By WM. DENISON, FARGO, N. D.
“The air and the water contain all the invisible essences of things, that
from which all plants and minerals arise, and of which they are, so to
speak, only condensations or precipitations, so that they become manifest
to our crude senses.” Assuming that the above idea is the truth, and we
fully believe it is, then the air and the water of this earth certainly
must play a most important role in the weal or woe of all things
terrestrial, whether animate or inanimate.
Corroborating the above idea, at least the air part of it, which is true,
being of such paramount importance was advanced four or five years ago
at a meeting of the National Convention of Chemists, at Washington, D.
C. But they failed to recognize that the water was equally as important.
However, some wonderful things were said at that meeting of chemists,
among others, that for a long time past suggestions had been thrown out
to the effect that the exhaustion of the soil would inevitably wipe out
the human race; or at least reduce it greatly in numbers before many
hundred years. But these scientists announced a new discovery, which put
another face on the problem. They declared that this country alone was
able to support In comfort 500 million people—a number equal to nearly
one-third the world’s population at that time. Thanks for this discovery.
The land, while producing greater amounts of foods, is to become steadily
richer and more fertile. This great discovery of these chemists at
the national convention, is that it is atmosphere, and not the soil,
mainly, that produces the crops. Take all the hay or wheat or corn that
is yielded on an acre of land and burn it, stalks and all. It will all
disappear save about two per cent of the total weight. This two per cent
of ash represents what the soil has furnished in the shape of mineral
matter. The farmer of the future must look above for his nitrogen. Aye,
and also look below for his moisture. With the aid of this new knowledge
the present wheat growing regions can be multiplied by three. Today ten
average acres planted to wheat produce 150 bushels of cereal. With very
little trouble and slight cost those average ten acres can be made to
yield 400 bushels. This is simply a question of increasing the average
yield from thirteen to about forty bushels.
A good many acres of new land in the Northwest produce forty bushels
of wheat at a crop. They do it because the land contains the requisite
quantities of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. Supply those
materials to other acres in proper amounts and with climatic conditions
not unfavorable their yield will be as great.
According to these chemists this is the keynote of the whole business.
They say it is no longer accepted as a fact that a non-fertile field is
useless. On the contrary, it is known that such a field merely needs
to be supplied with the proper elements, cheaply obtained, in order
to produce richly. Suppose a farmer has such a field, and that he has
intelligence enough to take advantage of the new knowledge. He goes to
a chemist and has a sample of the soil analyzed. One, perhaps more, of
three things is certainly the matter with it. It lacks potash, it does
not contain sufficient phosphoric acid or there is an undue absence of
nitrogen. Just for argument’s sake, suppose that there is enough potash
and phosphoric acid—the two mineral earth elements essential to the
make-up of plant life, but that nitrogen is lacking. The chemist, in
that case, tells the farmer that he must put his field into condition
to absorb the nitrogen from the air. This is extremely simple, and this
is all there is about it. All the farmer has to do if his soil is
deficient in nitrogen is to plant a legume (of which there are 6,500
species scattered over this earth of ours) suitable to his section of
country. The cowpea is best adapted for the South, and beans and red
clover for the North, or any other leguminous plants suited to his
locality. These plants have an affinity for nitrogen, and they drink it
from the atmosphere as a baby takes milk from a bottle. The most costly
and indispensable of all plant foods is nitrogen. Yet there is plenty of
it at hand, inasmuch as that substance composes eighty per cent of the
atmosphere. The only trouble is to get it out of the air and into the
soil, but there is no real difficulty about that.
Strange, is it not, readers, that the costliest, most expensive plant
food—nitrogen—heretofore, to every farmer, is so abundantly supplied by
an all-wise Creator.
We have been advocating through the press this knowledge for the past
twelve years, which these scientists call new. But we regret that in
their deliberation they did not give due consideration, in fact, not any
at all, of the equal importance to the water end of this article.
If the reader will refer to the account of the creation in the first
chapter of Genesis, seventh verse, he will see that the Creator’s second
day’s work was dividing the waters of the atmosphere and the waters of
the earth.
This preceded the third day of creation, when vegetation began, which
shows conclusively that the waters were equally as important as the air.
It is obvious, then, that this covering of the earth’s surface with
vegetation was for a wise purpose, that of conserving the moistures
of the earth without which there can be no successful crops raised.
It is evident that our climate is changing in this country. Ten years
ago a writer of Chicago, now deceased, gave a theory for the cause of
our changing climate, which I indorse. “The cutting down of our virgin
forests, which has been going on at a fearful rate for the past sixty
years, and also the breaking up and putting under cultivation so large
an area of prairie land in so short a time, is the direct cause. The
equilibrium between the moisture of the atmosphere and the moisture of
the earth is maintained by the virgin forests of a country, and when the
virgin forests are slaughtered, as they have been in this country by
the lumber kings, that equilibrium is lost. Then comes drouth, fires,
famines, pestilence and death.”
This theory is borne out in the fact that there always is so much
humidity in the atmosphere during a protracted drouth. The histories of
the ancient and modern civilizations also bear out this theory. There is
no doubt but that the ancient civilizations had immense virgin forests to
begin with, and that as soon as these virgin forests were consumed, then
the equilibrium between the moisture of the atmosphere and the moisture
of the earth were destroyed and one after the other of these great
nations have perished by drouth, famines, fires and pestilences. I cannot
recall to mind ever having seen a natural spring of water on a treeless
prairie. It is in the timber we find them, showing conclusively that the
forests of a country make the great reservoir of its water supply.
To come down to modern civilizations, a pertinent comment is that made by
Mr. Charles F. Adams on one of the causes that have led to the downfall
of Spain. It is a fact that this peninsula once supported a population
of about 45,000,000, but now holds a meager 17,000,000. The main reason
for this is stated by Mr. Adams. “During the last three years I have
spent much time in Europe, visiting among other countries Spain, Italy,
Germany, France and England, and whoever wishes to study the effects
of deforesting on a country and on its people should by all means visit
Spain. Not only has the country been ruined, but the character of the
people has been changed by the wholesale destruction of trees, and the
neglect of their renewal. The rivers have become mountain torrents and a
large portion of the country is a rugged upland desert. The same process
is to-day going on in Italy. The results in that country as noticed by me
in visits ten years apart is lamentable. The ancient forests are being
wholly stripped from the mountains, and while the rivers are converted
into torrents, the water is not held in the soil. In Germany, on the
other hand, the forestry laws are admirable. The result upon the country,
climate and rainfall is apparent to the most careless observer.
“It is certainly timely to urge the United States that it shall not
permit itself to copy the Spanish example of decay in this or any other
respect.”
The facts stated by Mr. Adams have been corroborated again and again,
to the effect that the denudation of the mountain slopes of Spain and
the erosion of its soil have reduced it to a condition of semi-aridity
and lessening its power to support population, one-third of which are
to-day indulging in bread riots. Of all the civilized nations, we most
nearly copy the Spanish stupidity in the waste of our forests. We should
certainly set about showing ourselves to be wiser than the nation whose
decay is now so evident.
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