March 28, 1914 



HOKTICULTUEE 



507 



SOILS AND FERTILIZERS. 



(Abstract of a lecture by Prof. H. J. 

 Wbeeler before the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society.) 



"The types of bacteria, fungi, pro- 

 tozoa, and other beneficial or inju- 

 rious organisms in soils are affected," 

 said Mr. Wheeler, "by the amounts 

 and relations of mineral and dead or- 

 ganic matter present and even by 

 the chemical reaction. Organic mat- 

 ter is highly essential in giving to the 

 soil proper tilth, in improving its 

 physical aeration, its water-holding 

 capacity, and its power to absorb and 

 hold plant food. Soil is no longer 

 looked upon as a lifeless mass, but as 

 teeming with low forms of plant and 

 animal life. 



"It is impossible." said Mr. Wheeler, 

 "to follow all the lines of agricultural 

 investigation. One of the most impor- 

 tant was the establishment of the fact 

 that legumes and certain other plants 

 assimilate nitrogen directly from the 

 air. This was shown by Hellriegel 

 and his associates in Germany, to be 

 due to the intervention of micro- 

 organisms which grow on the roots of 

 the plants and cause the development 

 of the peculiar nodular growth. 



New Theories Concerning Soils and 

 Nutrition. 



"Many new theories concerning 

 soils and plant nutrition have recently 

 been advanced. Among these is the 

 idea that the chief function of fertil- 

 irers is to improve the physical condi- 

 tion of soils, also, that fertilizers are 

 not needed as plant food, on the suppo- 

 sition that the minerals represented 

 in the soil are present in sufficient 

 quantity to be dissolved and replenish 

 the soil solution rapidly enough to 

 meet the plant requirements. It has 

 also been claimed that poisonous sub- 

 stances develop in the soil as the re- 

 sult of the decomposition of decaying 

 vegetable matter, and also in the 

 shape of excreta from the roots of 

 plants. 



Fallacious Ideas. 



"The idea that fertilizers are useful 

 chiefly tor improving the physical con- 

 dition of the soil has since been aban- 

 doned. It has also been shown in an 

 article published within a few weeks 

 by former director Hall of the Agricul- 

 tural Experimental Station of Rotham- 

 sted. England, that at least wheat and 

 barley plants after growing in the soil 

 for sixty years continuously have not 

 thrown off toxic excreta capable of ac- 

 cumulating in the soil. It is stated 

 by Mr. Hall, as a result of these and 

 further experiments by him, that fer- 

 tilizers have been returned to their 

 old category as plant foods and that 

 the theories advanced by the Bureau 

 of Soils in Washington concerning 

 them, are fallacious. Ho has also 

 shown that where mineral fertilizers 

 are added to the soil in excess of the 

 immediate needs of the plants, they 

 are stored in such forms as to be sub- 

 sequently highly available. It was 

 even found by Hall that barley throve 

 better in extracts of soil in which bar- 

 ley had been grown for sixty years 

 than in artificial solutions containing 

 the same quantities of mineral itigre- 

 dients. This he attributed to the pos- 

 sible benefit of small amounts of solu- 

 ble organic materials, which had ac- 

 cumulated in the soil. 



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Some Rhode Island Experiments. 



"In the experiments which I con- 

 ducted in Rhode Island, where about 

 fifteen different kinds of plants were 

 each grown on a separate area for 

 two successive years, with like fertili- 

 zation, it was found that when onions 

 followed the third year on all of the 

 areas, the yields ranged from 12 to 

 412 bushels per acre according to 

 crop which had preceded. The con- 

 tinuation of this work by Director 

 Hartwell has shown that buckwheat 

 was able to thrive better where onions 

 had failed than elsewhere. These re- 

 sults show that in the plan for treat- 

 ment and fertilization, one must take 

 cogniiiancR of the previous manuring, 

 fertilization, and cropping of the land 

 as well as the kind of crops which are 

 to follow. The fact that certain pois- 

 onous substances develop in soils 

 was long ago recognized in Holland 

 by Mulder, in England by Voelcker, 

 and in other places in Europe by still 

 other investigators. It was even found 

 more than twenty years ago in connec- 

 tion with the experiments in Rhode 

 Island that ammonium sulphate, which 

 had proved at Rothamstcd, England, 

 to be a good fertilizer, was imme- 

 diately poisonous on the highly acid 

 Rhode Island soil. After liming, it 

 became, however, highly effective. 



"Even nitrate of soda, higlily es- 

 teemed as a fertilizer, may seriously 

 Injure the physical condition of cer- 

 tain soils and such injury is capable 

 of being corrected upon the application 

 of sulphate of ammonia. Such facts, 

 as well as the possible loss of nitrates 

 by drainage, illustrate certain advan- 

 tages of ready-mixed, commercial fer- 

 tilizers in which the nitrogenous in- 



gredients are introduced in several 

 forms so that losses from leaching 

 may be avoided and so that the sup- 

 ply necessary to plants may be con- 

 tinuous throughout their growing sea- 

 son. 



So-Called Plant Poisons. 

 "Certain of the so-called plant pois- 

 ons, which develop in soils, appear to 

 be both food and medicine for certain 

 other groups of jilaiits. An instance 

 of this is afforded by the fact that un- 

 der conditions where onion plants will 

 die, cranberry plants thrive better 

 than if the soil is corrected so as to 

 meet the needs of the onions. Simi- 

 larly mignonette cannot be grown on 

 soils which are nevertheless ideally 

 adapted to Silene orientalis, aster and 



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