Arizona republican., 1912-04-09

WASHINGTON. April S.-While the idea of calling in a doctor to pre- scribe for She ailments of sick farm or garden would doubtless never oc- cur to the millions of persons who are now preparing to plant gardens or farms varying in size from the plot of a few square yards to the farm of many thousand acres, II fs nevertheless true that soils suffer from sicknesses similar to those which occur in the case of human beings and that as a result there has come the soil doctor whose profession it is to prescribe for SICK soils. Few gardeners or farmers who wonder at mid-sumnler or >fad why their yield has failed to come m to expectations realize that their soil may be suffering from prac- -icaTv the same troubles which ev- cry parent has come to regard as incidental to childhood. Astonishing analogies between the ills 10 which human flesh is heir and those which affect the four hundred odd varieties of our crop growing soil nave now been established and as result have brought about a new profession that of D. $ $. otherwise doctor of sick soils. The commonest ills which affIict the soil are inliges- ton. auto intoxication. circuiatory and lung troubles. together with com Dlications of these diseases which sometimes tax the skill of the men who have become specialists in their diagnosis and treatment
 This new profession practically had it's beginning when it was discoN- cred that there was no truth in tae established theory. which to an cX- tent exists even today. that soil IS decomposed rock Investigations have shovel that soils instead of being decomposed rock were in reality dls- intecrated or unconsolidated rock The vital point Of this discovery lay in the fact that while in decomposeJ rock it was reasonable 10 suppose that chemical clements essential to growing plants might easily become exhausted anu tho soils worn out. m ,lisin+ ecratcd rock this was not pos sible. thus making the much talked of worn out soil an impossibility The disintegrated rock was found to have intact all the necessary chemical clements present in the tiny particles of which it is composed 1T inexhaustible supply and needing onIv to become soluble through nat ural processes 10 he available foi food for growing plants. Moreovel if has been learned that these CT ments became soluble to the exac degree which is necessary to suppl! tho amount taken from 1he soil b! each years crops. This has givel rise to the new lines of investigation which have resulted in a knowledG' of the Inanv ways in which the Ter tilitv of the soil may be reduce by various diseases. enabling the soi doctor to restore to health wholly O in part practically any sick soil.
 An interesting fact in regard | soils is that they seem 10 becom sick and unproducti~e through Tn presence of toxins given off by th plants which grow in them. much 3 person is made sick by p.omaine' ms mas D6en uthlolSboeSu "S
 following experiment which Is use bv the soil doctor. for diagnosis an demonstration. In pot Of cart are planted half dozen wheat seed lings These are allowed to matur to a certain point an1 are then re placed by another set. the same cart being used The second set of seed lings will be found to be only ba
 as vigorous as the first set. TIT same soil is then carefully trease by the replacement of the element taken out by the seedlings, an extr amount being added for good mes
 sure. anu more seedlings are plan
 ed This third group will show
 benefit from the addition of the fei 1ilizing clements. proving that it wa