SOIL AND HEALTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 28 July 1942, Page 3

SOIL AND HEALTH

(To the Editor! Sir,—ln raising the quest.on ot what is wrong with the health of our child- j ren Mr Dodds has done a valuable , piece of work, as it is high time that j somebody asked what has happened to the health not only of our children but of the whole nation. And she is right ; in surmising that deficiency diseases are j connected with the soil. The whole i problem of soil is fraught with peril. ; l ut to those who have not given it j much thought the earth would appear j to be material which can be farmed lor j ever. The public needs to be thorough- : ly aroused to the fact that our very j existence depends upon those few j inches of top soil which, under-defor- \ estation and wrong farming, are disap- j pearing rapidly. With our faulty I methods we have very nearly commit- ! ted suicide l ist, because the proc-\ ; is a silent one, the man in the street thinks ; all is well *...d believes warning.-: tsuen as have been persistently issued by tne Forest and Bird Protection Society over a number of years) to be mere propaganda. Of late the subject has been gradually coming to the fore and town-dwell-ers who depend on the country for food arc beginning to realise all is not well, i A parliamentary committee recently recommended that two and a half million acres of land should be withdrawn because of soil deterioration. The author of "The Crime Against the Land” quotes as an example a place in Marlborough i where, in 30 miles, every third homestead is rotting by wind and weather in the deserted or semi-deserted holding that surrounds it. These two examples are only typical of what is going on elsewhere in New Zealand but she is not the only one menaced with famine. In America a soil survey disclosed that a total of one third of the soil of this fertile earth has been irretrievably destroyed (note the word “irretrievably"). In Britain the derelict land problem, as it is called. has been ignored till the guns began to shoot, we gather from Messrs Jacks and ! Whyte’s book "The Rape of the Earth. ' We now come to the next stage. "The ; over-dosing of badly farmed soil (to quote Lord Lvmington in "Famine in ! England”) with artificial manure com* I pletes the ruin which endless crops and cutting of forests have started. The reckless use of artificial manures is as [destructive as the careless handling of j explosives. They can be useful in exi ceptional cases to stimulate production, j but unless they arc used in conjunction ' with good farming they are highly I dangerous. The processes of life depend a? much on decay as on growth. Healthy 1 growth can only take place where there ; , has been proper decay of organic mati j ter which becomes humus. This can i only be brought about by the working • f the soil bacteria. Reckless use of ! sulphate of ammonia. nitro chalk, j potash and other salts kills these bncj teria so the plant cannot remain healthy when there is no humus in the soil.” Referring to New Zealand Lord Lyminglon—the man who has done ( more than anyone else to prevent Britain from suffering from starvation , during the war—says: "It is unlikely that she will be an increasing source of food unless the country is farmed much more on Far Eastern methods 1 ; than on lines of western exploitation.” But the spectie of having less and t J less food in this country is not the only factor we have to contend with. Mr Dodds’s question as to the reason why jwe have lost what one would term ‘‘robust health” has its answer in the soil. Bodies are not sound unless they j are properly nourished and nutrition : i begins with the soil. Unless the soil : is right those precious vitamins we talk j about so much will not be there al j though the food may look all right. 1 When the soil is mismanaged and the I bacteria are destroyed a whole host of troubles arise. We find faulty nutrition with resultant disease of plants, beasts and man who. by flogging this i soil with artificial manure. merely ! serves the role of giving brandy to a heart patient and hastens his death. Slowly—alas—too slowly, the effects of this murder of the soil are felt by

■ man. cut tne slow poison is at work. . as witness the signs of morbidity which • are almost universal. So much so that we are apt to look upon the average as normal. People think it is quite • normal to have ’flu every year, to have i incessant colds, to have false teeth and wear spectacles. Constipation, headaches. catarrh, low spirits, gastric ulcers [ are looked upon as the lot of man. On 1 top of it all the presence of huge hospitals and the increase in free medicine are looked upon as signs of progress. Yes—but in the wrong direction. The war has done much to force us lo ' compare the poor phy.-ique cf the British with the virility of our enemies. What then is to be the upshot? Are we going to sink into our graves as i victims of minor complaints or compete i with one another for the ever-decreas- I ing food supply whilst our top-soil gaily leaves us with erosion and wrong •’arming? Surely not. Fortunately in New Zealand we arc lucky enough to have those amongst us who realise the dangers and are trying to ward them ! off. Witness the formation of a com- [ oost club to teach those who want to learn to make the soil healthy. Witness I the clamour for something concrete to be done against erosion. All these are I

Isigns that the nation is awakening beI fore it is too late. Now what can we do j to assist? , First we need to realise that in t!repast we have taken out of the soil in the form of crops more than we put I into it in the form of animal and other organic manure This must stop. Secondly we need to learn all we can about (compost farming. Here the pa moh lets iof the compost club are of assistance. IWe must also call a halt to the excessive use of artificial manure? which are a source of much wealth but. if injurious to the soil of our country, must j be replaced by animal and other organic j manures. We should do well. too. to I drop our western forms of exploitation land turn—a? Lord Lymineton advises — jto the study cf Fas 4 ern methods. We can 'learn much from the methods of China. I for instance, where teeming millions ’have existed for generation.' on p“Oper-jly-farmed soil and ask ourselves how is jit that we cannot afford to keep our bush in a country which ha.- but a small population compared with Japan, which is rich in forests. A studv of the i ancient truths in the world of husbandry will reveal sound methods which we have lost in the exigencies of modern practice. We must realise that bad food not only make? bad bodies but makes wrong minds. The really healthy people are the happy people. To quote Viscount . Lvmington. "bad feeding make? unhealthy, restless, internally ouarrolsome . people, always ready to be swaved without fixed purpose The ; healthiest people are those who take most care of their agriculture, which return to the land its on n waste products and which look upon land not a* means of exploitation, but as the centre lof their own life."—l am etc . PERRINE MONCRIEFF. R.A.O.U. • Vice-PresidenL the New Zealand Fores* and Bird Protection Society. Nelson. 27th July.