Story of the Soil

TGS Survival Books Reprint: In the event of an economic collapse society will return to the only the that guarantees survival, the soil. Most urbanites know little - to nothing - of how to till the soil, or when to plant the seeds. TGS keeps books available to give knowledge to those of the concrete jungle on how to survive. The author, in this curious book, attempts to teach farming knowledge through story telling.

EXCERPT



THE Chief showed Percy into the laboratories of the Bureau and introduced him to the soil physicist and the soil chemist. Percy was greatly interested in the various lines of work in progress and gladly accepted an invitation to return after lunch and become better acquainted with the methods of investigation used.

In the afternoon the physicist showed him how the soil water could be removed from an ordinary moist soil by centrifugal force, and the chemist was growing wheat seedlings in small quantities of this water and in water extracts contained in bottles. The seedlings were allowed to grow for twenty days and then other seedlings were started in the same solution and also in fresh solution, and it was very apparent that in some cases the wheat grew better in the fresh solutions.

The chemist explained that he also analyzed the soil solutions and water extracts from different soils and that there was no relation between the crop yields and the chemical composition of the soils.

"But it seems to me," said Percy, "that your analysis refers to the plant food dissolved in the soil water only at the time when you extract it. How long a time does it require to make the extraction?"

"As a rule we shake the soil with water for three minutes and then it takes twenty minutes to separate the water from the soil. This gives us the plant food in solution and with the addition of more water the nitrates, phosphoric acid, and potash in the soil immediately dissolve sufficiently give us a nutrient solution of the same concentration as we had before. Thus there is always sufficient plant food in the soil so long as there is any of the original stock."

"That is surely quick work," said Percy, "but I wonder if the corn plant might not get somewhat different results from the soil analysis which it makes."

"How do you mean?"

"Did you ever plant a field of corn and then cultivate it and watch it grow with increasing rapidity, until along about the Fourth of July every leaf seemed to nod its appreciation and thanks as you stirred the soil; and to show its gratitude, too, by growing about five inches every twenty-four hours when the nights were warm?"

"No," replied the Chemist, "I have never had any experience of that sort. I am devoting my life to the more scientific investigations relating to the fundamental laws which underlie these soil fertility problems."

NOTICE: This book contains words and language that would be considered politically incorrect and socially demeaning. In today's world the language might be called racist, or at minimum callous.

However, during the era which this story was written about, the language and its context is historical, and might not have been intended as racist, but simply the common language of the day.

CONTENTS