STERILISED SOIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 683, 7 December 1909, Page 10

STERILISED SOIL.

A NEW f WAY TO FERTILITY :: !(A,.write) : in' ; ','Tho : Dairy' - calls atfoation -to--1.■ ,bo my recent. • .obtained 'at Kofchamsted begitining-'.of '-'things, uas.found/.(he saya) that if a -qnantity of ;Vf? 1 - rF®- 9 aiid; then '. plants -'grown: in dt ; .these: \v6s" much greater' than in 1 i®? 1 ! treated. V:- Better, effccts still w«ra - the ' aAti. -'l ..septic chemical Called toluene, and this leads :i ; ,-iis'to beh*evo that the ; artificial sterilisation of .. . a soil ls Olle of -the.best;: ways of allowing the j i.v.cultivated;(.crops, to .develop ; to. their greatest . . capacity. •. -'V..-.". : k;*v'£h«s? who ..are - familiar,with tho older? agri-' - cultural science,.!;^itMastdught; : ; say, fifty 'fe that it was then held. substances-. ! from their; roots which poisoned tho land for ;• k :.a' .snccessiTo;.,cr'op of tho^sarao.kind, .and this' \ '•>« explanation. l given'''f or'sudh.- things as clover,. and- the-necfissity,for chang- ' I? g i. A® crtl P s ' ln a rotation. It would seem that there t vas some measure of truth in this,- • . after all, and that the chloroforming of tho d»5 ! Vletenous • organisms -in; the v'eoil,: so • tospeak, ■ i! - PP e -jOfi -ithe' • best -.methods -of ••• stimulating ~ giwth 'of any kind of farm crop. We ~ Know,, that .certain: nitrifying and other ' bac- ■ s toria m tho soil aro absolutely.- necessary' in -prepanng thejfood for plants,- but there are ~, infuionajand.'amoobae in: the soil which/livc :, on.thfise,, and.;;,tho,killing;or the 'drugging of i; tfeesb I'jjbitoitted: • the i residue..of 'useful ' microbe? td develop at five times the normal offect , on - I : > aro._gradnally;; finding out as the result I f;'j :the soil .-.is a . [, Gtorehonse. 'iiinuindrablo.- forms of' ' minut-o ■ IHe. A generation p.fo we discovered the pirt 3>f our leguminous ,j- winch ..■has.,-, quite -- revolutionised, "-our- ' I™ 3 of renovating the nitrogen in the soil, thon wo found that microbes prepared tho 5/ h p n 3*o ;',°r ■-. for tho we fin<l 'that-other .lifa^play.a part: and .want' .•checking. It inll not beVsible m prachce to boil onr soils or even to dress with toluene a tog® si ale, but tho pre-ont writer wonld tho action of lime on a soil i S :. :J ;T)artly,./of. : .thiß nature; . Lime.' is. only of sec- ./ ondary. lmpoitanc».as a it "stimu!S,Ai /? var ' ous —such as in pro- . the Jife . aotiono.of the . nitrifying bac--,tena-an<l it is mote than likely that it may v -®! tchecfc on tho deleterious orean- , jisms ju.jt .as .toluene has done. 'Wo seem to be' :