Untitled

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 421, 18 July 1947, Page 22

Sir-May I congratulate you on printing extracts from the address given by Sir Stanton Hicks. This will help to .*" arouse general interest in one of the most vital problems of our day concerning the use of mineral fertilisers and the attitude of science towards it. I refrain from using the term "artificial fertiliser" as the application of certain pulverised minerals to the soil seems to me no more artificial than that of compo» made in a pit. ‘=e Although many farmers are not, quite) aware of its importance, no present-day scientist will deny the value of compost, So the much debated question "compost or minerals" should be modified thus: can certain minerals be applied to the soil in addition to compost without harm.ful consequences to soil, plants, animals or men? After a carefulgstudy of Sir Stanton’s statements it becomes evident that the problem cannot be solved in the laboratory alone or on miniature experimental plots. It calls for large scale experiments carried out over whole farm units for several years, each of these units worked in its entirety according to one or another of these various methods recommended. Then the farmer-scientist should have little difficulty in discriminating between a sound soil management and a faulty one and Sir Theodore Rigg will be able to arrive at the definitions of healthy soil and healthy plant, asked for in his comment. To measure health in man by the death rate per 1,000, -as Sir Theodore suggests, is but another example of oversimplification -- though in a somewhat different sphere. It fails to consider at least one factor: the amount of hospitals, doctors, and medicines needed to keep the 991 alive.

F. H.

HOFFMAN

(Runciman),