Abstract
IN any discussion of the principles of crop production it is necessary to begin with the year 1840. By that time it was definitely known that plants consist mainly of organic matter along with a little mineral matter—phosphorus, calcium, potassium, sodium, etc. —to which, however, very little importance was attached. The practical man knew that farmyard manure was the great fertiliser; he also knew that other substances, bones, salt, etc., had, in certain circumstances, considerable fertilising value. The most obvious facts were the large amount of organic matter in the plant and the large amount of organic matter in the best manures; and it is only natural that chemists and physiologists should have connected these, and argued that the object of the manure was to furnish organic matter for the plant.
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The Principles of Crop Production 1 . Nature 96, 579–583 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/096579a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096579a0