Page Eight 



BETTER FRUIT 



June, 10:^2 



Benefits From Organic Fertilizers 



Bi/ Major E. P. Newsom 



chemist and Lecturer on Soils 



PLANTS and trees need a well 

 balanced ration of food, just as 

 animals do. A hog allowed to roam 

 wild in the woods, feeding chiefly on 

 roots, will run mostly to head, tail, bristle 

 and bad temper. 



The theory that we should analyze the 

 soil and supply the particular plant food 

 lacking has not worked out successfully in 

 its application to our orchards and farm 

 crops because an analysis of the soil may 

 reveal the existence of an abundance of 

 plant food, phosphate and potash, for in- 

 stance, but in an unavailable form. Wc 

 know that rock phosphate, however finely 

 it may be pulverized, is not soluble in 

 water. 



Most of the potash in the soil is derived 

 from granite, in which it occurs as a double 

 silicate of aluminum and potassium and is 

 absolutely insoluble in water. The same 

 is true of calcium carbonate or limestone. 

 In fact, were these elements soluble in 

 water alone without the intervention of any 

 other agencv, they would leach down so 

 deeply in the soil within the space of two 

 years that then the ground would not 

 sprout oowpeas. 



In experiments of the Pennsylvania sta- 

 tion, carried on for a period of thirty-five 

 years, the greatest yields of crops were due 

 to fertilizing with a well balanced fer- 

 tilizer, containing not nitrogen alone, but 

 also soluble acid-phosphate and potash. It 

 was found, that although the analysis re- 

 vealed the soil to be unusually rich in phos- 

 phate and potash, whenever either the 

 potash or phosphate, in soluble form, was 

 omitted from the fertilizer the yield of 

 crops was greatly lessened. 



The chief agency in rendering plant 

 food in the soil available is C02, or car- 

 bon dioxide. This is generated through 

 bacterial action in the process of the decay 

 of vegetable or animal matter in the soil. 

 It is also derived from the atmosphere and 

 finds its way into the soil by means of the 

 rain which carries it in solution. But the 

 bacterial action is slow and does not supply, 

 even with the aid of alfalfa or other cover 

 crop, the needed carbon dioxide fast enough 

 to prevent the "skip" crop every other year. 

 Some people make the mistake of con- 

 cluding that nitrogen is the only thing 

 needed in a fertilizer. This conclusion is 

 equally as erroneous as the first one. In 

 increasing the leafage the first year through 

 resort to nitrogen-producing bacteria there 

 is the chance that there may remain a slight 

 overplus of availability of other plant food, 

 due to bacterial action. But when you con- 

 tinue the process over any measurable 

 period of time you lay too heavy a burden 

 on the backs of the bacteria, and the poor 

 bacteria will feel greatly grieved, I am 





Since Major Nezvsom sub- 

 tnitted this article has come the 

 entirely unexfected news of his 

 death in Spokane, Wash., on May 

 12, at the age of ^S years. His 

 '.writings in Better Fruit have, 

 '.ce believe, carried real educa- 

 tional value. He '.vas a true 

 friend oj the fruit industry and 

 gave to it of his t.ale?its. Prior to 

 his connection with the Marine 

 Products Company of Tacoma, 

 as chemist and lecturer, he had 

 served ?rmn.y years in the United 

 States army as a chaplain and of- 

 ficer. He participated in two 

 campaigns in the Philippine 

 Islands. He was buried with 

 military honors at the Presidio, 

 on May 16. 



sure, and their dispositions will be well 

 nigh ruined, to think so much was expected 

 of them! 



The Encyclopedia Britannica states that 

 at Rothamsted Station, England, organic 

 fertilizers were used for a period of fifty- 

 one years, resulting in the average yield of 

 wheat of 37 bushels per acre as compared 

 with an average yield for the same period 

 of only 13 bushels on the same kind of soil 

 unfertilized. The same results were ob- 

 tained at Woburn, England, for a period 

 of 31 years. 



As a further fact it is stated that the 

 good effects of organic fertilizers on the 

 soil could be seen for fifteen years after 

 their use was discontinued. On the other 

 hand, in Pennsylvania, where the strictly 

 chemical, or inorganic, fertilizers were 

 used for several years, it was seen that when 

 their use was discontinued, the soil was 

 found to be dead. In other words, that 

 it would not respond with a yield of crops 

 without the fertilizer. Dead soil is simply 

 soil where the bacterial life has been 

 destroyed. 



Chemical, or inorganic, fertilizers, while 

 at times useful as a tonic for "sick" trees, 

 tend to destroy the bacterial life of the soil 

 by their residual effects. Their use is ad- 

 vocated on the ground of cheapness and 

 the "quick kick" they have. So also mor- 

 phine and cocaine have a "quick kick" and 

 for a few minutes the victim imagines he 

 is a millionaire and that in comparison to 

 himself John D. Rockefeller is a hump- 

 backed mendicant, but the drug soon kicks 

 the victim into inefficieny and degreda- 

 tion and makes of him a parasite and an 

 unproductive citizen. 



So also some of our orchardists who arc 



continually experimenting with soil drugs 

 will find their orchards "kicked" to much 

 less than their normal productivity. It does 

 not change the final results for someone to 

 say that for several years, by the grace of 

 an abundance of rain or water to wash the 

 after effects out of the soil, he got good 

 results. Many a man or woman has kept 

 his or her back from aching by the use of 

 morphine for several years. 



Now organic, or animal products may 

 cost a little more initially, but are more 

 economical in the end, because not being 

 water soluble, but breaking down under 

 moisture conditions gradually, through 

 bacterial action, are more lasting, while not 

 leaving in the soil hurtful residual effects. 

 They not only furnish available plant food 

 to the tree, but immensely stimulate and 

 invigorate the bacterial life of the soil and 

 thus very much increase the production of 

 carbon dioxide. The latter in turn is the 

 potent and necessary agent by which- other 

 plant food in the soil is rendered available. 

 The organic fertilizers render a double 

 benefit. 



If any further proof were needed to 

 substantiate these statements, I would in- 

 vite your attention to the very remarkable 

 discoveries made in Germany during the 

 past few years relative to the great import- 

 ance of artificially fertilizing with carbon 

 dioxide. I hope you have been fortunate 

 enough to have read an article contained in 

 the Saturday Evening Post, of last October 

 1st, entitled "Raising Bumper Crops 'm 

 Germany with Poison Gas." 



BRIEFLY, in 1917, German scientists 

 undertook experiments in fertilizing 

 artificially with C02. The results were 

 most encouraging. But it remained for 

 Friedrich Riedel, a German engineer, to 

 carry out the experiments on a large scale 

 under the most favorable conditions. 



At the great smelting works of Stinnes, 

 in Luxemborg, he laid perforated concrete 

 pipes, fifty centimeters in diameter, into 

 fields through which filtered and purified 

 carbon dioxide was forced by electric fans, 

 the fields being planted to various crops. 

 Nearby, he erected glass covered en- 

 closures, through which carbon dioxide was 

 sent through perforated tubes above ground 

 furnishing 5 per cent of carbon dioxide. 

 The results, of course, were greatest in the 

 glass covered enclosures, since in the open 

 fields much of the carbon dioxide was 

 blown away by the winds. 



The first and most important result from 

 the artificial use of the carbon dioxide was 

 the greatly increased leaf growth. The 

 leaves of Riedel's gassed plants were larger 

 and their stalks thicker and firmer. In 

 some cases the leaf area was increased by 

 {Continued on page 25) 



