isa-normaladvance-1914-00034

Description:	34THE NORMAL ADVANCEthe Creator may have chosen to develop the first simple cell of organic life.A fifth feature of the soil is that it teems with inhabitants. We are familiar with the myriads of insects, the earth worms, ants and other animals which live in this realm. But in this world are also living and dying count¬ less hosts of microscopic beings whose numbers and doings surpass even the most fantastic conceptions which wizards of old had con¬ cerning the awful vapors and weird creatures of certain outlandish nooks of the world. Much of this bacterial life is of real help to the plants. Some of it is neutral. The rest is death.SOIL PERILS.Against this well balanced provider for our plants certain forces of evil are contending. Among them are the following: (1) Soil dis¬ eases due to non-rotation of crops, (2) soil par¬ asites, (3) depletion of constituents necessary to plant growth, (4) capillary attraction and evaporation in irrigated lands, and (5) soil wash and leaching.Dr. Whitney, of the United States Depart¬ ment of Agriculture, is producing evidence to the effect that continued planting of the same kind of crop produces in the soil certain toxical effects which are injurious and in time fatal to the plant. In a general way this self-pois¬ oning of the plant comes about in much the same way as the continued breathing of a group of people in a closed room soon renders it unfit for human habitation. The result is that plants which once yielded abundantly gradually decline in spite of lavish fertiliza¬ tion. This is one of the scientific bases for the growing demand for extended rotation of crops.Dr. Bolly, of North Dakota, has discovered that certain parasites prey on the stalk and seeds of plant, and also become inoculated into the soil, thereby greatly hindering plant growth. Flax growing, which was once profit¬ able in the Middle Northwest, essentially has ceased as an industry owing to the steady de¬crease in the yield per acre. Incipient similar tendencies are noted in the oat crop. Dr. Bolly is of the opinion that these misfortunes are due largely to the presence of parasitic insects, which make the soil sick.It will be recalled from above that but one- tenth of one per cent of the crust of the earth is phosphate, an element necessary for plant growth. It has been estimated that the aver¬ age Illinois soil contains 2,200 pounds of phos¬ phate per acre for the surface seven inches of ground. A corn crop of 100 bushels per acre takes from the soil about seventeen pounds of this element. Hence if no phosphorus is re¬ turned to the soil, the total virgin supply of this element of the loam would be exhausted in about 130 years. On this basis, it has been esti¬ mated, that 12,000,000 tons of rock phosphate are needed annually to offset that mineral re¬ moved from the cropped lands of the United States. The last estimate for the rock phos¬ phate available in this country is 300,000,000 tons.* This would mean a total depletion at the end of twenty-five years. However, wo mine annually only about two and one-half tons. The duration of full fertility would be extended considerably by the use of manures. Before man entered on the scene, it is held, the mineral products of the soil returned to the land after the death of the plant or animal, into the constitution of which the inorganic substance had entered. But with the advent of man with wasteful methods, as in particu¬ lar in North America, the balance is disturbed. It happens that the United States is the coun¬ try most richly endowed with phosphate de¬ posits, slender though they be. Hence Europe in particular is importing large quantities from us to re-enforce her long-utilized soils. If these facts be the whole of the problem we are facing a sad dilemma. Either we must stop the exportation of phosphate and thereby sel¬ fishly prolong our national prosperity though the rest of the world languish, or else we must make common stock of our slender resources, to help the world to a pitifully short respite. What is true of phosphate is substatially true
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/32474
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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