The modern ley has often been blamed for sterility, temporary infertility, and other breeding troubles in the herd; and there is no doubt that breeding failures are far more common on the farms of the foremost ley users. The man who boasts of his leys, their productivity and stock-carrying capacity, is often also the man who is having difficulty in getting his cows in calf. There is no doubt his leys are largely the cause of his troubles; but not because they are temporary pastures, as distinct from the old grazing pastures which did not seem to leave the cattle shy of breeding. No, it is the manner of managing the leys which causes the sterility; and, if persisted in, may well result in the extinction of the bovine race.
The main causes of the sterility which results from the temporary pasture are: (1) The lack of variety in the modern simple seeds' mixture; and especially the predominance of shallow-rooting ingredients, the roots of which draw their sustenance only from the seriously deficient top soil and supply none of the mineral- and trace-element needs of the breeding animal. (2) The inordinate use of soluble chemical fertilizers to stimulate 'early bite' and repeated forced growths of grazing or mowing grass; especially in conjunction with the electric fence and strip-grazing, which concentrates a large number of cattle on a small area of land, and limits the possibility of selective grazing whereby the cow could increase the variety of her diet.
Learned scientists have sought to isolate the factor in the ley which may be the cause of sterility; conferences have considered the problem. A variety of factors have come under suspicion including an excessive proportion of clover in the ley—especially S.100 White Clover—and ergot-infested ryegrass or cocksfoot. One veterinary surgeon even mooted the probability that the excessive and frequent use of nitrogenous fertilizers is the most potent anti-fertility factor in the nutrition of the cow.
In my experience of visiting many farms in an effort to trace the cause of infertility in their cattle, there are but two factors associated with ley farming which are, either both together or each singly, potent causes of infertility: the fertilizer bag and the seeds mixture; cutting out the first and increasing the variety of the second has in every instance put an end to breeding troubles.
I end this book, therefore, with this warning to my fellow ley farmers. Whatever you accept or reject in this book, there is one practice you will continue only at the future peril of your herd. That is the feeding of breeding animals, whether they are dairy cows, beef cattle, sheep, pigs or poultry, on pastures which have been directly treated in the establishment, or top-dressed during growing, with chemical fertilizers of any description. By chemical fertilizer I mean the synthetic water-soluble fertilizers, manufactured or rendered soluble by the ingenuity of man; or the by-products of industry.
There is so much confusion about what is an artificial or chemical fertilizer or manure and what is an organic fertilizer or manure, that I venture to give my definitions; and, at the risk of disagreement among experts, organic and inorganic alike, I will divide all the commonly used fertilizers into the two categories : organic, which will include all those which for want of a better description are acceptable and beneficial to the soil and crop, and are used in the organic method; and chemical or artificial, which I consider unacceptable and in most cases harmful to soil, soil organisms, crops and the ultimate consumer. Some of the fertilizers in the organic section are actually inorganic rocks; but the term 'organic' does not refer only to the manures used, but to the methods employed in building and maintaining fertility, as distinct from the use of artificial stimulants which make no contribution to soil fertility—though it may be claimed by the chemist that they do feed the crop.
Without considering for this purpose whether the 'food' is good or bad, I do not dispute that the soluble chemical manure 'feeds' the crop. It is the very fact that it does stimulate the crop directly instead of sustaining the crop through the organized biological processes of the soil that excludes it from the organic method. The word 'organic' in this context describes the constructive application of natural biological processes to build and maintain fertility, using organic fertilizers, green manures and natural inorganic rock (pulverized for convenience). The 'chemical' method, on the other hand, includes all synthetic soluble soil-and crop-stimulants prepared by chemical treatment; and the waste by-products of industry disorganized or removed from natural context by processing other than simple grinding.
An example of a product accepted by some so-called 'organic' farmers, but which I believe is not organic according to the foregoing definition, is Basic Slag. To quote Fisons' Fertilizer Book, basic slag is produced 'in the conversion of pig-iron into steel'. Slag is produced in the furnaces from the phosphorus present as an impurity in the pig-iron. 'The phosphate in slag is present in complex chemical form which is insoluble in water, but partly soluble in a 2 per cent solution of citric acid.' But as it is insoluble in water and therefore released slowly by the soil acids, basic slag may be regarded as a borderline fertilizer. The evidence against it is certainly less than against any other artificial fertilizer in my own assessment; and my judgment against using it (quite apart from the wastefulness of buying phosphates at all when they can be got for nothing by the organic method described in this book) is based only on the fact that it was almost the only fertilizer in use on my farm in the early days of disease in stock and crops described in my earlier books.
In listing materials used for manurial purposes I prefer in my own mind to call those natural manures and ground rocks which genuinely add fertility to the soil, their rightful name of 'fertilizer' (contributors of fertility); and the synthetic soil stimulants (which reduce the inherent fertility of the soil by depressing biological processes) 'defertilizers' or simply 'soil stimulants'.
Genuine Fertilizers Defertilizers or Soil Stimulants
(Sometimes adulterated with Sulphate of Ammonia, so ask about this before ordering.)
Rock phosphates are found as soft rock formations in several parts of the world; but those in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria provide practically all the raw phosphate used in Western Europe. The rock deposits are, with one or two exceptions, of marine origin, and consist of calcium phosphate (fluorapatite) and calcium carbonate.
A by-product of the steel furnaces.
CHEMICAL METHOD
There are two sources of supply, viz. from gas-works and coke-oven plants, and from synthetic ammonia factories. In the first case the ammonia driven off from the coal is neutralized with sulphuric acid, and in the second case nitrogen from the air is made to combine with hydrogen to form ammonia which is then reacted with anhydrite (calcium sulphate) or with sulphuric acid to give the final product.
Most of the Nitrate of Soda today is manufactured synthetically by oxidizing ammonia to nitric acid, which is then neutralized with soda.
Manufactured by mixing ammonium nitrate with precipitated chalk.
This fertilizer was the first 'manufactured' or 'chemical' fertilizer, and is produced by treating ground rock phosphate with sulphuric acid.
Manufactured by treating rock phosphate with a solution of phosphoric acid instead of sulphuric acid. The phosphoric acid is first prepared by treating rock phosphate with a slight excess of sulphuric acid and then separating the gypsum (calcium sulphate).
Produced by treating Muriate of Potash with sulphuric acid.
Produced from the natural potash salt deposits found in Germany, Alsace, Spain and Palestine, by a crystallization process.
Source or method of manufacture in each case is quoted from Fisons' Fertilizer Book.
NEXT