The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-06
PhOsphoric Acid and Potash Both
Essential

That eminent chemist, Justus Won Lie
big. among other elementary laws, laid
down the following: A soil can be termed
fertile only when it contains all the ma
terials necessary for the nutrition of
plants, in the required quantity, in the
proper form. An excess of any one of
the leading elements of fertility, let that
excess be of nitrogen or phosphoric acid,
or of potash. does not constitute fertility,
and by no means conduces to productive
ness. In order to constitute a really fer
tile soil. these elementary substances must
each and all be present, but they must be
present in the required quantity, duly pro-
portioned and properly balanced. One
sided fertility is neither profitable nor
desirable condition for soil to be in, and
the same may be said of one-sided fer
tilization, it is neither profitable nor sat
isfactory.
We ourselves are the fortunate posses
sor of some lands that contain an excess
of nitrogen. This excess works an actual
injury TO each and every crop planted
thereon. We have found 1t profitable to
balance this excess by liberal applica-
tons of phosphates and potash on this
class of soils the two last named sub
stances form complete fertilizer, and 1t
would be utter folly to make any further
application of nitrogen to these soils, it
would likewise be waste of both time and
money and could not fail to actually de-
crease the yield.
Now, if we could find soils that were
rich in potash and nitrogen, and deficient
in phosphorc acid, then In that case
phosphates atone would form a complete
fertilizer, nothing more would be neces-
sery. So also if we could plant crops
that would abstract from the soil phos-
phoric acid alone, leaving the nitrogen
and potash behind, intact in the soil, and
the original supply of these substances
undiminished, then in that case, the use
of phosphates nlcne, 10 the utter exclu-
sion of potash and nitrogen would be tusti-
fable, but not otherwise.
We are pretty intimately acquainted
with southern soils, in their virgin state
and after they have been denuded of their
fertility by continuous cultivation in cot
ton, corn and other clean-hoed crops,
feel entirely safe in saying we have never
found soils of above character, nor crops
that were obliging enough to do all their
feeding on a single article of diet, let
that article consist of nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid or potash We don't believe
we ever will, and we also don't believe
any one else has either.
Take the single southern product-cot-
ton-and we see that there is an annual
production of over 100000 tons of seed
to say nothing of the lint. This seed re-
moves from the soil 125oOO tons of nitro
gen. worth as fertilizer $S7.OO0.O00. 1t also
removes from the soil 1890 tons
of potash worth as fertil-
izer, SO, IA 600 Who has the hardihood, the
utter disregard for veracity and lack of
sef-respect, to assert that the application
OF phosphates alone will be found all-suf-
ficient, or that II can be made even i'm the
most remote degree, to supersede or take
the place of the other leading elements of
fertility? Echo answers, who" As some
of our MISREPRESENTATION friends seem to
have phosphates on the brain and can see
no virtue in anything else. nor no neces-
sity for anything else, and who, we sup
pose, are in blissful ignorance of the fact
that there was soil that contained an
actual excess of phosphoric acid; and
Furthermore, that this same excess of
phosphoric acid, instead of causing that
self-same soil to be immensely productive.
rendered 1t absolutely sterile. barren and
unproductive. we subjoin two tables, one
of fertile and productive soil. and another
of a sterile and unproductive soil. for COM
parison: