Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-01-14
"On Board the
Good Ship Earth
By Herbert Quick
The Riddle of the Raw Material of Man
By Herbert Quick

throw us overheard if we do not
meet the demands.
These nations-the Oriental peo-
pies of which the Chinese and Jap
anese are the best examples-are
quartered on those portions of the
decks of the Good Ship Earth, where
human beings are thickest. Some
Europeans are almost as good hus-
bandmen, and have dense popula-
tons, too We have had only q
hundred years or so in which to prove
our unfitness for the ownership of
fertile lands; and we have gone far
to prove it by running large areas Of
good soil--and the ruin is going on
faster now than ever before. But
before considering these most vital
things more in detail. let us see what
there is in soil which makes it able
to support dense populations. If It
is property which remains forever,
then these nations may be able to
stay where they are, and leave the
rest of us in peace. But if it is some
thing which is taken from the soil
by use. then these massed millions
may sometime have to move or
starve.
1t is this property and this only
the fitness of the soil to furnish food
for plants-in order that the plants
may in turn furnish food for animals.
Life is the Vapor that distends for
the moment the bubble called an ami
NAL or vegetable or a man; and
good soil is soil from which that
yapor can emanate. Protoplasm is
the only thing that lives; and good
soil is a soil that can furnish to the
Protoplasm of the plants the food
from which the Protoplasm can build
up animals.
1t Is possible to tell just what the
things are that the plants need. They
are ten substances, all of which are
found in any good soil-carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, potas-
SUM, nitrogen, sulphur, calcium, iron
and magnesium. Most of these you
can see in some form in any drug
store or about the house SCOT is
carbon, Illuminating gas is mostly
hydrogen, oxygen is the vital prin-
ciple of air, and is given as a gas to
some patients by physicians; phos-
phorus is what glows in the dark
when you rub damp match on your
hand; potassium is a soft metal
which gives the name to common
potash; nitrogen is a gas, hard 20
obtain pure, but which forms the
bulk of the air, and is important in
he 90 til
gin with nitrous" nitric or mi
tro;" sulphur everybody knows about;
calcium is a white crystalline ele--
ment which combined with carbon
forms the calcium carbide of the
acetylene lamp and combined with
carbon and oxygen is common lime;
iron, we all know. but rarely see
pure, and magnesium is
the chief element in common mag
nesia, but is not often seen pure out
side of chemical laboratories.
DIR. Cyril Hopkins, of the Univer-
sity OF Illinois. is great authority
on soils, and students of agriculture
under him have made of his name a
rigmarole by which to remember
these necessary elements of plant
food This formula is made up of
the chemical symbols for the ele-
ments.
&C HOPKINS Cafe Mg is the
rigmarole. The boys say it means
&c. Hopkins. Cafe, mighty good"
The only mysterious thing about the
rigmarole to the ordinary reader will
be the names of the elements for
which they stand. &c" H." 20"
and "P' are easy. "K'' is potas-
sum- All the rest are easy until we
come to "Fe," which means iron.
These are the things which the Spirit
of Time put into the soil so that
plants might grow. When any one
of them is absent the land is
desert. And when the Deck becomes
a desert, the Passengers have to
move or starve.
Only four of them give the farmer
any trouble-nitrogen, phosphorus
sulphur and potassium. All the rest
are found in plenty. And the Pas
sengers on the good Ship Earth have
chosen their quarters on her broad
iecks with reference to the presence
N the deck dust-called soil-of these
four things-nitrogen, phosphorus,
sulphur and potassium. Each pre-
sents a wonderful meaning of the
ctters which are not the initials of
The English world problem--a prob
EN- in our future peace, as well as
,ur future plenty-great enough for
4 book-a library of books.
See tomorrow's Evening Star for
of the next article in
his great series.