Whereas on the heavier and richer land of Rothamsted the
produce of unmanured wheat has fallen in 58 years from 17.2
bushels to 12.3 bushels, on the lighter and poorer soil of Woburn
it has fallen in 30 years from 17.4 bushels to 10.8 bushels; barley
has in 50 years at Rothamsted gone from 22.4 bushels to 10
bushels, whilst at Woburn (which is better suited for barley)
it has fallen in 30 years from 23 bushels to 13.3 bushels. At both
Rothamsted and Woburn the application of farm-yard manure
has kept the produce of wheat and barley practically up to what
it was at the beginning, or even increased it. Similar conclusions
can be drawn from the use of artificial manures at each of
the experimental stations named, exemplifying the fact that
with suitable manuring crops of wheat or barley can be grown
years after year without the land undergoing deterioration,
whereas if left unmanured it gradually declines in fertility.
Practical proof has further been given of this in the well-known
“continuous corn-growing” system pursued, in his regular
farming, by Mr John Prout of Sawbridgeworth, Herts, and subsequently
by his son, Mr W. A. Prout, since the year 1862. By
supplying, in the form of artificial manures, the necessary constituents
for his crops, Mr Prout was enabled to grow year after
year, with only an occasional interval for a clover crop and to
allow of cleaning the land, excellent crops of wheat, barley and
oats, and without, it may be added, the use of farm-yard manure
at all.
In considering the economical use of manures on the land regard must be had to the following points: (1) the requirements of the crops intended to be cultivated; (2) the physical condition of the soil; (3) the chemical composition of the soil; and (4) the composition of the manure. Briefly stated, the guiding principle of manuring economically and profitably is to meet the requirements of the crops intended to be cultivated, by incorporating with the soil, in the most efficacious states of combination, the materials in which it is deficient, or which the various crops usually grown on the farm do not find in the land in a sufficiently available condition to ensure an abundant harvest. Soils vary greatly in composition, and hence it will be readily understood that in one locality or on one particular field a certain manure may be used with great benefit, while in another field the same manure has little or no effect upon the produce.
For plant life to thrive certain elements are necessary, viz. carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, among the organic or combustible matters, and among the inorganic or mineral matters, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus and sulphur. We must now examine the extent to which these necessary elements occur in either of the two great storehouses, the atmosphere and the soil, and how their removal in the form of crops may be made up for by the use of manures, so that the soil may be maintained in a state of fertility. Further, we must consider what functions these elements perform in regard to plant life, and, lastly, the forms in which they can best be applied for the use of crops.
Of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen there is no lack, the atmosphere providing carbonic acid in abundance, and rain giving the elements hydrogen and oxygen, so that these are supplied from natural sources. Iron, magnesium and sulphur also are seldom or never deficient in soils, and do not require to be supplemented by manuring. Accordingly, the elements for which there is the greatest demand by plants, and which the soil does not provide in sufficiency, are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and, possibly, calcium. Manuring, apart from the physical and mechanical advantages which it confers upon soils, practically resolves itself, therefore, into the supply of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and it is with the supply of these that we shall accordingly deal in particular.
1. Nitrogen.—Though we are still far from knowing what are the exact functions which nitrogen fulfils in plant life, there is no doubt as to the important part which it plays in the vegetable growth of the plant and in the formation of stem and leaf. Without a sufficiency of nitrogen the plant would be stunted in growth. Its growth, indeed, may be said to be measured by the supply of nitrogen, for while mineral constituents like phosphoric acid and potash are only taken up to the extent that the plant can use them i.e. according to its rate of growth, this actual growth itself would seem to be determined by the extent of the nitrogen supply. This it is which causes the ready response given to a crop by the application of some quickly-acting nitrogenous material like nitrate of soda, and which is marked by the dark-green colour produced and the pushing-on of the growth. Similarly, this use of nitrogen, by prolonging growth, defers maturity, while over-use of nitrogen tends to produce increase of leaf and lateness of ripening. Along with this growth of the vegetative portions, and seen, in the case of corn crops, mainly in the straw, there is a corresponding decrease, from the use of nitrogen in excess, in the quality of the grain. In corn a smaller grain and lesser weight per bushel are the result of over-nitrogen manuring. The composition of the grain is likewise affected, becoming more nitrogenous. With crops, however, where rapid green growth is required, nitrogen effects the purpose well, though here, too, over-manuring with nitrogen will tend to produce rankness and coarseness of growth. Experiments at Rothamsted and elsewhere, as well as everyday practice of the farm, bear testimony to the paramount importance of nitrogen-supply, and to the crops it is capable of raising. This applies not only to corn crops of all kinds, but to root crops, grass, potatoes, &c. Leguminous crops alone seem to have no need of it. In view of this practical experience, Liebig’s “mineral theory”—according to which he laid down that plants only needed to have mineral constituents, such as phosphoric acid, potash and lime, supplied to them—reads strangely nowadays. The use of mineral manures without nitrogen other than that already present in the soil or supplied in rain has been shown, alike at Rothamsted and Woburn, to produce crops of wheat and barley little better than those from unmanured land. The lack of nitrogen in ordinary cultivated soils is much more marked than is that of mineral constituents, and consequently even with the application of nitrogen alone (as by the use of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia), good crops have been grown for a large number of years. This has been shown both at Rothamsted and at Woburn. On the other hand, experiments at these stations have demonstrated that better and more lasting results are obtained by the judicious use of nitrogenous materials in conjunction with phosphates and potash.
The form in which nitrogen is taken up by plants is mainly, if not wholly, that of nitrates, which are readily-soluble salts. Ammonia and other nitrogenous bodies undergo in the soil, through the agency of nitrifying organisms present in it (Bacterium nitrificans, &c.), rapid conversion into nitrates, and as such are easily assimilable by the plant. Similarly, they are the constituents which are most readily removed in drainage, and hence the adequate supply of nitrogen for the plant’s use is a constant problem in agriculture. Experiments on the rate of removal of nitrates from the soil by drainage showed that every inch of rain passing through the drains caused a loss of 2½ ℔ of nitrogen per acre (Voelcker and Frankland). At the same time, soils, as Way showed, have the power of absorbing, in different degrees, ammonia from its solution in water, and when salts of ammonia are passed through soils the ammonia alone is absorbed, the acids passing, generally in combination with lime, into the drainage.
Other experiments at Rothamsted on drainage showed that, though large quantities of ammonia salts were applied to the land, the drainage water contained merely traces of ammonia, but, on the other hand, nitrates in quantity, thus proving that it is as nitrates, and not as ammonia, that plants mainly, if not entirely, take up their nitrogenous food.
From these investigations it follows that much more nitrogen must be added to the land than would be needed to produce a given increase in the crop. Nitrogen, then, being so all-important, the question is, where is it to come from? We have seen that the leaves take up only minute quantities of ammonia, comparatively small amounts are supplied in the rain, dew, snow, &c.,[1] and in the case of Leguminosae alone have we any evidence of plants being able to provide themselves with nitrogen from atmospheric sources. Some few organisms present in fertile soils, e.g. Azotobacter chroococcum, have also the power, under certain conditions, of fixing the free nitrogen of the atmosphere without the intervention of a “host,” but all these sources would be very inadequate to meet the demands of an intensive cultivation. An ordinary fertile arable soil will not show, on analysis, much more than .15% of nitrogen, and it is evident that the great source of supply of the needed nitrogen must be the direct manuring of the soil with materials containing nitrogen. These materials will be considered in detail later.
2. Phosphorus.—This is the most important mineral element which has to be supplied to the soil by the agency of manuring. It occurs in ordinary fertile soils to the extent of only about .15%, reckoned as phosphoric acid, and though its absence in sufficiency is not so marked or so soon shown under prolonged cultivation as is that of nitrogen, yet the fact that it is needed by all classes of crops, and that its application in manurial form is attended with great benefits, makes its supply one of great importance. From the time that Liebig, in 1840, suggested the treatment of bones with sulphuric acid in order to make them more readily available for the use of crops, and that
- ↑ The amount of nitrogen thus deposited annually was found at Rothamsted to be 7.21 ℔ per acre.
