River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-10-03
AeaIcuLTuRAL SCIENCE.
Some of the Fundamental Principles OF
Plant Nutrition.

Some of the Fundamental Principles of
Plant Nutrition.
The following are some OF the funda-
mental principles of plant nutrition as
applied to the ingredients OF the food
of plants, their sources. application,
etc:
/. a pant OF the food of plants comes
from the atmosphere; the rest is fur
nished by the soil If the available
supply of any one Of a number OF sub
stances needed for plant food be too
small, a light yield is inevitable. II,
for instance, all the other conditions
for profitable crop of corn or pota-
toes are fulfilled in the soil, except
that potash is deficient, the crop viii
surely fail. But if the potash be APP
piled the yield will be abundant.
?. The most important soil in
gradients of plant food are potash,
lime, magnesia, iron, phosphoric acid.
sulphuric acid, chlorine and some COM
pound of nitrogen. Plants also take
silica, soda and some other materials
from the soil, but these are needed only
In minute quantities, or not at all.
3. In removing crops from the soil
we take away plant food This is the
chief cause of soil exhaustion.
4. Soils vary greatly in their capa-
bilities of supplying food to crops.
Different ingredients are deficient in
different soils. The chief lack of one
may be potash. of another phosphoric
acid, and OF another several irgredi-
ents, and so on
.. Soils fail to furnish enough OF
food for crops chiefly because the mate
rials are not in available forms. A
soil may have thousands of pounds OF
phosphoric acid within reach of the
plants, but locked up in fragments of
rocks so that the roots can not absorb
it, and then the crop will fail for lack
of phosphOric acid.
G. The sterility of many soils is due
more to their mechanical condition,
their texture. and relations to heat and
moisture, than to lack of plant food.
Such soils want amendment first and
manures afterward. Some soils Will
give good returns for manuring; other.
without irrigation, or amendment by
draining, tillage, the use of lime, mari,
or muck, etc, will not.
Z. The chief use of fertilizers is to
supply plant food which crops need
and soils fail to furnish.
s. The indirect action of applica-
tions in improving the mechanical
condition of the soil and rendering its
stores of plant food available, is often
very important. Hence lime, plaster,
etc, are frequently more profitable
than fertilizers.
9. Plants vary greatly with respect to
their demands for food and capabili-
ties Of gathering it. Hence. the prop
er fertilizer in a given case depends
upon the crop as we'll as upon tho
soil.
10. The only ingredients of plant
food which we need to consider in
commercial fertilizers are potash,
lime, magnesia, phOsphoric acid. sui.
phuric acid and nitrogen. OF the list,
magnesia is generally abundant even
in 'worn-out' soils. Sulphuric acid
and lime are moro often deficient, and
hence one reason of the good effects so
often observed from the application of
lime and plaster. The remaining sub
stances-the phOsphoric acid, nitro.
gen and potash-are the most import.
ant ingredients of our commercial fer
tilizers, because of both their scarcity
in the soil and their comparative high
cost
IL. The chief use of commercial
fertilizers--such as guano, phosphates,
bone, potash, salts and special fertil.
izers prepared by fGrmul@for different
crops, is to supply nitrogen, prosphoric
acid and potash.
u. These materials are expensive,
but the right ones in the right places
are nevertheless very profitable. But
the same fertilizers in other cases
bring little or no return.
- 1t is not good economy to pay
high prices for material which our
soils themselves may furnish, but 1t is
good economy to supply the lacking
ones in the cheapest way. Farmers
can not afford to use commercial fer
filters at random, nor to have th cir
crops fail when a small outlay for the
proper fertilizer would secure them a
bOuntiful harvest
II. The only way 10 find out what
our soils want is to study them by
careful observation and experiments.
Success in farming as in other bust
ness, requires the use CT brains. Prof.
w. o. Atwater.