The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-13
CHEMICAL ELEMENTS OF ME SOIL
NECESSARY TO PLANT
LIFE.
THE VALUE OF FERTILIZERS
NOTES FROM ORCHARD AND FARM
OUTLOOK FOR THE
SEASON.


important questions in agriculture. First,
that there are only three elements that
any soil is likely to be deficient in for the
growth and maintenance of plant life, and
they are nitrogen, phosphorus and potas-
stun. Second, that these three elements
must be in soluble condition in order that
plant life may assimilate them.
Nitrogen is an invisible, tasteless and
odorless gas. The air we breathe is COM
posed OF about four-tifths of this element.
1t is a constituent of all products of
growth, whether animal or vegetable, and
exists in several forms. First, in organic
matter, as in dried blood, bones, fish scrap,
tankage, guano, cotton-seed meal, castor
bean pomace, grape pomace, iinSeed meal
and manures. Second, in nitrates, as
nitrate of soda. Third, in ammonia, of
which it forms fourteen parts of every
seventeen. In this latter form its princi-
pal source is sulphate of ammonia. Man
ures and some organic substances contain
ammonia.
Phosphorus is a non-metallic substance
which unites with oxygen SO readily that
it cannot be kept III air, but must be kept
under water. 1t exists in all plants and
animals as phosphate of soda, potash,
lime and magnesia. Phosphorus for fer
tIlizing purposes is derived from Canada
apatite, Charleston rock, tankage. fish
scrap, bones, cottonseed meal, castor bean
pomace, grape pomace inseed meal,
marls, IRON ore, Stag and manure.
Potassium is an alkah metal. Its Atm
ity for oxygen is so great that piece of
metallic potassium thrown upon water
Immediately takes fire. Its most familiar
form Is I've. The principal sources from
which potash Is derived for fertilizing pur-
Il Il
phate of potash and magnesium, ashes,
cottonseed meal, oil meal, faxseed meal,
castor-bean pomace, grape pomace and
manure.
1t often happens that soil is rich in all
necessary elements for plant food, but the
elements are in an insoluble condition. In
such cases the elements may often be dis
solved oy the application of lime.
Other elements that enter into organic
life, and which are nearly always pres
ent in quantities sufficient to make
and sustain growth are oxygen, hydrogen,
sulphur, carbon, lime, iron, chlorine,
silicon, sodium, magnesium and man
EaneSe.
The agricultural value of a fertilizer de-
ponds upon the benefit derived from its
use-its crop producing power Some
times the highest priced fertilizers are of
little value TO particular crops or lands.
Nitrogen, the most expensive element,
has occasionally been used at a loss
where potash, the cheapest element. has
been found to be OF great agricultural
value.
Certain plants remove from the soil GER
tain elements. When by analysis these
elements have been determined, the kind
OF plant food most required is certainly in
dictated. Plant growth is dependent upon
so many factors, however, that no general
rules can be applied. and each set OF cir
,-Nn L..
separately. There are certain peculiarities,
too, which are not yet thoroughly under
stood. 1t often happens, for instance, that
one pound OF some certain fertilizer. prom
erly applied, will produce ten pounds of
fruit as an Increased crop. This has been
determined by experiments, and is Just as
certain as that five pounds of cod liver oil
properly administered to person may
result III an increase OF flesh amounting to
ten pounds. The reason lies partly in the
tact that many OF the elements which con-
tribute to plant growth are so bountifully
disseminated throughout nature that they
are nearly always in excess OF the require
ments OF plant growth, many OF them be-
ing supplied through the air. Thus the
plant, when supplied with the elements
which may be lacking in the soil, takes up
other elements IN their proper proportion
and thrives accordingly
Upon the other hand fertilizers are occa-
slonally applied to trees without resulting
IN an increased crop of fruit. No agricui-
tural chemist would guarantee an average
crop, even If his own ANALYSIS of an abso
lutely fair sample of the soil proved that
the field contained twenty times as much
plant food as any one crop could possibly
remove.
However, the fact remains that proper
1ertlilzatlon always pays when it is needed.
inns mas been abundantly proved by ex-
arTF on Ift~l,r l..
palmer than at Riverside where there are
orange groves which have been properly
terhlized, and in which the trees present a
bright, green, healthful appearance and
bear heavy crops, separated only by a fence
from trees that have not been fortified
and which present a pale, yellow. sicklv
appearance, and which bear small crops of
inferior fruit.
Eastern farmers have demonstrated the
Value OF fertilizers also, particularly in the
growing OF potatoes Our California farm
ers think they are doing well when they
raise from 300 to 400 bushels of potatoes to
the acre, but Colorado farmers. in a far
less favorable cline and in a soil not anv
richer, have, by the intelligent use of fer
tilizers, been enabled to raise as high as
o4I bushels per acre at a cost of $50 50 per
acre TOT fertilizers: as against 49I bushels
on similar plat where only stable manure
was used.
Eastern farmers work to great disadvan-
tage in making experiments because of the
unreliability of the climate there. The
officials of the Agricultural Department
frequently explain that mo concInsions
can be drawn this year on account of the
excessive rains and storms" or "the
drought unfortunately caused a failure OF
the entire plat"
1t is surprising that in California. where
the elements are SO kind, greater progress
has not beed made in scientific farming
The lack of experimentation in this line
Is, no doubt, due III a great degree to the
fact that the climatic conditions are such
that unusually large crops can be grown
without fertilization.
Again, the land is comparatively new.
much o. it having been brought under
cultivation within the past few years.
There are soils in several counties which
have been used for grain growing purposes
for thirty or forty years, without apparent
diminution of crops.
This does not mean, however, that
proper fertilization would not greatly in
crease the crops. 1t only means that the
soil is rich in plant food taken up by grain,
and that the constituents are in soluble
condition and easily assimilated. 1t does
not mean that elements can forever be con-
tinuously Withdrawn from the soil with
out any apparent diminution of the guam
tIfV REMAINING