Phosphorus in the Soil.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1627, 5 February 1886, Page 2

Phosphorus m the Soil.

Professor Black delivered a lecture at Invercargill on Thursday evening on agricultural chemistry. He dwelt on the importauce of phosphorus, and asked— Were they wisely using the available . phosphorus they had m this country f There was not much m the soil to begin with— one pound weight to the ton of good sol, and much of that was beneath the reach of plants — wheat, for instance- •; When oO bushels of wheat were sold m London a large quantity of soil went with it, so that it was simply a mere question of calculation how many years it would take to make the soil utterly barren. The same things applied to bullock-rearing. It was bettei for the soil to put full grown animals on the land than young ones. It was a mistake sending Home the bones along with the frozen carcases of sheep. He deprecated the reckless, insane way m which the sewage ot the cities at Home was cast away into the sea. Seriously, he though it was simply owing to them throwing away their phosporui that the empires of old decayed and fell. The whole of Palestine m the olden times was no bigger than Southland, yet they read of one battle where there wera 1,300,000 men engaged— all big fellows ; but what did they get now m Palenstine ? —deserts and a small populatipn. What was the cause of the difference ? — the phosphorus was all gone; and he said, the same thing might yet happen in^Bri* tain. It might not happen here for * while, the land being young, but it wat nevertheless folly to be impoverishing the country by sending off the phosphorus. How Egypt could raise such. crops all knew, but there was the sama thing m China. How did it support such a huge population ?' They knew better than send their phosphates to the seawhy, a Chinaman would not -even leave his own bones out of China if he could help it. ,-,.,...