Show the land doctor ariy riy vivian shearer Bhear er I 1 guess it Is about time to get back to the tha subject of I lanks hanks potato scab about the best way to slip up on tile the blind side 0 at this topic will be to get sidetracked again and talk about a bout about it you cant pronounce that oua one you might do like I 1 did asked another teller feller and then both of 0 us asked someone else well anyway are outfits thal tha live in the soil they seem to be the missing link as as it were between true molds on the one side and bacteria on the other side they take after bacteria in point of being about the same chest measure diameter and also being uncil lular one cell power they take after their cousins on the other side the molds because ot of their threadlike filaments which are branched like P a tree only more so these threads do 49 not loom largo large to the naked eye and are even smaller than similar threads produced by fungi do their best in moist well aired soils bolls but like camels they can carry on better than their cousins when ill the almes times get dry on the other hand they are very unhappy in a soil boll that leans toward acidity when the ph drops to about 6 5 or below they disappear their job in life seems to be to help digest dissolve raw organic matter in tile the soil and so to unlock valuable abla nutrients they seem to be able to reduce all organic matter including humus to forms unlocking nitrogen and releasing it so that plants can make use of it seems to bethe be their lr specialty A lot of nitrogen is tied up in humus and it would not be available as plant food without being processed and dished up in usable form this processed nitrogen nf rit trogen appears first in the form of amano acids and later in combinations but like all good things a ac C have their naughty sides when they get too thick and thrifty and healthy they run riot and infest the plant roots like ticks ake make themselves on oil a cow aud and cause troubles of various sorts scab on potatoes Is only one of these troubles that and bacteria may cause when they get out of 0 bounds and so when I 1 talked to hank about the field that grew scabby bb potatoes I 1 did not tell them that tile the might be responsible I 1 merely said that it sounded like the ph in might ight be high aati nom thrive bett in a ph range of from 6 to 8 but as aa I 1 said they are unhappy in an acid soil therefore lore the best way to treat the trouble la is to lower the ph so that the soil reaction will change from alkalinity to acidity in many cases this Is done by applying sulphur until the pr ph drops to around 55 however because of 0 the tha tact fact that due to less lively life in the soil the decomposition and digestive processes are slowed up in low ph soil so any changes must be handled carefully to avoid the development of toxic organic compounds |