DO PLANTS HAVE QUALITY? 



23 



corollary condition of greater succulence, less laborious chewing. We 

 will take a tender steak anyday before a tough one. This is something 

 the jaws can detect, while a difference in mineral content may elude 

 our taste. In either event, the animal instinct leads it to a sound 

 conclusion. It should be clear that this selectivity will have a 

 notable effect on the distribution of wildlife, which is free to roam 

 in search of satisfactory food supplies, and probably explains many 

 of the spotty concentrations of upland game found, and not found, 

 by sportsmen and students of wildlife. 



* sr VV> . -lit *<!:.' f -' .'^.-. '*.*>.*.., 



?^.<.?J^V,Y<&<r%?V .;., V*V*y?V* 



FIG. 9. Cattle grazed thoroughly the outlined corner of this barley field where 

 turning- the drill doubled the amount of fertilizer dropped. 



Succulence is a trait of the natural vegetation of the world's 

 grasslands. It is a fairly sound guide to soil fertility. The prairies 

 and plains have produced such succulent plants for untold years. 

 When a forest is cleared it usually will not grow grass of prairie 

 quality and (except in certain limey areas) certainly will not grow 

 legumes, unless fertilized. The prairie soils east of the Great Plains 

 differ from the plains in having somewhat less available lime and more 

 phosphorus less lime because of greater rainfall and more leaching. 

 The prairies have somewhat more available 3 phosphorus than the high 



3 The significance of the term "available," should be understood. There may 

 be a mineral in the soil, but which plants cannot absorb, because of its chemical 

 state. For instance, phosphorus is found in four groups of compounds, '(1) In 

 combination with calcium or magnesium (common in the prairies and plains), the 

 phosphorus is usually used with ease by plants; (2) as part of decaying organic 

 matter it appears to be released to plants, though with some slowness; (3) in 

 combination with aluminum and iron, common in the humid region soils east of 

 the Mississippi, the phosphorus is usually given up so slowly that plants suffer 

 for want of it; (4) in the rock fragment state, the current release of phosphorus 

 by weathering is so slow as to be of little value to plant growth. 



