Soil Fertility, Soil Exhaustion, and their Historical Significance

Abbott Payson Usher

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1923, vol. 37, issue 3, 385-411

Abstract: I. Alleged danger of soil exhaustion. — Relation of this belief to the humus theory and the system of statics, 386. — Formulation of the mineral theory the work of Liebig, 387. — Discrepancies between his principles and the results of experimental work, 388. — Liebig's principles and the modern doctrine of soil exhaustion, 390. — II. Computations of the durability of average soils, 391. — Qualifications necessary to adapt these figures to the crop yields of low farming, 394. — The importance of the returns of nutritive substances made in low farming, 396. — III. Liebig's insistence upon complete replacement of the minerals removed in the crop, 399. — Recent concepts of the fertility program, 401. — Evidences of undiminished yields despite some progressive depletion of minerals, 403. — Presumptions created by recent studies of the soil solution, 404. — Declines in yield due to decreasing supplies of nitrogen, 406. — Replacement of nitrogen by natural processes, 407. — The need of lime on acid soils, 408. — Conclusions, 410.

Date: 1923
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