DESTRUCTION OF SOIL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 46, 23 January 1939, Page 5

DESTRUCTION OF SOIL.

SCIENTIST’S WARNING. MODERN DANGERS. SYDNEY, Jan. 19. The danger of the production of one class of crop leading to the permanent destruction of the soil was emphasised yesterday by Sir John Russell, director of the Rothamstead Experimental Station, who, in an address to the Millions Club, referred specifically to tho large areas in Australia, the United Stales, and Canada, devoted exclusively to the growing of wheat.

Sir John, who is a delegate to the Science Congress, described the 20th century as having been more wasteful and destructive than any of its predecessors. Thousands of acres of land, which had been destroyed, would not be productive again for generations, if ever, lie said.

Sir John said that, in the last years of the nineteenth century the outstanding idea was to produce more, and cheaper, food, so that there should not be any hunger in the world; with free trade amongst nations, and that each country producing that which it could no most effectively and economically. The opening of new cultivated areas in the United States, Canada, and Australia brought about the problem for the scientists how the lack of sufficient man power might be obviated. That led to great engineering developments and the production of agricultural machinery whereby one man could do the work of 10. Farrer, in Australia, bred new varieties of wheat, and everywhere there was a continuation of the idea that food should be produced abundantly and sold freely in the markets of the world. NATIONAL SELF-SUFFICIENCY.

Those ideas bad been thrown overboard, to be replaced by the system known as “National Self-sufficiency.” continued Sir •John, and so scientists in Germany, Italy, and other countries advocating those doctrines, had their energies diverted to the production of substitutes for the natural products that could not be produced within the respective countries. National selfsufficiency was an unstable policy, as was evidenced by the series of crises that followed each other rapidly in Europe. The doctrine of tho “Brotherhood of Man” had been replaced by the doctrine that every nation should live within itself, and be regarded by its nationals as being tile most important nation in tho world. It was undesirable. Sir John said, for any country, or section of primary producers, to confine their exertions to the production of one class nf crop. There was the initial difficulty that prices in the markets of the world varied radically, but there was the more serious danger that the. production of one class of crop was leading to the permanent- destruction of the soil. The production of wheat exclusively' in large areas of Canada and the United States had led directly to the destruction of thousands of acres of good soil by erosion, and the same thing was at present being evidenced in the wheal areas in Australia. It might also apply to the vast areas given over to (lie production of sugar cane. UNIFORM GOOD QUALITY.

The responsibility of scientists, Sir John added, was to point the way by experiment and investigation, to the alternative methods of production that might he followed to save the soil from destruction and lead to greater national stability. Scientists were also charged with tho re sponsibilitv of improving the general stand ard of quality. He praised the work lhat was being done in Australia by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, which was linked up with similar organisations in Britain, and through them with the research institutions of Europe and the United States. Scientific investigation never could be done cheaply, or hastily. All that could be done was to prevent waste by the harmonious co-operation of investigators in different countries to prevent duplication of effort and cost. That was being done satisfactorily and effectively in Australia.