Abstract
IN his Research and Development Lecture delivered under the auspices of the Royal Institution and the British Science Guild at the Royal Institution on March 6, Sir Frederick Keeble spoke on the fertility of the earth. Soil-fertility is a product a by-product of the bacteria and other microscopic forms of life that teem in incredible numbers in the soil. The crops grown in field and meadow serve mankind in two ways. On one hand, they supply substance for making blood, bone, flesh and sinew and for providing energy for the work of life. On the other hand, they supply substances which stir up the body to activity so that it can use the foods for building purposes and for supplies of energy. Therefore the most important task that agricultural science can accomplish is to discover and learn to control the conditions in which soil and crop provide both the necessary body-building and energy -yielding food materials and also those that stir up growth and activity in the animal and human body. Much is known of the conditions necessary for the production of the first kinds of food. But little is known about the conditions under which crops provide the growth- and activity-provoking foods. When this is understood, foods will be judged by a new and higher standard than they are at present; and with foods conforming to that standard, human strength will increase and health will improve.
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Fertility of the Earth. Nature 135, 368 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135368b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135368b0