Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-01-21


this element. Recently it has been
discovered that these plants have
adjusted themselves to the lack of
phosphorus so that they have oHy
one-tenth of the phosphoric acid in
their makeup that crops must have
on which animals with bony skeletons
can live.
Phe bone disease is thus accounted
for. Phosphorus is an essential part
of bone, as we'll as of blood and of
flesh Any race which possesses bone
and sinew," or good red blood" must
feed on plants receiving phosphorus
from the soil, or on animals which
have done $3.50 dependent are we.
who are made in the image of God,
on the very dust beneath our feet, for
our moral as well as physical exist
ence. If the soil on which a nation
lives loses its phosphorus, that ma
ton must die-or go out killing and
marauding, seeking other lands.
Animals have been fed, as an ex,
pertinent, on foods deficient in phos-
phorus. For a while they seemed to
do well. Then they collapsed. 1t
takes only three months of ration
without phosphorus to wreck an ami
NAL. Individual creatures were killed
after month of this diet, and it was
found that the flesh was taking the
phosphate-for the phosphorus exists
in the body in that form-from the
bones to supply its need. In Other
words, the body was eating it's own
bones! When this process had robbed
the bones to the limit, the collapse
came, and the animal could never re-
cover
Now as Passengers on the Good
Ship Earth, it will be worth our
while to look into the hold of the ship
and see how much phosphorus God
put into the bunkers when He flung
us spinning out into space, under
wireless control, to whirl we know
not where. Shall we find enough?
Are we as a race doomed after many
famines and pestilences, and many
wars and rumors of wars, to die
perhaps Of starvation, perhaps of
bone disease, and to leave the Ship
lifeless, or to plants like those of
Australia which have learned to do
with little phosphorus. or to homeless
animals, fitted for a similar phos-
phateless life?
This is the indispensable element in
which we find the soils of the world
poorest. In the original rocks there
is only eleven hundredths of one per
cent. of it on the average. Good
virgin soils are even poorer than this.
1t is a good soil indeed which has
1000 pounds of phosphorus in the top
eight inches of soil. So we see that
in the process of making soil. a large
part of the original stock is lost.
Where we have worked over the
soil-the dust on the planks of the
Good Ship Earth-until 1t is said to
be exhausted we find that is is the
phosphorus that is gone-or nearly so.
Old soils from the level coastal plain
of Virginia, said to be too poor to
work, test as low as $40 pounds of
phosphorus in the upper 100000
pounds of soil. The WORKOUT fields
of Asia are very poor in phosphorus.
Some depleted soils in India have
been found to show only what the
CnelIll5l5 call Trace VI LOU III
tie to measure.
In the youth of the race, these old
fields made men-but they are now
deserts.
They say the Lion and the Lizard
keep
The Courts where Jamshyd gloried
and drank deep,
And Bahram, the great Hunter
the Wild Ass
Stamps DER his Head, but cannot
break his Sleep!
And the lion and the lizard will re-
turn to keep the courts where we
reign and glory and drink deep
when the phosphorus of the soil goes.