Republic of the Philippines

State Universities and Colleges

GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
Constancia, San Lorenzo, Guimaras

LESSON 1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOIL FERTILITY

I. Introduction

Knowledge on the history is very important in all aspects of agriculture particularly in soil
fertility. It is very interesting to go back to where soil fertility has started, who are the persons
involved in the discovery, what and how are the activities performed, where those activities were
done, and when are those activities conducted. We are now enjoying the fruit of the discoveries of
those involved in generating knowledge on soil fertility. Because of them, the soil was valued and
the soil is viewed as an important resource for plant growth and development.

So, set back and relax as you let yourself dwell in the history of soil fertility. Enjoy the past
of soils!

II. Objectives:

After this lesson, you are expected to:

1. Familiarize the history of soil fertility.

2. Understand how the history started.
3. Identify the place, time, and people who started the understanding of soil
fertility.

III. Subject Matter:

References:

Banga, J. (2018). Soil fertility. Oakville, Ontario: Delve Publishing.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Nutrients and soil fertility management.
Retrieved from: http://www.fao.org/tc/exact/sustainable-agriculture-platform-pilot-
website/nutrients-and-soil-fertility-management/en/.

Gray, L. (2017). Soil science and management. New York, USA: Larsen and Keller Education.

Rana, SS., 2011. Compendium of Lectures (Theory cum practical): Principles and Practice of
Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management. Retrieved from:
http://www.hillagric.ac.in/edu/coa/agronomy/lect/agron-502/502-Soil-Fertility-and-
Nutrient-Management-SSR.pdf

Materials: Illustration, activity sheets, powerpoint presentations, movavi

Time allocation: 120 minutes

1 | SOIL FERTILITY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT

 Republic of the Philippines
State Universities and Colleges
GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
Constancia, San Lorenzo, Guimaras

IV. Procedure

1. ENGAGE

To start our subject on soil fertility, you need to learn the history of soil fertility in order
to understand how the knowledge on soil fertility came into being. This time, let us check if you
have prior knowledge of the topic. Answer the Pre-Test provide in the classroom through google
forms.

2. EXPLORE

Before dwelling in the history, I want to introduce to you the different photos of scientists
who made tremendous contribution in the history of soils. Familiarize their names and faces before
learning their contributions. Please see the PDF file named Scientist in the Soils History in the
classroom.

3. EXPLAIN

The history of the study of soil is intimately tied to our urgent need to provide food for
ourselves and forage for our animals. Throughout the history, civilizations have prospered or
declined as a function of the availability and productivity of their soils.

The Greek historian Xenophon (450-355 B. C.) is credited with being the first to expound
upon the merits of green-manuring crops: “But then whatever weeds are upon the ground, being
turned into earth, enrich soil as much as dung.”

Columella’s “Husbrandry”, circa 60 A.D., is credited the use of lime and that clover and
alfalfa (green manure) should be turned under, and was used by 15 generations (450 years) under
the Roman Empire until its collapse. From the fall of Rome to the French Revolution, knowledge
of soil and agriculture was passed on from parent to child and as a result, crop yields were low.
During the European Dark Ages, Yahga Ibn al-‘Awwam’s handbook, with its emphasis on
irrigation, guided the people of North African, Spain and the Middle East; a translation of this
work was finally carried to the southwest of the United States.

Experiments into what made plants grow first led to the idea that the ash left behind when
plant matter was burned was the essential element but the overlooked the role of nitrogen, which
is not left on the ground after combustion. In about 1635, the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van
Helmont thought he had proved water to be essential element from his famous five years’
experiment with a willow tree grown with only the addition of water. His conclusion came from
the fact that the increase in the plant’s weight had apparently been only by the addition of water,
with no reduction in the soil’s weight. John Woodward (d. 1728) experimented with various types
of water ranging from clean to muddy and found muddy water the best, and so he concluded that
earthy matter was the essential element. Others concluded it was humus in the soil that passes
some essence of the growing plant. Still others held that the vital growth principal was

2 | SOIL FERTILITY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT

 Republic of the Philippines
State Universities and Colleges
GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
Constancia, San Lorenzo, Guimaras

something passed from dead plants or animals to the new plants. At the start of the 18 th century,
Jethro Tull demonstrated that it was beneficial to cultivate (stir) the soil, but his opinion that the
stirring made the fine parts of soil available for plant absorption was erroneous.

The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier showed about 1778 that plants and animals must
“combust” oxygen internally to live and was able to deduce that most of the 165-pound weight of
van Helmont’s willow tree derived from air. It the French agriculturists Jean-Baptiste Boussingault
who by means of experimentation obtained evidence showing that the main sources of carbon,
hydrogen and oxygen for plants were the air and water. Justus van Liebig in his book Organic
Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology (published 1840), asserted that the
chemicals in plants must have come from the soil and air and that to maintain soil fertility, the
used minerals must be replaced. Liebig nevertheless believed the nitrogen was supplied from the
air. The enrichment of soil with guano by the Incas was rediscovered in 1802, by Alexander von
Humboldt. This led to its mining and that the Chilean nitrate and to its application to soil in the
United States and Europe after 1840.

The work of Liebig was a revolution for agriculture and so other investigators started
experimentation based on it. In England John Bennet Lawes and Joseph Henry Gilbert worked in
the Rothamsted Experimental Station, founded by the former, and discovered that plants took
nitrogen from the soil, and that the salts needed to be in an available state to be absorbed by plants.
Their investigations also produced the “superphosphate”, consisting in the acid treatment of
phosphate rock. This led to the invention and use of potassium (K) and nitrogen (N) as fertilizers.
Ammonia generated by the production of coke was recovered and used as fertilizer. Finally, the
chemical basis of nutrients delivered to the soil in manure was understood and in the middle 19 th
century chemical fertilizers were applied. However, the dynamic interaction of soil and its life
forms awaited discovery.

In 1856 J. T. Way discovered that ammonia contained in fertilizers was transformed into
nitrates, and twenty years later R.W. Warington proved that this transformation was done by living
organisms. In 1890 Sergei Winogradsky announced he had found the bacteria responsible for this
transformation.

It was known that certain legumes could take up nitrogen from the air and fix it to the soil
but it took the development of bacteriology towards the end of the 19 th century to lead to an
understanding of the role played in nitrogen fixation by bacteria. The symbiosis of bacteria and
leguminous roots and the fixation of nitrogen by bacteria, were simultaneously discovered by
German agronomist Hermann Hellriegel and Dutch microbiologist Martinus Beijerinck.

Crop rotation, mechanization, chemical and natural fertilizers led to a doubling of wheat
yields in Western Europe between 1800 and 1900.

3 | SOIL FERTILITY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT

 Republic of the Philippines
State Universities and Colleges
GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE
Constancia, San Lorenzo, Guimaras

4. ELABORATE

You now became familiar with the different scientists who have contributed so much
wisdom in the science of soil fertility. This time, select one scientist from among the scientists in
the history of soils. Go to the Learning Activity section under Lesson 1 in google classroom and
check the desktop research activity that you have to conduct entitled, “Biography of Scientist in
the History of Soils”.

5. EVALUATION

Congratulations! You are done with Lesson No. 1. On the link provided in this classroom,
answer the assessment questions based on your learning on the history on soil fertility. Click
Lesson 1_Assessment in the classroom to go to the link.

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