Ploughman's Folly Ploughman's Folly - EcoPort

It may be suggested that -- judging from experience, again -- what we now think of as maximum crops will be badly
dwarfed by the actual results that will follow the discing of important quantities of organic matter. I have already
produced crops in excess of one thousand bushels per acre under such conditions as I am describing, without
fertilizers or any soil amendment other than plenty of organic matter.
When farmers and scientific men begin to experiment with this plan for the growing of crops, they will be surprised
and disappointed at the appearance of the plants during a considerable portion of the growing season. Crops that
are destined to produce two or three times the customary yield will look as if they could scarcely produce an
average yield. The colour, during dry, windy weather especially, will not be the dark, lush green that we have been
accustomed to associate with healthy crops. Even in moist, favourable periods crops grown without the use of
nitrogen fertilizers will be quite ordinary in appearance. Many a farmer, when he observes this absence of dark
green colour, will want to crowd the crop by the use of nitrogen fertilizer. However, if he is wise, he will wait
patiently to see what the outcome will be without nitrogen. That outcome will please him beyond measure,
considering that all his past experience will have taught him to expect a short crop. When he discovers a big
increase in yield, he will be entitled not only to wonder why, but to analyze his results.
The explanation of this strange phenomenon is simple. For as long as most men now living can remember,
fertilizers have carried some nitrogen. The nitrogen in early fertilizers designed for staple crops was usually not
more than 2 per cent -- forty pounds to a ton. At the usual rate of application of fertilizer, at most two hundred to
three hundred pounds per acre, this small application of nitrogen, four to six pounds per acre, could do nothing
more than "advertise" the fertilizer by keeping the crop dark green until hot weather came. Then, the rapid loss of
colour would be charged against drought or some other circumstance. We may conclude, then, that our judgment
of a healthy green colour has been warped by our fertilizer experience.
Experienced farmers and scientists know that if a crop grows too luxuriantly in the early weeks, when there is
plenty of water, it is likely before harvest time to encounter weather conditions which will make such growth difficult
to maintain. Such events precede the firing of corn blades. Often, when the farmer has overdone nitrogen feeding
at planting time, the rainfall will be sufficient for a few weeks to induce extraordinary growth. The almost inevitable
sequel is dry weather, which suddenly stops the liberal flow of nutrients into the plant. Retrenchment in the form of
dead leaves -- so that the available nutrients can support the remainder of the plant -- is a forced procedure. Fired
corn blades, therefore, are no mystery, but should be expected as a result of certain fertilizer practices.
There is plenty of nitrogen in the air; there are practically unlimited quantities of mineral nutrients in the soil The
new practices make it possible to utilize natural forces to make these available. Therefore, we should hereafter
stop carrying coals to Newcastle, by fertilizing soils that already have an abundance of plant food.
Ch. 12: Exit Pests
THE hypothesis that environment influences plant disease and insect damage is not new. In early agricultural
literature, writers generally accepted the theory that the better the growing conditions for plants, the less the risks
from disease and insects. From 1910 to the present time, however, it has been difficult to find this theory
expressed in writings on agricultural subjects.
It is true that the era of soil depletion has been contemporaneous with the period in which diseases and insects
have become most troublesome. This could be true, of course, without being significant; but there are very good
reasons for supposing a connection to exist. Many farmers can remember when there were no colorado potato
beetles, San Jose scale, and other insects and blights now common. These same men can remember also that at
that time their ploughs separated a zone of almost black upper soil from the yellowish subsoil. This black topsoil
has now disappeared; at the same time many new insects have made their appearance, and those that were
present before have become much more numerous. Plant diseases have multiplied in number and increased in
virulence during the same period. We may well ask, then: Is environment (meaning the soil) a factor in their
control?
Certain human and animal diseases and parasites have long been thought of as environmental. Hookworms
belong entirely in the South, particularly in the south-eastern section of the United States. Malaria can occur only
where the Anopheles mosquito is present. Pellagra and other so-called deficiency diseases have usually been
thought of as belonging to certain localities. It has not been difficult to connect such troubles with the environment
in which they have been found.
In recent years the control of deficiency diseases has been much improved in most areas because of the more
general availability of protective foods. Coincident with this improvement, however, there seems to have been a
general decline in the nutritive value of foods produced on average land. The discovery of vitamins has brought
this matter into better focus. When knowledge of vitamins was new, it was thought that certain foods contained an
abundance of particular vitamins. Egg yolk was said to be rich in most of them. Now it is known that the vitamin