MINERAL FERTILISERS
[To, the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Many people will agree with Mr. S. L. Bensusan in deploring " the evils resulting from over-stimulation of the soil " ; but he appears to me to be going too far when he advocates the wide extension of farming " without the aid of a ha'porth of artificials." His reference to lead, arsenic, copper and nicotine being given for the maintenance of Mother Earth also is rather misleading and gives one the impression that his connexion with agriculture is not very close. Three of the four are used as insecticides and copper as a fungicide.
The result of applying nothing but organic fertilisers would surely be to reduce the fertility of the land. Of the four most important- plant foods, on whose balance and presence in a sufficient quantity soil fertility to a large extent depends, lime and potash arc unobtainable in an organic form and the organic forms of phosphate and nitrogen—bone meal, hoof and horn, shoddy, 8:c.—are clearly strictly limited in quantity. Farmyard manure is not an adequate dressing for the land by itself, and in largely arable districts is scarce.
A saner use of both inorganic and organic fertilisers is needed to restore and maintain the fertility of our agricultural land. The Government's policy of subsidising lime and basic slag— both of which " rob " the soil and in many cases are only needed to counteract the effects of bad drainage—and no other fertilisers or schemes of land improvement is scarcely leading to that end, and in the long run its beneficial effect is doubtful.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully, E. LANGFORD JONES.
Tremeirchion Fruit Farm, St. Asaph, Flitushire.
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