[June, 1910. 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE, 



THE MULCH. 



(From the Planters' Chronicle, Vol. V., 

 No. 13, April 1909.) 



The motto of modern agronomists 

 should be, "Tilth, mulch and microbes." 

 The most important of these may be 

 microbes, but mulch is a very big word, 

 and one of the greatest of factors in 

 plant economy. 



If there is one fundamental principle 

 of plant cultivation that is neglected 

 more than any other, it is unquestion- 

 ably the artificial protection of loots 

 from heat and dryness dangers. 



Tilth has to do with all the major 

 operatiims of soil manipulation. Mic- 

 robes, under favourable conditions, 

 attend to the oxidation, nitrification, 

 and other chemical transformations 

 which put crude organic substances into 

 the plant food form ; indirectly with the 

 acids "set free" (sin) by the decompo- 

 sition of humus, and possibly by their 

 own toxins and excretory products, they 

 are also concerned with " the break- 

 down" and solution of the mineral 

 elements themselves. 



To give these microbes a "square deal," 

 in other words, to keep the soil surface 

 fresh and moist, and at a more or less 

 even temperature, to prevent wind- 

 drying and sun-burning, to give the 

 root-hairs on the feeding roots a chance 

 to take their liquid nourishment in com- 

 fort and abundance, we must mulch. 



It is sad fact that a small per cent, of 

 the producers of vegetable products 

 know, or even care to know, the prime 

 functions and qualities of plant roots, 

 that the very large ma jority of planters, 

 and even horticulturists, do not use 

 mulches. It is sad because it means an 

 unnecessary and unconscionable loss of 

 probably about 16 per cent, of the 

 normal production of the world's cultiv- 

 ated crops. And, putting the total 

 annual value of all merchantable pro- 

 ducts of cultivated plants at about 

 £5,000,000,000, doubtless as an under- 

 estimate, the loss from the non-mulch 

 system of the majority of agronomists 

 is a matter of some £800,000,000, at least. 

 It may be argued that this is not lost, 

 that it is " left in the ground ;" but this 

 point needs no reply, it merely asks the 

 question whether a forest soil would 

 outlast a bare soil. Now that the modern 

 farmer has found out that the chemical 

 analysis of soils is a farce, that an array 

 of digits and decimals has but little to 

 do with fertility, that the plant knows 

 more about it than the test-tube, and 



that chemical fertilisers are not plant 

 foods, a big step forward has been made. 

 But as to the subterranean battlefield 

 where living matter must meet and try 

 to devour the cold, dead grains of 

 one-time rocks — there the question of 

 economy and ecology are left to fight 

 it out. Bacteria and toxins, colloids and 

 enzymes, antibodies, acids, a medley 

 microcosm, all somewhat affected by 

 each, and all more or less successful in 

 breaking down the mineral material into 

 stuff that plants can make their ashes 

 (skeletons) with : these factors, though 

 plainly demanding both air and moisture 

 that the good work may go on, are only 

 too f requently neglected in toto ; the 

 meaning of the battle, the armies, 

 the weapons, and even the results, are 

 grievously ignored by the average agri- 

 culturist. 



One-half of the £8,000,000 lost yearly 

 through ignorance and carelessness in 

 attending to crop roots would not only 

 pay for all the Government agricultural 

 appropriations and all the scientific in- 

 struction along all the lines of theoreti- 

 cal and applied agronomy in the whole 

 world, but would keep for five years a 

 mulch expert in every farming district, 

 in every country, and establish, on five 

 years subsidies, 1,000 well-equipped insti- 

 tutions for plant growth investigations. 



Until recent years the art of farming 

 was ahead of the science ; the planter 

 did " thus and so " because certain 

 methods were generally followed with 

 good results. To-day the science, though 

 only glimpsing the new light on 

 the high points of modern agriculture's 

 broad domain, is soaring above and 

 beyond the mere art of plant produc- 

 tion. To be sure in some branches of 

 horticulture the art seems more devel- 

 oped than the science ; but even there 

 the scientific foundation and framework 

 is being gradually demonstrated. The 

 future oleraculturist will investigate 

 the idiosyncrasy and inherited Mendel- 

 iau characters of each variety before he 

 puts it out on a large scale. The viti- 

 culturists ' sons will keep an eye on their 

 "cultures" in the hard-by laboratory. 



_ A square deal for the roots ! Protec- 

 tion from their enemies, the venomous 

 grass-root excretions (that can make 

 even a lusty orange-tree sick and choke 

 the vigour out of the best stand of 

 maize), the burning rays of the sun, the 

 deadly soil surface dryness, decent bed 

 and board, i.e., tilth and humus: give 

 them these, and there will certainly be 



