The Hawaiian gazette., 1914-04-03
SOILS
EASILY MADE
!. PRODUCTIVE
Experiment Station After
Thorough Test Discovers That
Use Of Fertilizer in Spills Of Ter
ritory Has Been q Useless Waste
Of Money; Planting Of Legu-
minous Cover Crops Solves
Problem.

DR.. +. v. Wilcox announced yester.
day that an extended series Of expert
monts conducted by w. II, Kelley,
chemist Of the Hawaii Experiment sta
ton, indicate that all Hawaiian soils
contain enough plant food to produce
crops without using fertilizer.
island soils are rieh,D said Doctor
Wilcox. "They contain an abundance
Of all the essential mineral elements Of
plant food. / am of the opinion that
If these elements can be made ayailQble,
as our experiments show 10 BIO within
the range of possibility, Hawaiian soils
have the lasting qualities that win en-
able them to be cropped for many
years without fear Of serious depletion
of their natural fertility
The physical condition Of the local
soils is of far greater importance than
their chemical composition. He said
that the station chemists have found
an abundance Of plant food present in
soils that absolutely would not grow
crops. This has been especially true
of the f'packedp virgin soils. Analyses
Of hard packed soils usually show
heavy total percentages Of. nitrogen
rhosphoric acid and potash with no
nitrates, and no soluble potash or phos-
phoric acid. When these soils are cul-
tivated and broken up the fixed ele-
ments become soluble as a result Of
aeration. Also, soluble plant food APP
piled to packed soils quickly becomes
transformed into fixed or insoluble
combinations.
Indiscriminatc Analyses Useless.
Doctor Wilcox stated that he has
come to the conclusion that indiserim.
mate chemical analyses of soils to de-
termine what crops can be grown or
what fertilizing elements are lacking
arc absolutely useless.
The fertility of soils depends on their
physical condition, not ON their chem
zeal composition, he stated. The sta
tfon experts have taken sterile soils
that analysed up to the richest soils in
the world and have transformed them
Into crop-producers without using COM
mereial fertilizers. The method rs TO
use thorough deep and frequent stir
ring and cultivation and grow legpmin-
GUS cover crops. $50 sis !.
Doctor Wilcox stated that the exper-
iment station has transformed sterile
soils by this practice SO that in two or
three years they were capable of pro-
ducing enormous crops. Cover crops
make soils richer every year. After
the percentage of humlis in soils has
been Increased through the growth Of
legumes on the land the soils get to the
point where fertilizers greatly increase
growth and production. A dressing Of
fertilizer applied to loose well titled
soil produces far greater results than
an equal amount applied to hard
close packed soil. Doctor Wilcox said
that il is not business proposition to
use fertilizers on soils unless the
physical condition Of the soils is first
improved by blowing under leguminOus
cover crops and green manures. +
J. Test Seed Being offered. y
The station has secured considerable
quantities of seed of some of the best
legumes suited TO tropical conditions
and now offers for trial one pound
packages of seed of velvet beans in
three varieties; eleven kinds Of soy
beans, or daizu; four varieties Of pea
nuts; jack-beans; Sesbania, KuthL and
the Indian Mungo.
If modern methods Of cultivation are
employed and every effort is made TO
put the Island soils in better physical
condition by adding more hume com.
pounds TO them Doctor Wilcox stated
that it is his belief that Hawaii can
grow bigger crops with less fertilizer.
Chemical fertilizers. he stated, do not
take the place Of cultivation in making
soils rich