FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 121 



enabled the plant to ntiliz.e the i)lant-food and perform the functions 

 necessary to growth. 



In this connection I wish to refer to an article that appeared in the 

 Detroit Free Press last week, in which Mr. Milton A. McRea, speaking 

 of the need of a connnissioner of Agriculture and Horticulture said, 

 "That by scientific soil analysis the chemist is able to tell you just what 

 the soil will produce and in what quantities." 



A soil analysis is no more scientific today than it was thirty years 

 ago, in so far as finding out the amounts of nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash in a soil is concerned. This may be done with a fair degree 

 of accuracy but we cannot tell how much of these elements will become 

 available for crop production. However, even if the chemist could de- 

 termine the amount of available plant food in a soil it would not enable 

 him to say just what the soil will produce because there are so many 

 other factors upon which crop production is dependent. 



The crop producing power of a soil depends upon the climatic condi- 

 tions, amount and distribution of rainfall and sunshine; it depends upon 

 the physical condition of the soils, its texture, absorptive power and 

 water movements; upon the biological properties of the soil, including 

 bacteria, molds, etc. ; upon the chemical composition and character of 

 the soil. It depends upon the drainage, cultivation, selection of seed 

 and variety, rotation of crops and fertilizers. All of these factors enter 

 into the problem of crop production and no one of them can be depended 

 upon to solve it. Just as Professor Green states, some people in Ohio 

 depend entirely upon cultivation of their orchards and believe it is the 

 best method. Others practice the sod mulch methods and believe with 

 equal sincerity that it is superior to all others. Which all goes to prove 

 that no one method or theorj^ of crop production is best under all condi- 

 tions. 



We hear a great deal about worn out soils and particularly about the 

 worn out soils of New England but some of those ''worn out" soils in 

 the sense that these words imply, but I do believe that a soil may be 

 misused until it will no longer yield profitable crops. You may con- 

 tinuously crop a soil without putting any humus into it and the yields 

 will groAV smaller and smaller, even though you use commercial ferti- 

 lizers in abundance. The physical condition of the soil has become im- 

 paired and consequently the crops cannot make the best use of the plant- 

 food and the yields decrease. On the other hand, if the soil contains a 

 good supply of humus and if all the other factors are properly attended 

 to then, I Ijelieve the addition of commercial fertilizers will prove bene- 

 ficial. 



A soil that is in good physical condition is not a mass of dead, inert 

 matter but is teeming with life, bacteria, molds and fungi, constantly 

 at work ujjon the organic matter of the soil and the results of their 

 activities in turn, bring about changes in the mineral matter of the soil. 

 So we find that the composition of the soil solution from which the 

 plants must obtain their supply of food, is constanth' changing and may 

 never be twice alike in every particular. 



I thoroughly believe that greater returns will be obtained from money 

 invested in commercial fertilizers when they are used upon a soil that 

 is in good physical condition and Avhen all the physical operations of 

 caring for a crop are carefully attended to, than when used upon a soil 



