Tl-m RURAL NEW-YORKER 
603 
1913. 
fertilizing fruits with sulphur. 
The Essential Elements. —We know 
that all fruit trees, berry bushes and 
vines must have an accessible supply of 
potash, phosphoric acid, sulphur, lime, 
magnesia and iron in order to live and 
bear fruit. We also know that these 
plants invariably secure a supply of 
silica, soda, and usually one or more 
additional elements. The first six ele¬ 
ments mentioned have been demon¬ 
strated beyond question to he absolutely 
essential for plant growth. Nitrogen, 
carbon and water are also essential, but 
are not considered here, as we are now 
concerned only with mineral elements 
taken from the soil, and found in the 
ash when the tree or any part of it is 
burned. There is some question about 
the value of silica as it occurs in such 
large quantities. Is is possible that it 
performs some useful function, even 
though it appears not to prevent the 
maturity of a plant when its amount is 
restricted to what is in the seed. 
Iron and Sulphur. —Of the six es¬ 
sential elements we all know that potash 
and phosphoric acid play a very impor¬ 
tant part in plant life, and doubtless 
most of the readers of this article sup¬ 
ply one or both of these ingredients to 
the soil. Lime is also commonly added, 
hut at less frequent intervals. Magnesia 
usually occurs with lime and goes onto 
the land in connection with it. But how 
about the sulphur and iron, the remain¬ 
ing essentials? These are admitted to 
he exactly as important as the other 
four, since the plant cannot mature 
without them. Why not add them 
systematically also? The fertilizer sales¬ 
man would answer by saying, that the 
soil already contains sufficient sulphur 
and iron, and only a minute quantity of 
these elements are required anyway. 
So far as iron is concerned these state¬ 
ments are doubtless in the main correct, 
although in some cases iron salts have 
been used to advantage in fertilizer ex¬ 
periments. Sulphur, however, is not to 
he so easily cast aside. Indeed, it has 
been added unconsciously in consider¬ 
able quantities, since acid phosphates, 
land plaster and stable manures all con¬ 
tain sulphur. When favorable results 
were secured from these materials no 
credit was given to the sulphur as it 
was supposed that the effects were due 
to other causes. 
Experiments. —In Europe, on the 
other hand, sulphur has been added di¬ 
rectly to the land for its own value. It 
has been used in the form of fool’s gold 
(iron pyrite), flowers of sulphur, and 
gasliouse residues. Pyrite, for instance, 
when used in the vineyard, not only 
added plant food to the soil, hut ap¬ 
parently had a most favorable effect on 
t.ie physical condition of the soil. Other 
Held tests show that sulphur has a 
valuable disinfecting action as well as 
being a plant food. There have been 
a sufficient number of held tests to 
demonstrate the value of sulphur, and 
when these actual trials on the land are 
considered in connection with the 
elaborate experiments of Hart and 
Peterson of the University of Wiscon¬ 
sin, it is evident that the horticulturist 
is justified in making experiments with 
sulphur on his own account. It might 
be well right here to state briefly what 
Hart and Peterson proved. They found 
that instead of the living plant con¬ 
taining only infinitesimal amounts of 
sulphur it actually contained in many 
cases more sulphur than phosphoric 
acid. \ ou all know that when you 
Hght a sulphur candle for fumigating 
purposes the sulphur itself passes off as 
a gas (sulphur dioxide). Now formerly 
uhen a chemist wished to know how 
' inch sulphur was contained in a certain 
amount of Alfalfa < fnr example ) Ire 
arned the Alfalfa and found the 
amount of sulphur left in the ash, hut 
' ’ e greatest part of the sulphur origin- 
11 ] y 111 tllc living plant passed off as a 
gas like the sulphur of the candle, and 
the chemist lost this. The result was 
that an entirely wrong impression' as to 
the amount of sulphur in plants became 
prevalent, and to that fact is due the 
indifference with which sulphur is now 
regarded as a plant food element. This 
indifference cannot continue and sul¬ 
phur is bound to he considered with 
phosphorus and potash, one of the es¬ 
sential ingredients of a “complete fertil¬ 
izer.” 
Sulphur Tests. —Unfortunately, there 
are no simple tests which can he car¬ 
ried out in the laboratory to show just 
what the soil lacks, and what needs to 
he added. The laboratory methods for 
determining “available plant food,” are 
without exception arbitrary and are not 
based upon the conditions actually oc¬ 
curring in the soil. In other words 
“available plant food,” is merely a rela¬ 
tive term, and notwithstanding all the 
investigations, our real knowledge of 
what is available and what is not is 
practically what it was 50 years ago. 
The only way now known of determin¬ 
ing the needs of a soil is to add to it 
elements known to be essential to plant 
growth. They may he added in varying 
amounts and combinations; and careful 
records should be kept as to results. 
The results obtained by experiment sta¬ 
tions and other fanners serve as guides. 
This method is slow hut sure... It is 
not safe to draw conclusions from one 
season’s experiment on account of other 
factors beside the system of fertilizing. 
Difference in seed, cultivation, climate, 
etc., must be considered. 
Testing Sulphur. —In trying out sul¬ 
phur the horticulturist would naturally 
be conservative. The grapevines w r ould 
he a good place to start on, perhaps, 
since sulphur has produced favorable 
iesults in European vineyards. If 
small plots of land seem to he benefited 
by the treatment the owner would be 
justified in increasing the area treated 
the following year. Pyrite or fool’s 
gold if powdered would act well in a 
drill, and doubtless would he the most 
satisfactory form of stUphr* to use* 
Flowers of sulphur would have a tend¬ 
ency to lump and would cause trouble 
unless well mixed with sand or dust. 
Perhaps it would be well to add the 
sulphur at the rate of from 200 to 300 
pounds per acre at first. Before closing 
the article another point might well be 
brought out here. We know that chemi¬ 
cal fertilizer houses consider a nitrogen- 
potash—phosphoric acid fertilizer a 
“complete fertilizer.” In view of the 
foregoing this statement can well be 
disputed, and the possible effect of sup¬ 
plying a lavish quantity of those sub¬ 
stances, and neglecting sulphur, lime 
and others may well be considered. 
Overfeeding. —Darwin said, “of all 
the causes which induce variability, ex¬ 
cess of food, whether or not changed 
in nature is probably the most power¬ 
ful.” (“Animals and Plants Under Do¬ 
mestication.”) This view was also 
held by Andrew Knight and others in 
regard to plants, especially in reference 
to the inorganic constituents. Thus if 
we supply excessive quantities of some 
elements while neglecting others it is 
possible that the plant would secure an 
excessive amount of those substances, 
and be seriously injured as a result. 
The case of certain peach orchards in 
Maryland seems to be applicable here. 
Part of the trees were healthy and part 
diseased. There was no apparent cause 
for the disease, and leaves of both 
healthy and diseased trees were ana¬ 
lyzed. The diseased leaves contained 
31.86% potash, 13.79% phosphoric acid 
and 23.86% lime, while the healthy 
leaves contained only 15.52% potash, 
7.55% phosphoric acid, but 40.58% lime. 
That is, the two inorganic elements 
usually added liberally as a fertilizer 
were greatly in excess in the diseased 
leaves, while the opposite was true in 
the case of lime, an element infrequently 
added to the soil, and sometimes not 
added at all. No data as to sulphur 
is obtainable in this experiment - , and it 
is not known how the unhealthy trees 
obtained the excessive amounts of 
potash and fertilizer. Yet it seemed 
worth while to mention these facts in 
connection with the thought expressed 
by Darwin and Knight. In conclusion 
the horticulturist is advised not to pin 
his faith too strongly to a so-called 
“complete” fertilizer which contains but 
three of the essential elements, but to 
remember that (for example) a crop 
of Alfalfa which removed 39.9 pounds 
of phosphoric acid from the soil also 
took away the large amount of 64.8 
pounds of sulphur trioxide. These 
actual figures demonstrated the im¬ 
portance of sulphur as a plant food in 
an unmistakable way. 
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