SOIL AND HEALTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 10 August 1942, Page 6

SOIL AND HEALTH

(To the Editor) Sir.—it is regrettable that the article by Sir T. Rigg has served to distract some of your contributors from the main point. No one will deny the eminence of Sir Theodore as an expert in artificial manuring, but he would appear to be unaware of some of the results of research by equally eminent j scientists on this subject. May I recommend to your readers “Agricultural Testament” by Sir Albert Howard, as one publication which gives an arresting picture of overwhelming importance to our decaying health. The central point of the whole subject is the humus content of the soil. Without humus, the bacteria essential to plant life cannot live; without the bacteria, artificial fertiliser is useless. A soil of sufficient humus content requires little, if any, assistance from artificials. Furthermore, humus is not necessarily supplied by cover cropping and ploughing in. In most cases such process actually works active harm, e.g., green manuring with lupins has been disastrous in many cases when follow?;! persistently. I oeiieve it is incorrect to state that composting will not supply essential plant nutrition. The results attained by Howard at Indore disprove that absolutely. Nor is composting difficult or expensive. The results of artificials are now becoming evident in the tobacco lands. Each year more artificials poison the soil; each year feverish work goes on to discover a new artificial cure for some disease; each year the humus content is further destroyed by artificials and green cover crops; each year more artificials produce a lesser yield per acre. The ways of nature and her laws should not be ruthlessly ignored. It appears that each year money is spent to cure a condition when it should be used to prevent. Howard positively rid his crops of disease by compost. We invite disease and disaster with artificials, and waste public money in doing it. Nor should we mistake the cause of erosion in some of its forms. The most modern example, the Dust Bowl of Kansas, is due completely to the exhaustion of soil humus. This has happened for tens of thousands of years. Yet it is now proved that the humble earthworm, a perfect composting machine, can restore lifeless lands and is bred by the million for that purpose. A healthy body precedes a healthy mind, and the greatest menace to health is the use of artificial fertilisers and failure to maintain nature’s balance of humus in the soil. —I am, etc., HUMUS, Motueka, sth August.