The Organic Constituents of Soils (Classic Reprint) PDF Download

Author: Oswald Schreiner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781332273539
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
Excerpt from The Organic Constituents of Soils The reports on the various phases of soil studies by the investigators who have preceded me in this symposium must have impressed you with the fact that the subject of soil fertility and infertility is by no means a simple matter of arithmetic, which involves only a few of the mineral constituents of the soil. It must also have become clear to you that the problem of soil fertility or infertility has not been solved by the application of these simple arithmetical means based on soil analysis or by the crop statistics accumulated in the years which have elapsed since Liebig first announced his views on soil fertility, which gamed for him for all time the title of "Father of Agricultural Chemistry." It is particularly gratifying to me, since I am to talk to you to-day on the subject of the organic constituents of soils, their chemical nature and other properties, that Liebig is also known as the "Father of Organic Chemistry." To what tremendous proportions and significance in the worlds industries and science this child of his (Organic Chemistry) has grown is familiar to all of you, and I assure you that Liebig, were he to return to-day, would be proud of its parentage. But I fear he would be displeased with his other child, as having made so little progress in the intervening years, although he started it in life strong and virile and full of promise. Up to a few years ago agriculture had not shared in the great impulses which modern science has given to other arts and industries, and the domination of the mineral-requirement theory proposed in the first half of the last century and accepted without adequate proof of its validity is largely responsible for the lack of development in agriculture, commensurate with the enormous strides of other arts and industries under the guidance of modern scientific thought and research. But a new era of scientific inquiry is at hand, and all phases of scientific endeavor are being applied to the solution of the problems connected with soil fertility and infertility - lines of endeavor which were not even known in Liebig's time, but which to-day are well-recognized factors in soil fertility. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.