plant food. The nitrate which is thus formed may be calcium nitrate or magnesium nitrate or potassium nitrate or even sodium nitrate, depending upon which of these alkaline elements is present in the must suitable form. If no alkaline element is present in available form then no nitrates can be made in the soil. One of the reasons for applying ground limestone to soils which are deficient in lime is to furnish the element calcium in suitable form for the formation of nitrates in the process of nitrification. Ground limestone is calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), a compound containing one atom of calcium (Ca), one atom of carbon (C) and three atoms of oxygen (O₃). This is the same form of lime which is contained naturally in limestone soils—soils which are noted for their great productiveness—and it is generally the most economical form of lime to use for correcting soil acidity and promoting nitrification.
In the process of nitrification, that is in the formation of nitrates, there is required, not only the presence of calcium, or some other alkaline element, in suitable form, but also a good supply of the element oxygen; for calcium nitrate, Ca(NO₃)₂, contains one atom of calcium (Ca), two atoms of nitrogen (N)₂, and six atoms of oxygen (O₃)₂, in each molecule as indicated in the formula, Ca(NO₃)₂. Magnesium nitrate, Mg(NO₃)₂, potassium nitrate, KNO₃ (K is from the Latin word Kalium, which means potassium), and all other nitrates, also, contain oxygen. The supply of oxygen for the formation of nitrates in the soil comes from the air, which consists of about twenty percent oxygen, seventy-eight percent nitrogen, and two percent of other elements and compounds, as argon, carbon dioxid, CO₂, water vapor, H₂O, etc. One of the important effects of cultivation, or tillage, is that it permits the air more freely to enter the soil, and thus promotes nitrification.