The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-11-27

OF the GI6nlenIS pres
ent, certain being in excess and others
in actual want. Moreover, there can
be we'll balanced supply of all sub
stances required, and in a sufficient
measure of chemical availability, but
bad physical conditions, such as too
coarse or too close nature of the soil,
and the excess or dearth of moisture,
render the food supply inert. Now,
where any of these conditions insult
ed to fertility combine we find ''poor
lands"
Those lands, however, which origi-
nally possess all the elements which
make crops in ample abundance, must
give out with time. The most vital
mineral elements of plant food are
present in the soil in relatively small
proportions. We have found the soils
of the islands as a whole to contain
about third of one per cent. of
lime, potash, phOsphoric acid and
nitrogen respectively, and there are
analyses which show that on an aver
age, in each 100 tons of our soils, Is
tons, and in few examples 2S tons, of
metallic iron are contained. 1t is
true that one third of one per cent. of
lime, or of the other three elements, in
the soil would be ample for a vast
number of crops of cane were ii avail
able. If these elements in the soil
were available, however, what would
| be the end of q system of agriculture
will continue to draw upon the soil and
place nothing in return? Exhaustion
must be the result And such sys-
! tenn Is one of DLlL9lder, and in set Op-
position to modes of fertilization
which aim to maintain and increase
the fertility of soils, not only by max
! ing good the substance which crops
! have taken out but by providing IN
greater amplitude the special ele-
ments of food that certain plants re-
quire.
In the report on soils, by way of
explaining the reasons why in the
beginning only partial analyses were
being made it was stated that "the
only elements of plant food which we
purchase in fertilizers are nitrogen,
phosphoric acid, potash and lime"
Account is not taken of any other
| constituents which are found in the
organisms of plants. Therefore our
attention will be given to the four ele-
ments mentioned, and first in the
order to Nitrogen. This element is
OF the greatest moment to the life
and growth of plants. 1t is a cOnstitu-
ent Of the albuminoids, and these
bodies compose in great measure the
living prOtOplaSmic fluid which is
contained within and moves between
the minute cells which form the inte-
riOr structure of plants. Al this place
Professor Maxwell went into an ex-
haustive examination of the needs of
the cane based upon the nature of the
soils, which was explained in his re-
port on soils to which attention was
called yesterday. He shows that
nitrogen is the "great want of our
Soils" and discusses that element as
follows:
The source of the organic nitrogen
present in soils is not only a question
of scientific interest, it may be made
to involve the further practical sub
ject of green fertilization. The cane
grows by the multiplying of the cells
by which it is constructed, and as
these cells grow and new ones are
formed by aid of the nitrOgenOus fluid
which exists and moves within them,
nitrogen is indispensable TO the eco
nOmy of its organism, and probably
the element most vital TO its life.
The time of greatest growth, or cell
production, is from the time of plant
ing up to the period when the cane
gives its attention more exclusively
to making and storing up sugar in its
cells; consequently it is at the begin
ming, and during the early part of its
life, that the cane demands nitrogen.
Sugar is composed exclusively of the
elements carbon, hydrogen and Oxy-
gen; therefore in the making of sugar
by the nitrogen does not directly play
any part. AS matter of expeIie we
know that excess of nitrogen prevents
the formation OF sugar, by prolonging
the period of growth and preventing
a normal maturity.
In our mauka virgin soils, the nitro
gen content is found to be almost
three times greater than in the low
land virgin soils. The rainfall upon
! the average of the mauka lands, so
| far as the data in hand show, Is not
quite twice that of the makai lands.
Rains bring down nitrogen in the
! forms of ammonia or nitric acid from
| the air into the soil, and this is a great
source of available nitrogen. IT, how
ever, the ammonia and nitrates con-
/ tanned in rain are the only source of
nitrogen which plants make use of it
! Is difficult to explain how it is that
| the nitrogen found in upper lands il
even more than three times greater
/ than that Of the low lands, whilst the
rainfall of the upper lands is not quite
twice as much as that of the makai
lands. Moreover, it has been shown
/ in the report on soils that the waste
| of nitrogen from the upper lands is
very notable by reason of the heavy
rainfalls, much of which goes direct
/ to the ocean, whilst there is still the
smaller waste to be included which
proceeds from surface vegetable de-
composition. These considerations
appear to suggest that, in addition TO
the nitrogen which has been taken up
/ from the soil, by means of the greater
vegetable activity upon the upper
! lands, caused by the greater rainfall,
some free nitrogen has been taken
| from the air and used by vegetation.
! The grasses, weeds and trees upon the
upper lands are not the kinds which
! experiments have shown to be great
notrOgen gatherers but this circum-
stance only suggests, further, that
probably the abstraction of the free
nitrogen from the air is a constant
process of vegetation universally, but
in most instances the amount of ab-