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Show Maintenance Of Farm Facilities Urged By Experiment Station Chief "We must devise ways and means, not only to conserve our existing and potential resources re-sources such as soil, water, plants, and animals, but also to conserve and maintain facilities facil-ities and resources for future production," said R. W. Trullin-ger Trullin-ger in a recent talk on "Research "Re-search for Tomorrow's Agriculture." Agricul-ture." Trullinger is Chief of the Department of Agriculture's Office Of-fice of Experiment Stations. "We know a lot about the soil. We know that it is a biologically bio-logically dynamic substance, alive and constantly changing. Our .research scientists have identified the ultimate particle size of soil which is considered to be nucleus of soil energy. Only slow . natural processes have been able in the past to release this energy in amounts and at rates dictated by Nature. Na-ture. Probably this has been a I good thing when one considers I what might happen as a result . of excessively heavy fertiliza-! fertiliza-! tion and cultural treatments or other practices if Nature did , not put on the brakes. I "One predominantly agricul-' agricul-' tural state, for example, produced pro-duced immense crops during the war by use of improved crop varieties and excessively heavy fertilization. After a few years, however, the productive level of the soils of that state began to go down, this in spite of continued heavy fertilization and cultural treatment. What I happened? No one knows, yet I except .that Nature rebelled. . . "We thought we knew all about the soil, how to maintain its fertility and level of productivity produc-tivity for crops. We know enough now to recognize that under normal conditions soil accumulates and stores energy and releases it in crop produc-J produc-J tion through some strange mechanism mech-anism .... All of these are factors involved in assuring I greater precision in the production produc-tion of the right kind of food and fiber from the soil, if we can only leprn their basic mechanisms mech-anisms "and how to manipulate th m constructively without destroying de-stroying them or the basic resources re-sources upon which they depend. de-pend. . . . "What do we know about the I pos ihlo influence of the sun on the ability of rain water to expedite plant growth? . . . What do we know about many things affecting the elationship between the natural elements and their ways of expression and the sustained productive capacity ca-pacity of the soil for food crops of both plant and animal form? We have developed a lot of improved crops that increase yields. What have these increases increas-es in yield done to the total supply 'of available productive energy and how may webal- ance income and outgo of energy en-ergy when we grow a bigger and better crop on the same area of land? . . . "We have learned a lot in recent years about the nutritive value of foods and feeds. We know vaguely at least that through some strange mechanism mechan-ism the nutritive properties of foods and feeds can be influenced influ-enced by soil management and treatment; and by development of the crops themselves through the application of the principles of fertilization, genetics, and breeding. . . Will it not be possible pos-sible some day to produce a food crop through application of a combination of scientific principles which will assure the consumer of a .reasonable and adequate amount of the essential essen-tial vitamins?" |
