25 Jul 2014

Soil Fertility Presentation from 1920s

From the Soil Improvement Committee of the National Fertilizer Association. Courtesy of The University of Arizona.
Snapshot of the presentation's title page


We partnered with the University of Arizona to get these glass slides of a presentation made in the 1920's digitized from their collection. These slides are originally from the Soil Improvement Committee of the National Fertilizer Association and are titled "The Biggest Problem in American Agriculture—How shall we maintain the crop producing power of our soil?"

You will probably be amazed to see how similar nutrient issues remain almost 100 years later, including issues on production, sustainability, economics, soil health, environmental losses etc. Also noteworthy is how the definition of "high analysis fertilizer" has changed since then (2-12-2 was considered high in those days!)

You may request a higher resolution image of each slide by sending an email to Dr. Rob Mikkelsen, Vice-President, Communications, and Director, North America Program at his email id rmikkelsen@ipni.net

Additional Resources

Download the presentationSize: 46 MB