SOIL SANITATION 299 



"sour" condition of these soils. The mere fact 

 that in the majority of cases lime restores such 

 soils to fertility is sufficient proof to their 

 minds that such soils are simply "sour." 



The answer to such a contention is, of 

 course, obvious, no matter what ground a 

 student may take as to the value of these re- 

 searches of the Americans. Lime, it is true, 

 does remedy matters in most instances. But 

 many other compounds have the same prop- 

 erty. And the majority of these compounds 

 do not possess the additional property of 

 rendering sour soils sweet. Green crops, for 

 instance, will render soils acid, yet they have 

 the property of accomplishing the same re- 

 sults with many of these toxins as lime. In 

 the case of the Agdell field at Rothamsted, 

 where simple rotation without manures of any 

 kind grows more wheat than continuous crop- 

 ping with complete fertilizers, the men of 

 Rothamsted station say: 



"We cannot accept the explanation of the 

 Americans, yet we have no theory to offer in 

 exchange." 



