Evening star., 1932-08-28
BY WILLIAM E. CANNON.

HERE must be something In that
~ soil that we don't know anything
about" one farmer told another
one hot Midsummers day when
farmers from miles around gath
cred at a Wheatland, Wyo., sugar
beet field to witness peculiar phenomenon.
They drove to the field where dying beetS,
like drowning men. grasped at straw.
They came in bright new sedans and in an
cient weather-beaten f1ivvers; they stopped
their teams and got down of hayracks to look,
to puzzle and to speculate.
Many of them grave of HSen. They
were frankly troubled. Their farHN holdings
were at stake. A beet scourge had appeared in
Wheatland. None knew whence it came nor
what to do about it. Farm experts were with
out an effective remedy; it yielded to no treat
ment
The year was 1926.
In the advanced stages Of the disease the leaf
tissue between the veins became brown al
most black, and the root, from which the pre-
cious sugar is extracted, began to rot. Even
tually the beet died.
There in a few days high hope was born anew.
SsiF we only knew!" farmers repeated wher-
ever they met. They wanted to know the
secret so patiently held in the bosom of the dis
covery held-so called because running across
Il we're two rows of luxuriant growth their
strong, bright foliage in sharp contrast to the
desolation of dying and rotting beets in adjacent
rows.
The farmer whose field it was told all he
knew. That Spring he had started to plow un-
der straw from stack on the field The wind
rows Of straw were too heavy to handle without
further spreading and so he had set fire to the
straw and burned it. Where the straw had
burned, the yield was exceptionally heavy and
strong elsewhere in the field it was far below
par.
That was the only clew to what in all ap-
pearances was a major agricultural mystery
yet from this incident, together with research
under way at the time, has developed one of
the most important fertilization programs in
the history of intermountain agriculture.
This is conservative statement. For de-
velopment Of the soil plaque test at the Colo
RADIO Experiment Station at Fort Collins can
be evaluated neither in dollars in superla-
tives, and its sphere of influence cannot be linn
tied to q single area.
A mere laboratory toy in 1927, this test now
Is perfected. Instead of being sort of side
show where scientists watched strange micro
organisms behave peculiarly under varying con-
ditions, it is by way of becoming one of the
farmers most useful tools
rARM experts who have studied its applica-
tion believe the soil plaque, or azotobac-
ter, test will modify the course of agriculture,
eliminating certain types of farm losses increaS-
ing production generally, and saving time and
expense for the farmer.
The Wheatland farmers are scientific farm
ers, and when the mystery presented itself they
sent for agricultural field experts to see If they
could solve the puzzle.
These modern Aladdins of test tube and re-
tort set to work. Months later they had iso-
lated that something which the straw ashes
had deposited in the soil and which had been re-
sponsible for the two rows Of healthy beets.
That something was phosphorus.
To the layman, the word phosphorus brings
a mental picture of violent sputtering. smoky.
infiammable sustance, very much to be feared
and avoided. Combined with other elements,
however, it is so common as to pass almost un-
noticed It is used in producing many soft
drinks: it is found in certain baking powders
and self-rising fours and in many washing
powders and soaps and bath salts.
But its most extensive use Is in fertilizing
the fields In fact, few years after Baron
Won Leibig, professor Of chemistry at the
University of Munich, made the startling dis
coFery that the fertilizer value OF bones lies In
their content of phosphoric acid, there was a
mad scramble for old bones.
II the experience of the Colorado experiment
! Station is universal among farm agencies.
few weeks go by but what samples OF soil are
received with requests like this:
Dear Sir:
"Please analyze this soil and tell me II 1t
will grow potatoes and celery"
This Is not an isolated experience, DR.
Walter G. Sackett, bacteriologist in charge Of
the Fort Collins station, has pointed out. He