WASTES IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY 



31 



In 1965, losses from forest diseases amounted to 

 1.2 billion board feet; equal losses were suffered 

 from forest insects {12b, p. 101). This would have 

 been enough lumber to build 100,000 five-room 

 frame houses. 



Agricultural and Industrial Chemicals 



In 1828, Friedrich Wohler achieved the first 

 synthesis of an organic compound ; that is, he pro- 

 duced urea from ammonium cyanate. Hundreds of 

 thousands of organic chemicals have since been 

 synthesized: many with powerful physiologic ac- 

 tion : many that sometimes seem to be a curse. 



The organic chemicals under discussion are 

 largely detergents, insecticides, herbicides, fun- 

 gicides, nematocides, rodenticides, growth regu- 

 lators, defoliants, and miscellaneous industrial by- 

 products that may impair quality of air, water, and 

 soils. Proper use of many of these chemicals has 

 made tremendous contributions to human conven- 

 ience (use of detergents), human health (control- 

 ling disease-carrying pests), and human welfare 

 (greatly augmenting needed food production). 



Just as ordinary aspirin may be misused and 

 cause human deaths each year, the kinds of chem- 

 icals aforementioned may be misused. Agricultural 

 endeavor may suffer from unwise, inadvertent, or 

 careless use of these organic chemicals. 



Detergents 



Detergents entering into sewage effluent from 

 rural homes, rural communities, or camping areas 

 in National Forests adversely affect the operation 

 of septic tanks. These chemicals effectively disperse 

 the soil particles as part of their cleansing action. 

 They retain this capacity in moving through a 

 sewage disposal system such as a septic tank into a 

 tile system dispensing the effluent. Clay particles 

 adjacent to the tiles become dispersed and seriously 

 lower soil permeability to water near the tile line. 

 Thousands of septic sewage disposal systems have 

 become inoperative or malfunctioning, depending 

 on the nature of the soil. Adverse effects of de- 

 tergents on the tile dispensing s} T stem may be 

 especially serious in soils containing appreciable 

 amounts of clay. 



If treated sewage effluent is used for irrigation, 

 and if detergents in the sewage are not biode- 

 graded, use of such water would impair rate of 

 infiltration of water into the soil and possibly lower 



irrigation efficiency. This possible adverse effect of 

 detergents on agriculture has not been fully 

 explored. 



Concern has been expressed from time to time 

 that detergents in water used for livestock may be 

 adverse to their health, but this has not been 

 demonstrated. 



Insecticides 



Along with their many benefits to agriculture, 

 insecticides can adversely affect agriculture in 

 many ways. 



The application of insecticides to protect cotton 

 led to drift that destroyed the beneficial insect com- 

 plex in citrus groves, necessitating the use of in- 

 secticides to control certain pests of citrus that 

 were ordinarily controlled by beneficial insects. 



The use of malathion to control and eradicate a 

 cereal, forage, or forest insect pest has destroyed 

 honey bees and other insects necessary for crop pol- 

 lination. 



The application of persistent insecticides to po- 

 tato lands has led to residues in sugarbeets grown 

 in the same soil the following year, for which there 

 are no tolerances. 



Residues may occur on agricultural commodities 

 as a result of accidental contamination, inad- 

 vertent use, or even recommended use of pesticides. 

 Losses from condemnation may be serious. Con- 

 gress authorized an appropriation of $10 million 

 to reimburse cranberry growers following confisca- 

 tion of certain lots of cranberries found to contain 

 illegal residues of a herbicide. This herbicide had 

 been applied by some growers at the wrong time 

 of the growing season in spite of warnings from 

 recognized authorities. Dairymen whose milk was 

 confiscated because of pesticide residues were com- 

 pensated in the amount of $350,000. 



Fish in farm ponds have been killed because of 

 the drainage of insecticide wastes from nearby 

 lands into these ponds following heavy rains. 



Pesticides such as heptachlor and aldrin for- 

 merly were applied on rangelands to control grass- 

 hoppers, but their use was discontinued. Residues 

 of these pesticides in meat of beef animals axe not 

 permitted. Such uses are no longer registered. 



The use of heptachlor in the past for the control 

 of alfalfa weevil has led to soil contamination, and 

 through translocation or external contamination 

 of the hay during harvest has caused nonpermitiod 



