Forti/seventh Annual Meeting. 19 



Professor Swanson said that peat soils are low in potassium, 

 and if cultivated to corn after a year or two would get stalks 

 but no ears, but if you supply potassium the corn will pro- 

 duce ears. 



President Harshbarger said that his hobby was roses, and 

 that he raked up all the leaves he could get on his own and on 

 his neighbors' lawns and piled them up till decomposed and 

 then raked the leaves back on the roses ; only he had to be 

 careful not to get the soil too light for roses. The black 

 gumbo soil we have is rich enough in potash. I need a fine 

 light loam. 



Professor Swanson said the average Kansas soil contains 

 almost 2 per cent of potassium, while some of the commercial 

 fertilizers do not contain more than 1.66 per cent of potassium. 



Professor Wooster said that as peppermint oil is made of 

 carbon dioxide, water and sunshine, so the growing of pepper- 

 mint does not impair the soil, provided the balance of the plant 

 is returned to the soil. 



Professor Sayre said we are apt to be misled by conclusions 

 of that sort, for while the statement is correct so far as the oil 

 is concerned, the thing which produces the skeleton which 

 holds the material for the liberation of the oil requires potash, 

 as stated by the agriculturists. 



Professor Twenhofel asked whether there are not some 

 things in the soil which do not enter into the plant at all and 

 may yet aid its growth. 



Professor Swanson answered yes ; the plant does not use 

 any soil carbon, yet the soil carbon is half of the organic mat- 

 ter of the soil, and is one of its most beneficial constituents. 

 So all plants need for their tissues a comparatively small 

 amount of lime, but the soil must have a great deal of lime 

 in order to have proper conditions for plant growth. The 

 soil must furnish the essential elements of a plant or it will 

 not bear a fertile seed — will not make a life cycle. If calcium, 

 phosphorus, potassium or iron is absent the plant will not 

 make a life cycle. 



Professor Risser said that beets grown in soil with low 

 potash content have 14 per cent of sugar, while if the soil 

 had a high potash content the beets would contain up to 20 

 per cent of sugar, which shows that potash is a very essential 

 element in making the beet. 



