The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-01

j. I. CraWley'S paper on the fert1liZa-
| ton of fruits and vegetables, read be-
fore the Farmers Institute is as fol-
lows:
In presenting a paper on the ferti-
lization of fruits and vegetables, you
| will naturally expect me to direct at
tention particularly to Hawaiian con-
ditions, giving examples of the expert
ence of our own people; but just there
find very close limitations. While
a great deal has been done in other
countries toward finding out the best
fertilizers for these crops and the best
time and methods of application, and
great deal has been written on the
subject, very little has been done in
Hawaii. Most of the work here has
been done on the sugar cane, and al
most all of the literature bears on that
subject.
Right here at Wahiawa you have
done more work along that line than
the people of any other section, and
my knowledge of the actual effects
and results of fertilizers has been OBJ
tanned largely through you. But we
can add knowledge of results obtained
in other countries to specific studies
of Hawaiian soils and climate, and this
will indicate the line along which the
fruit and vegetable grower must work.
In seeking for a formula for a fer
tiliZer to be used, there are three Ques-
tions that must be answered-O The
nature of the soil; (2) the climate; (3)
the product to be grown.
There is probably no place in any
other agricultural region where there
are greater varieties of soil and differ
ences in rainfall than on the Hawaiian
Islands. In the high lands you get
large rainfall, heavy vegetation, often
sour soil, and usually soil filled with
organic matter. This soil is usually
very retentive of water, and the par
ticles are large and coarse, and much
of the soluble lime has been washed
out The soil on the lower levels is
not subject to the great rainfall is not
as retentive of water, is usually very
fine grained and contains more of the
easily soluble ingredients. We usually
look for four elemer is in soil in de-
terYnining it's value for agricultural
purposes, namely, lime, phosphoric
acid, nitrogen and potash, and these
are the elements supplied in artificial
fertilizers. The soil of Wahiawa is a
very good type of the red soil SO album
dant on the islands and which as
rule. is very productive. The elements
above mentioned are found in fairly
liberal quantities.
Theoretically we should add to the
soil Just those elements which the
crops take off, and in the same proper
ton. For example, if a crop takes Off
fifty pounds of lime from an acre or
soil each year. it would seem that fifty
pounds of lime should be given back
But practically there are reasons which
prevent the application of this theory,
the chief of which is that the water
of irrigation and rainfall may carry
off much more of these ingredients
than the crop itself, and in different
proportion. Again, the elements of the
soil are gradually being renewed
through the disintegration of the rocks
and made available for future crops.
and while the agricultural analysis
shows that your soils contain a suffi-
Gent quantity of the elements for a
great many crops, the elements are not
in an available form. Hence you may
have a soil which is rich in food that
plants take up, but in which the food
is so bound up that the plant cannot
utilize it.
We have found as a rule that both
potashes and phosphates are so firmly
held in the soil that they are not read1- ?
w available to young plants. This is
shown by the hardness of growth OF
many young plants, and their ready
response to a dose of soluble fertilizer.
that Hawaiian SOILS
as a rule are rich, I know of no coun-
try where artificial fertilizers snow /
such immediate and lasting effects A /
crop growing but poorly on a soil con-
tanning $4,000 pounds of potash per /
acre TO the depth of one foot and TINS
is not an exaggerated case-rnay grow /
well on the same soil to which has
been added but so pounds of soluble /
potash to the acre. This VIII De /
brought home to some of you who ,
have seen the wonderful effects of a /
few hundred pounds of phosphates per |
acre to sorghum growing in soil con-
tanning 10000 pounds of soil phos-
phates. In this case the soil ingredi- .
ents are not available to the plant +
whereas the small, amount of phos- a