July, 1S12.] 



88 



Miscellaneous. 



conditions are the chief governing fac- 

 tors. 



The successful agronomist must also 

 deal effectively with a host of plant 

 parasites which may attack the roots, 

 the base of the stems, or the other aerial 

 parts of the plants, Some of these may 

 be killed by poisons, whereas others can- 

 not. Even the sucking and boring in- 

 sects furnish a problem in themselves, 

 long after the entomologist has deter- 

 mined the essential features of their life 

 history. Just as "every animal has its 

 fleas and these have fleas to bite ' em," 

 so the plants have their many animal 

 and fungus parasites, with which the 

 agronomist is forced to deal. 



Since the soil is one of the chief con- 

 cerns of the agronomist, and it is known 

 to be teeming with many forms of mi- 

 croscopic life of beneficial or injurious 

 character, it is important to take cogniz- 

 ance of the possible effect upon this 

 life of the various kinds of organic 

 matter and of fertilizers which may be 

 introduced into the soil from time to 

 time. 



Notwithstanding the recent assertion 

 that practically the same minerals are 

 found in all soils, that plants feed from 

 very weak solutions, and that the soil 

 solution is being continually renewed, 

 we cannot complacently fold our arms 

 and watch the workings of the divine 

 providence in the production of food for 

 the human race ; for some soils appear 

 still to lack enough available plant food 

 at certain stages of growth, and others 

 give rise to conditions naturally, which 

 require chemical and physical ameliora- 

 tion. It is an incontrovertible fact that 

 soils derived from given kinds of rocks 

 have usually distinct needs, whereas such 

 treatment may be wholly neglected in 

 the case of soils derived from rocks of a 

 different character. For these and 

 other obvious reasons the agronomist, 

 in order to be well equipped to meet 

 situations which may arise in another 

 state, or in a new position to which he 

 may be called, will find it of distinct aid 

 if his fundamental educational equip- 

 ment includes geology, mineralogy and 



physics in its special application to the 

 many problems of the soil. 



The agronomist will be brought face 

 to face with emergencies and questions 

 involving physical chemistry, the found- 

 ation for which is supplied not only by 

 general chemistry, but also by know- 

 ledge of mathematics involving the 

 calcidus. 



Finally, above and before all should 

 be placed the subject of English, the call 

 for which in some station bulletins is 

 obvious, and in the use of which none 

 can be too proficient. 



It may be argued that the funda- 

 mental educational requirements as 

 presented encroach upon other domains 

 of science, that they are too comprehen- 

 sive and are more exacting than the 

 conditions demand. Nevertheless our 

 progress as agronomists cannot attain 

 its maximum by depending wholly upon 

 men who are trained only in a narrow 

 specialty, Those engaged in given lines 

 of agronomical research must have a 

 sufficiently broad training in order to 

 grasp the significance and bearing of 

 factors lying frequently much outside of 

 their strict domain. Had not Hellriegel 

 possessed an outlook broader than that 

 circumscribed by the mere limits of 

 chemistry, it is problematical if the 

 discovery of nitrogen assimilation 

 through the intervention of micro-organ- 

 isms might not have remained a prob- 

 lem for ourselves. 



It is not enough that the teacher or 

 investigator in agronomy be skilled in 

 it3 art, but he must be trained in all of 

 the natural sciences which are closely 

 related to crops, fertilizers, soil amend- 

 ments and to soils themselves in all of 

 their several relations. The man who 

 looks forward to service in the west or 

 middle west cannot neglect the chemis- 

 try of fertilizers in their relation to the 

 special crop and to the special soil, for 

 the fertilizer problem is advancing west- 

 ward at a rapid rate and many of the 

 present-day needs of the east will, in the 

 near future, become the needs of much 

 of the west and middle west. 



