Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-10-26
PROFESSOR B0LLEY EXPLAINS
Value OF SOIL SANITATION

periments, we have so purified the
land blythe use Of tillage methods
which tend to free the land from
disease, and by the methods OF steam
sterilization Of the soil and other
chemical methods of publication,
that our results, show conclusively
that the soils OF the northwest said
to be depleted for wheat because Of
the one crop system. are no so de-
ple.ed, but only filed with the dis
eases which the wheat crop is heir to
in exactly the same sense as old pc.
tato lands we're once filled with the
diseases known as scab, rot and
blight, which are now purified by til
age methods, rotation methods, seed
treatment and field spraying.
Soil Not Depleted.
In other words, after several lines
of study extended over some years
of definite investigation, we have
reached the same conclusion for
wheat, barley and oats, as in the case
of the flax crop namely: that the
soil Is not necessarily chemically de-
pleted by wheat. flax or other cereal
when it ceases to grow these grains
in norma form. Chemists and agri-
culturists, and most capable farmers
once said that lands or which the
fax crop died off and no longer pro-
duced a pay yield were FLAX tired"
chemically depleted of some of the
food products which the flax plant
needs. .,. ....
The experiments which We have
conducted at the North Dakota Agri-
cultural college, and comparatively
on many farms here, conclusively
proved this TO be q matter Of error
We have not been able, by means
of adding any type of fertilizer to
flax tired lands, to make them grow
fax. We have been able to purify
such lands by crop rotation, by seed
treatment and seed selelcltiloln.l III
We have been albe, by seed breed.
ing, to produce types of flax which
GROW continuously on such lands. and
produce bigger yields each year. In
making this last statement, the writer
does not wish to be understood as ad-
%vocating the single cropping system.
The statement that mo- amount OF
fertilizer or type of fertilizer has i'm
proved the lands of the Red River
Valley, or Of North Dakota in gen.
aral, for the protection of flax, when
they are once fax tired is not made
for the purpose of arguing that fer.
tilizers are not valuable. Indeed, I
am able after purifying the soil and
the seed, to use fertilizers to great
advantage. boti upon fax and wheat.
but they may be used in such a
ner as to he a distant detriment when
the soil is flax-sick or wheat-sick;
that is, when the soil by the past
system Of cropping has accumulated
a large amount of the various root
diseases. '.- a...
For example, it was found that the
addition Of barnyard manures, on.
tanning flax straw to G virgin
prairie, destroys that land for the
raising Of ordinary flax. This is sim
pie incubation or infection. 1t does
not mean that the manures in them
selves are bad. 1t that they
ay carry disease. Similar expert
ments have been conducted in many
different ways on the wheat crop and
the barley crop, and on winter wheat
and other cereals, and our laboratory
experiments with pure cultures are
conclusive that certain crops cannot
be used as rotation crops when one
wishes to purify the land. All these
experiments and our laboratory pure
culture experiments are conclusive in
their evidence that eventually we will
be able to state why n crop should
follow another in a rotation series, a
thing which it has not been possible
to do upon a chemical basis in a
manner which the farmer could un!er.
stand. The idea of chemical deple.
on results in telling the farmer THAI
If he changes the crops on his lana
he will get bigger yields all the time
and yet not reduce his fertility. It
has been difficult to explain these two
Statements: a. That the land is
worn out because of the single crop
ping method, and (2) That If far
mers would put on another kind of
! crop they can expect to get a big