Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-06-11
Talent Experiment
Station Appreciated

In recent issue of your paper ap-
peared valuable and interesting ar
ticle by Professor F. c. Reimer, di-
rector of the Southern Oregon Ex-
pertinent Station, Talent, Ore, call
ing attention to the elaborate series
of fertilizer experiments that the sta
tion has been conducting during the
past three years and giving special
mention of recent tests on alfalfa
where applications of materials con-
tanning sulphur, either alone or in
combination with recognized plant
feed, gave marked increase in yield.
The writer read the article with
much interest not only for the in
formation therein but also because
he has been rather closely in touch
with the work of the station under
Professor Reimer's regime and appre-
ciates that the fertilizer work is only
one of the many lines of valuable re-
search work in progress at that the
station that will develop results of
immense Importance to the valley.
At the same time many of our farm
ers perhaps do not realize the dollar
and-cents value to themselves of the
experiment station work, and it is
with the hope of emphasizing the
value of the fertilizer tests that the
writer would like to make some addi-
tional comment on the article in
question. In no respect, however,
should this comment be taken as
disparagement of the tests described,
which the writer has seen and which
seem to be the only field trials ever
made on alfalfa with sulphur and
phosphorus-sulphur combinations.
Recent experiments by French and
German agricultural scientists along
lines somewhat parallel to those fol-
lowed by Professor Reimer but with
different crops are confirmatory so
far as the results are comparable. In
1910 experiments reported in the
Deutsche Observation-Disclosures Presse
demonstrated the value of sulphur as
an agent in checking potato diseases
like scab and and also showed that
it increased the yield of potatoes and
mangolds. Its value was greatest
when used in combination with COM
mercial pplant food.
The following year experiments
were reported in the Journal d'Agri-
culture Pratique involving the use OF
sulphur in combination with phos-
phorus, potash and nitrogen on beets
and potatoes. The amounts of sui
phur used varied from 225 to 45O
pounds per acre. These trials were
also in line with the local trials in
showing an increased yield in almost
every instance.
After these experiments Boullan.
ger and Dugardin made an elaborate
series of parallel tests involving the
use OF sulphur and sulphur coMbina-
tions on streilized and unsteriized
soil. The yield on sterilized soil was
very much less. This led the expert.
menters to conclude that sulphur acts
as bacterial stimulant rather than
as a plant food. Their conclusion
was given to the French Academy ol
Sciences in the following words:
THE fertilizing value OF sulphur
is due to the influence it exerts on
the ammonifying bacteria as we'll as
on the nitrifying micro-organisms. In
the presence of sulphur the plant
finds larger quantities of directly as.
similable ammonium salts, and this
favorable modification of nitrogenous
plant food is followed by important
increases in crops analogous to those
following the use of ammonium sui.
phate. Nevertheless, it is a matter
of Importance to be borne in MIND
that the ammonia thus formed by
the bacteria is produced exclusively
from the nitrogenous substances il
the soil and that the addition of or.
ganic nitrogenous fertilizers to the
soil is necessary in order to counter.
balance the greater withdrawal of nj
trogen by the plants"
Very recent and complete chemica
analyses of various farm crops, in
cluding alfalfa, by both the Ohio ant
Wisconsin experiment stations, con
firm Professor Reimers statement
that the sulphur content of most crop,
is much higher than was formerl.
supposed. This fact was brought ou
by improved methods Of analysis
Crops containing large amounts o
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