September 28, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



387 



also, for giving immediate help from the 

 knowledge that we have that has prevented 

 in a degree a broad study of the funda- 

 mentals essential ' for enabling genuine 

 progress to be made. 



What are, therefore, some of the ques- 

 tions that now confront us, as chemists, and 

 the solutions of which have so important a 

 bearing upon the agricultural progress, 

 and consequent true development and 

 utilization of our resources? One of the 

 first questions which, it seems to me, is 

 important, is the question of the ultimate 

 effect of the continued use of commercial 

 fertilizers. The problem is before us now. 

 Frequently, questions come which we can 

 not answer. For example, the faxmer who 

 has used large quantities of commercial 

 fertilizers for the growing of early pota- 

 toes, cabbage, celery, or any other crop of 

 this class, states that his crops do not seem 

 to respond to these applications in the 

 same degree as formerly, and that increas- 

 ing quantities are required to secure profit- 

 able results, notwithstanding calculations 

 show a great accumulation of these ele- 

 ments in the soil. Furthermore, he has, 

 also, learned that other crops in the rota- 

 tion do not thrive as well as formerly. He 

 can distinguish no marked difference in 

 the character of his soil, but clover, alfalfa, 

 beans or peas, do not grow as well as 

 formerly. He is unable by a judicious 

 seeding of crops, for supplying vegetable 

 matter, to secure a normal and healthy 

 growth. Hence, questions as to the cause 

 of the trouble are asked of the chemist, but 

 can not be answered fully by him. He is 

 unable to point out the cause of the diffi- 

 culty; he may suggest that the result is 

 due to changes in the physical character 

 of the soil, due to the undue removal of 

 one or more element, not included in the 

 commercial fertilizers applied; to the de- 

 struction of certain forms of bacteria, or 



to the development of plant poisons in the 

 soil, but he has nothing definite to offer. 

 Hence, it seems to me that this is an im- 

 portant problem for our chemists to solve, 

 and which must be solved if we are to 

 make progress, and to give to the farmer 

 what he is justly entitled to, for have we 

 not advised him, by our teachings, to fol- 

 low the methods which he is now using, 

 without warning as to the possible effect 

 of his work? This condition of affairs 

 applies more particularly to those sections 

 of our country where the lands were not 

 originally abundantly supplied with the 

 essential elements. The areas now requir- 

 ing large applications of commercial fertil- 

 izers are fortunately limited in this rich 

 country of ours, yet they are so located in 

 reference to markets as to make them in- 

 creasingly valuable. In the richer sec- 

 tions, too, farmers are learning, by sad ex- 

 perience, that the productivity of their 

 soils is not as great as formerly ; they know 

 now that their methods of farming have 

 been wasteful, and that the available con- 

 stituents have, in large part, been removed, 

 yet they have been taught by the chemists 

 that there exists in their soils such an 

 abundance of the minerals as to make it 

 possible to grow maximum crops for cen- 

 turies, though they are unable, with the 

 knowledge now available to them, to ob- 

 tain as large crops as formerly, without 

 the application of fertilizers. These areas 

 are so large, that it is manifestly impos- 

 sible, with the supplies of material in sight, 

 to provide artificial fertilizers, in order to 

 meet the situation ; neither is such a prac- 

 tise warranted, with the vast quantities 

 now present in the surface and subsoils. 

 The chemist advises that it is probably a 

 question of imperfect chemical, or phys- 

 ical, or bacteriological conditions of the 

 soil, or of all these combined. The chem- 

 ist should not deal in probabilities; he 



