The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-03-06
AGRICULTURE OWES TO
CHEMISTRY.

An Able ssay of Special Interest to
Farmers, Delivered by Mr. S A Vest,
Of Forsyth Ceunty, at an Orstorical
Contest of Leazar Society Of A & a..
College, Raleigh, Feb 23o, 1900.
1t is hard to f1nd any evil that is all
evil. The general fall in price of agri-
cultural products has worked hardship
on the pocket. book of the farmer, but
it has been of great educational value
TO him, and in the end, may prove also
of financial value. For the widespread
depression in price put, not only the
farmers, but scientists all over the
land to studying the economic pro
duction of crops as that subject was
never before studied.
II the farmer is to live as he once
lived, indeed, may say that if he is
to live at all, one Of two things must
come about: either the price of farm
products must go up or the cost of pro,
duction must come down. Both sic eg
Of this alternative are being carefully
COB sidered. Only a few weeks ago an
association OF farmers met here in Raj
eigh to devise means to raise the price
Of one Of our staple crops
The chemist. however, is now and
has oeen working at the other horn Of
the alternative. He has been bending
ali the energies of his scienc9 in an
effort to cheaper the cost Of produc
tion. This he has striven to effecs in
three ways: FIRST, by showing the
farmer how to maintain or preserve
the fertility Of his soil; second, by
teaching him the best and most eco
nomic way Of feeding his crop and
thereby to increase materially the
vie! d per acre; third, by directing the
farmer how to protect his crop from
its most DANCE eroug foes.
The science OF agriculture is almost
entirely the creation of chs mists. b.
fore the days of Lehig agriculture was
purely an empirical art. No exact in
formation had ever been obtained con =
corning the composition of crops, the
nature Of the soil, the food Of each
plant, the function of artificial fertill
zers. Oaly a few facts bad previously
been learned in a blind, blundering
sort of way. But Liebig and the three
score and ten chemists, who have fol
lowed him in the laboratory and who
have made the literature as we'll as the
science of chemistry, went to work to
change the empiricism into reasonable
and scientific exactitude.
TIE first WORK of the chemist
was to determine the nature
of tie crop and the relation which
it bears to the soil in which it grows
Oae great fact es ablished by this
investigation was that the greater
part of the weight Of every crop is tn
product of the synthesis which takes
place between carb0nic acid and water
THE being true, We see at once tina
both soil and atmosphere must be re =
g8rded as envir onments favorable to
the production of organic matter
Hence one oe the most important prob
lens of agricultural chemistry is de
termination Of the conditions which
favor the largest production of organic
matter in any instance.
Chemists all agree in finding thaf
the Creator has supplied bounUifulIy
all the elements essential to perfect
pant gro 9th except three. These are
nitrogen, phosphoric acid AID potash
It is Jrue that these three elements are
widely distributed, and, in Fome fern
or other, are almost omnipresent, bus
for them to help the plant two things
are necessary: First, they must be in
the place nee1ed; second, they must be
in the form or condition needed. II
matters not il the air is filed with
nitrogen, il the plant cannot use aerial
nitrogen. This it cannot do any more
than the thirst-dying sailor Can use the
sea water around him. II the fertility
of land is to be kept up, these three
r. quisites must not only be supplied,
bus must be furnished in bas5 form;
for soil exhaustion is only another
name for the using up Of one or all of
these three. Herce the farmer who
would not run down his land must
have a care here. He is not the best
farmer who makes large crops, pays
his bills, and lives in comfort, but he
is the best farmer who does those three
and at the same time keeps unimpaired
or adds to the fertility of his land.
Nov the chemist set t. work to aid
the farmer in doing this last important
work As a result of his studies the
problem eeems now largely to narrow
itsetf IN ona aa already stated of keen.