The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-07-14

IL Is needless to expound the phil
csophy of the bean. That philosophy
~ summed up In the one significan,
word. "nourishment.' 1t is a most
significant word In these DAYS when
we face short rations. Suppose, then
that for every pound OF beans that
would normally be harvested this au.
tumn you could count upon producing
an additional pound at an extra cost
OF ono cent per pound. Would .ou
not insist that Uncle sam create a
bean commission to turn that posi-
oility into an accomplished fact ?
Perhaps the entire crop could not thus
be doubled. but IL can be done on nj
least 100000 acres. and since one
acre of good bean land yields about
$500 pounds Of beans, 1t is possible
to harvest an extra $500, 900, 900
pounds. equivalent to 25 pounds FOR
each man. woman and child I'm the
|. country.
The solution OF so important q prob
lem has been made possible through
discoveries showing the beneflcent CT
feet OF, sulphur when applied In it
raw condition as fertilizer upon av-
erage soils. II may sound strange to
speak OF powdered birthstone as a
plant food. but there Is no longer any
question about II. Plants need sulphur,
and they need II In large quantities
II turns out that they need more oc
u than they do Of phosphorus. ami
that tho vitality and vigor and pro.
ductivencss OF many of our most nu-
tritious crops depends upon it, Some
OF them carry In their tissues 1 PER
cent. or 20 pounds per ton of this
element. II exists i'm the plants for
the most part I'm highly volatile Or
ganic compounds. and that Is the rca-
son why It's presence remained so
long undetected.
III had been the custom OF agricul-
tural chemists to look for the sulphur
only I'm the ash, and tho bulk of 1t
passed OF as n gas In burning. 1t
was only through a fortunate series
Of tests by DIR. +. c. Reimer OF the
Southern Oregon Experiment Station
that the need OF sulphur In plants
was revealed. He was working with
alfalfa. and he found to his surprise
that equally advantageous results
wore obtained by fertilizing with SUI
perpbosphate and with gypsum. As
superphosphate contains phosphorus,
lime and sulphur and as gypsum con
tains lime and sulphur. he tried three
plats fertilized. respectively. with raw
ground phosphate rock. with lime
and with sulphur. Those plots that
had been enriched In phosphate rock
and In lime showed no Improvements.
but the plot to which sulphur had
been applied gave an extraordinar,
yield. The alfalfa was then analyz-
cd for sulphur by improved analytic
methods. and was found to contain
seven pounds of that element per toa
of dried alfalfa hay. 1t was the sui.
phur that had done the work.
From this beginning the expert
ments were extended to other plants.
and the need OF sulphur in varying
amounts was proved to be almost uni
versaL These results received con
hmatfon by tests conducted at the Az.
ricultural Experiment Stations In
Wisconsin. New Jersey. Ohio. Ken
lucky California and Iowa. and moro
recently extremely important addi-
tons.to our knowledge of the posi-!
bilitiss OF this treatment have been
given by DIR. Il. j. O'Hara of expcri-
mental farm conducted by the Amer
lean Smelling & Refining Co, near
Salt Lake, Utah. lie has shown that
100 pounds OF elemental sulphur per
acre Increased the yield Of barley %
per cent. OF wheat 12s per cent. of
milo maize 1872 per cent. and OF SO.
called Canadian peas 3ss ~ cent.
DIR. Reimer has obtained an. hcreas
OF 500 per cent. In the output Of al
falfa by this treatment. using a0t
pounds of sulphur per acre. and nil
icsuminous plants, such as Glove.
peas and beans display extraordinary
gains when sulphur Is directly har.
rowed into the soil To say that IA
bean crop will he doubled by II is &C.
understate the truth.
II may be argued that sulphur /