Carolyn Claiborne, age 14, of Lafayette, Tenn

Is it true that lightning fertilizes the soil?

Our crops of golden corn grow from seed to harvest in three months of long, summer days. To produce 25 bushels of ripe corn, the plants take 36 pounds of nitrogen from the soil, plus about six pounds of phosphorus, 21 pounds of potassium and three pounds of calcium. When the crop is harvested and the tall stalks taken away, these and other necessary chemicals are taken from the soil. In order for new plants to grow, these chemicals must be replaced by fertilizers and a tiny portion of this work is done by the flashing lightning.

Plants poke their fingery roots through the soil to find moisture and the chemicals dissolved in it. Each plant needs its own special diet of chemicals, though there are about 20 basic chemicals needed by all plants in some degree. Each plant uses its quota of chemicals as it grows and removes them from the soil. The plant may die and decay, in which case these chemicals will be broken up and returned for new plants to use. It may be eaten, harvested and removed, in which case the chemicals are lost to the soil.

The wise farmer adds a balanced diet of chemicals to his soil with fertilizers. He also may plant a crop of legume plants to supply nitrogen to his soil. For nitrogen is one of the chemicals needed by all plants. There is plenty of nitrogen gas available, for it makes up four‑fifths of the air. But this vast supply will not do. For plants must have their nitrogen fixed, or mixed with other elements. Certain bacteria which grow on the roots of pea and bean plants are able to fix nitrogen from the air in compounds with hydrogen.

The flashing lightning also fixes nitrogen and makes it usable for plants.