26 MAN ON THE LANDSCAPE 



by field fertilized with phosphate. These lambs gain 14 pounds. 

 The third field gets phosphate and lime, and the lambs gain 19 

 pounds. Each lamb in all tests ate the same amount per day. How 

 did the plants function in these three cases? They delivered what 

 was available to deliver, nothing more. 



Analysis of carrots from excellent and from poor soils revealed 

 60 times as much carotene (raw material of Vitamin A) in the plants 

 from the good soil as from the poor. 5 



Wheat grown at Windemere, British Columbia, analyzed at one- 

 sixteenth the iron of wheat grown at Kapiskapsing, Ontario. 



According to the U.S.D.A. Marketing Service, wheat in western 

 Kansas averages 60 per cent more protein, with its accompanying 

 minerals and vitamins, than wheat in eastern Kansas. We have not 

 a comparative figure for, say, Alabama, but it must be startling. 



Some folk imagine that a plant is like a person, when as long as 

 there is food in the cupboard he is well fed, and when the food 

 gives out, he starves fast. Not so with the plant. Roots in contact 

 with poor soil cannot by any effort overcome the low concentration 

 of nutrients. They are like the American in a Japanese prison 

 camp ; no matter how hard he worked the food was inadequate. It 

 simply was not made available fast enough. 



How does nature handle soil mineral deficiencies? Plants can 

 stand some variation in nutrient supply. The higher the plant is 

 bred for its usefulness to man the less its tolerance for mineral 

 variations and lacks. Thus, red clover can grow on a mineral diet 

 which would not sustain alfalfa, and other grasses can thrive where 

 red clover cannot. Down near the end of the scale we find, for 

 instance, coniferous trees, and mosses. 



When, for any reason, the fertility of a soil decreases, a lower 

 grade, more carbonaceous plant association moves in. The effect of 

 this change on wildlife population and species present can be easily 

 appreciated. They will be forced to change also, and for the worse. 

 The high grade animals (we mean those most used by man) will 

 slowly but surely disappear. 



Man, however, is not content with any such program. As long 

 as possible he continues trying to force the sickening land to pro- 

 duce the more profitable vegetation. Normally, when even one 

 essential mineral falls to the point where the more desirable plant 

 is no longer healthy, nature would move in with a species better 

 adapted to the situation. (Fig. 11.) Man tries to prevent this by 

 continuing to plant as before and keeping the competitor away 

 with his hoe. For a time he may succeed in producing a crippled 

 crop which may look near enough normal to get by the purchaser. 



r 'Heiser, Victor, You're the Doctor, W. W. Norton and Co., New York, 1939, 

 Chapter 6. 



