FERTILISERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 34

FERTILISERS

REQUIREMENTS OF THE SOIL In the treatment of crops with fertilisers knowledge is power, as in every other industry. Scientific knowledge on the use of fertilisers is of comparatively recent origin, dating from the middle of the last century. It was recognised that plants, like animals, were living organisms, and require a sufficiency of suitable nourishment just as much as animals do. Their mouth is their root system and if the food they require is not in adequate supplies and appropriate form, the crop will be ill-nourished and the harvest disappointing. Thus it behoves the grower to see that such a mishap does not befall his crop by seeing that the soil contains all it requires. This is generally obtained by applying farmyard manures, -which is Nature’s own way of feeding plants, but under intensive systems of cultivation there is not enough of the bulky form of manure and the position would have become serious had not science come to the help of cultivators and shown that Nature can be helped by the application of certain substances containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash in various forms, known as fertilisers. Science has also shown that the requirements of crops differ in thenneed of plant food, which can be best shown by examples. For cereals it has been shown that nitrogen is the dominant need and that it can be supplied by any of the nitrogenous fertilisers on the market. For a root crop it has been shown that their chief need is phosphoric acid and this is best supplied by means of a dressing of any suitable phosphate.