History of soil fertility

by this lecture you know about history and development of soil fertility and plant nutrition

1. Lecture Topic: History of soil fertility and plant nutrition By Dr. Pradip Tripura Assistant Professor School of Agricultural Sciences Sharda University Greater Noida, UP-201306

2. The period in the development of the human race during which man began the cultivation of plants marks the dawn of agriculture. The exact time is not known, but it was certainly several thousands of years BC. Until then, man was nomadic in his habits In all ages the growth of plants has interested thoughtful man The mystery of the change of an apparently lifeless seed to a vigorous growing plant never loses its freshness, and constitutes, indeed, no small part of the charm of gardening. The economic problems are of vital importance , and become more and more urgent as time goes on and population increases and their needs become more complex. We know now the facts about the needs of essential nutrients and other factors of plant growth. These facts are the result of a few hundred years of thinking and research. We thus need to know how this subject developed historically.

3. Cultivation of plants for food allowed humans to convert from a nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle to a more settled existence.

4. Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates River in what is now Iraq shows evidence of very early civilization. Writings dating to 2500 B.C. mention fertility of the land . Fertility was due to annual flooding of the land and a system of canals were built for irrigation of crops .

5. On uplands shifting agriculture was necessary "slash and burn “

6. Golden Age of Greeks 800-200 BC 1. Manure increased productivity and prolonged land use 2. Green manure crops, especially legumes, enriched the soil 3. Marl increased productivity (liming) 4. Wood ashes were beneficial 5. Saltpeter (KNO3) was beneficial to plants 6. Saline soils could be detected by taste test

7. Did the ancient Egyptians know anything about soil fertility ?

8. Ancient Egyptian murals show lots of agricultural practices - tillage, planting, irrigation and harvesting but no fertilization

9. Roman art also reveals a lot about their agriculture. In addition to Saturn and Ceres (Roman god and goddess of Agriculture), the Romans had a god of manure named Stercutius who was worshiped by old women and children.

10. A number of Roman authors (e.g., Cato, Columella , Pliny the Elder) wrote detailed textbooks on agriculture that described the use of animal manures, green manures and crop rotations to improve soil productivity. These books were considered important sources of information about agriculture for over a thousand years .

11. The earliest records of soil improvement using green manures are from the Chou dynasty (~1000 BC) in China. Later (500 BC), Tsi gave the following advice: “Green manures are planted in the 5th or 6th month, and plowed under in the 7th or 8th month... Their fertilizing value is as good as silkworm excrement and well-rotted farm manure" China has had more than 50 million people for more than 2000 years and currently has more than 300 million farmers!

12. “ We desired to learn how it is possible, after twenty and perhaps thirty or even forty centuries, for their soils to be made to produce sufficiently for the maintenance of such dense populations .. “ FH King, 1911

13. Bernard Palissy (1510-1589) Ceramicist and hydraulic engineer Far ahead of his time, Palissy wrote: ”Manure is carried to the field for the purpose of restoring to the latter a part of what had been removed... Proceeding thus you will restore to the soil the same substances that have been removed by previous crops and which following crops will regain to their advantage."

14. Jethro Tull invented the grain drill and many complementary technologies that resulted in large increases in grain yields during the 18th century.

15. Tull’s theory of plant nutrition “ All sorts of dung and compost contain some matter, which, when mixt with the soil, ferments therein; and by such ferment dissolves, crumbles, and divides the earth very much; This is the chief, and almost only use of dung... The value of dung is not to nourish, but to dissolve, i.e., divide the terrestrial matter, which affords nourishment to the mouths of vegetable roots .” Jethro Tull , 1731

16. 1733 James E. Oglethorpe – Experimental garden on bluffs of Savannah River in Georgia to produce exotic food crops.

17. Benjamin Franklin - Had an interest in agriculture and demonstrated the value of gypsum. Applied to hill in a pattern which outlined the words "This land has been plastered " Quotes

18. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Founding father and agronomist . Quotes related to agriculture. Edmund Ruffin in Virginia from 1825-1845 one of the first to use lime on humid region soils

19. Morrill Act (1862) of agriculture and mechanic arts . Teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts,

20. First 18 centuries A.D. Pietro de Crescenzi (Roman ). 1233-1320. Published a book on agricultural practices

21. Soil fertility during the 1st eighteenth century AD • After the decline of Rome there were few contributions to the development of agriculture until the publication of Opus ruralium commodorum , a collection of local agricultural practices , by Pietro de Crescenzi (1230-1307) • De crescenzi is referred to by some as the founder of modern agronomy • He suggested an increase in the rate of manuring over that is use at the time • Palissy (1563) made the observation that ash content of plants represented the material they had removed from the soil

22. Around the beginning of the 17th century Francis Bacon ( 1561- 1624 ) suggested that the principal nourishment of plants was water , the main purpose of the soil was to keep the plants erect and to protect t hem from heat and cold and that each plant drew from soil a substance unique for its own particular nourishment. Bacon also maintained that continued production of the same type of plant on a soil would impoverish it for that particular species. Jan Baptiste van Helmont (1577-1644) – a Flemish physician and chemist, reported the results of an experiment which he believed proved that water was the sole source of nutrient of plants

23. Jan Baptista Van Helmont (1577-1644) His willow tree experiment "proved“ that water was the sole nutrient of plants.

24. Van Helmont’s work was repeated several years later by Robert Boyle (1627-1691) of England. • He confirmed the findings of van Helmont plus one step further • He did the chemical analyses of plant samples and stated that plants contained salts, spirits , earth and oil, all of which were formed from water. • About this time, J.R. Glauber (1604-1668), a German chemist, suggested that saltpetre and not water was the “principle of vegetation”

25. Arthur Young (1741-1820): did pot tests to find those substances that would improve the yield of crops • He grew Barley in sand and used the following materials charcoal, train oil, poultry dung, spirits of wine, niter, gunpowder, pitch, oyster shells and numerous other materials • Some produced plant growth, others did not. He published his findings in Annals of Agriculture in 46 volumes.

26. Jethro Tull (1674-1741) - Thought small particles were ingested by plants, and that cultivating the soil made it easier for plants to take up soil particles. wrote the Book - " Horse Hoeing Husbandry" and developed the horse hoe and the seed drill.

27. 1. Justus Von Liebig (1803-1873) Laid the foundation for the modern fertilizer industry. (a) Stressed the value of mineral elements from the soil (b) Found that carbon in plants comes from CO2 of the atmosphere not from humus in the soil as was thought at the time (c) Hydrogen and oxygen come from water. (d) The alkaline metals ( Ca , Mg and K) were needed to neutralize acids formed by plants (e) Phosphates are necessary for seed formation Modern Period (1800-1900)

28. 2. He manufactured fertilizer but made the mistake of fusing P and K with lime (unavailable to plants) 3. Liebig's Law of the Minimum - If one of the essential nutrients is deficient , growth will be poor even if all other elements are abundant. Liebig's Barrel. Barrel 2

29. Liebig believed that the ash generated when a crop is burned contained the optimal blend of nutrients for fertilizing the crop Liebig recommended a “check book” approach to fertilization Non-metal oxides (C, N, H and S) What is liberated and what is left behind when plant biomass is burned ? Metal oxides ( K, Ca , Mg, P, Fe…)

30. J.B . LAWE'S PATENT MANURES, composed of Super Phosphate of Lime, Phosphate of Ammonia, Silicate of Potass , & C., are now for sale at his Factory. These substances can be had seperately ; the Super Phosphate of Lime alone is recommended for fixing the Ammonia of Dung-heaps, Cesspools, Gas Liquor, &c. Price 4s. 6d. per bushel. J.B. Lawes opened one of the first fertilizer factories in Europe and needed to convince farmers that they shpould use his fertilizers .

31. Broadbalk demonstrated the value of N and P fertilizer and that manure was not necessary to produce high crop yields the plots receiving both manure and fertilizer often produced the highest yields

32. Why do they keep all these old samples ? Old samples provide answers to new questions ! The Broadbalk archive currently contains over 200,000 bottles of hay, grain and soil

33. 19th century farmers had limited opportunities to purchase nutrients. Some used guano imported from South America. Large yield responses were reported for a wide range of crops after applications of guano. Guano is a concentrated source of N (~ 12 %) and P2O5 (~ 12 %), with much higher analyses than most organic fertilizers.

34. Guano was mined intensively off the west coast of S. America during the mid-to late 1800s. During the peak years of guano mining, Great Britain imported over 150,000 tons annually. Mountain of guano off the coast of Peru

35. Progress during the 19th century Theodore de Saussure (1804) attacked two problems of Senebier – the effect of air on plants and the origin of salts in plants. He grew plants in air or in known mixtures of air and CO2 and measured the gas changes and the changes in the plant. De Saussure was able to demonstrate that plants absorbed O2 and liberated CO2. In addition, he found that plants would absorb CO2 with the release of O2 in the presence of light. Sir Humphrey Davy in 1813, stated that some plants may have received their C from the air but major portion of it was taken through the roots. He recommended oil as fertilizer because of its high C and H content

36. Famous among the people during this period was Jean Baptiste Boussingault (1802-1882) – a widely travelled French chemist - Established a farm in Alsace on which he carried out field plot experiments He employed the careful techniques of de Saussure in weighing and analyzing the manures he added to his plots and the crops he harvested. He maintained a balance sheet that showed how much of the various plant nutrient element came from rain, soil, and air. He analyzed the composition of his crop during various stages of growth. He determined that he best rotation was that which produced the largest amound of O.M. in addition to that added in the manure. Boussingault is considered by some as the father of the field-plot method of experimentation

37. The humus myth was very effectively disposed of by the German chemist Justus von Leibig (1803-1873 ). Since then, only a few scientists have dared to suggest that the C contained in plants comes from any source other than CO2. Leibig made the following statement: Most of the carbon in plants comes from the CO2 of the atmosphere. H2 and O2 comes from H2O The alkaline metals are needed for the neutralization of acids formed by plants as a result of their metabolic activities. Phosphates are necessary for seed formation. Plants absorb anything indiscriminately from the soil but excrete from their roots those materials that are nonessential Acetic acid is excre t ed by roots. NH4+ form of N is the one absorbed and plants might obtain this compound from soil, manure, or air

38. It was also his opinion that the growth of plants was proportional to the amount of mineral substances available in the fertilizer. He eventually developed the law of the minimum ; the growth of plants is limited by the plant nutrient element present in the smallest quantity, all others being present in adequate amounts. Leibig manufactured a fertilizer on his ideas of plant nutrition. The formulation of the mixture was perfectly sound However , he made the mistake of fusing the phosphate and potash salts with lime, as result the fertilizer was a complete failure. Leibig is considerd as the father of agricultural chemistry

39. J.B.Lawes and J .H.Gibert established in 1843 n agricultural esperiment station at Rothamsted , Herpenden , Herts , England In 1852, Thomas Way in England first demonstrated the phenomenon of cation exchange from the observation that a Yorkshire farmer was able to reduce ammonia loss from manure by the addition of soil . George Ville (during 1867 and 1874-75)- a Frenchman of Viencennes , recognised the value of some of the early results from the Rothamsted experiments. He maintained that the use of chemical fertilizers was the only method of supporting soil fertility. He made recommendations for the fertilization of crops based on the results of field trials

40. Soil properties as enunciated by the Russian investigator V V Dokuchaev (1883) are dependent on factors like climate, vegetation besides parent materials. This ushered the study of soil as a living entity and other aspects of soil uses. Thus we study any soil on pedologic and edaphologic aspects. The advancement soil studies in the 20th and 21st centuries have been tremendous. Soil chemical processes, physical processes, biochemical and microbiological are now studied in both destructive as well as non-destructive methods. Soils are now classed as per their suitability to specific crop production or other uses

41. Laboratory apparatus designed by Fritz Haber for producing NH3 from H2 and N2. The catalytic process took place in the large cylinder on the left.

42. Founded in 1865, BASF is the world's largest chemical company, ahead of Dow and DuPont, ~ 100,000 employees, >80 billion in sales in 2007. Karl Bosch worked for BASF and developed the technology for upscaling Haber’s method of NH3 production. Nitrates and ammonia made up 59 percent of BASF sales in 1919.

43. Worldwide Growth In Fertilizer Use Worldwide Growth In Fertilizer Use

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