Joseph Smith as Scientist: A Contribution to Mormon Philosophy Part 16

A VOICE FROM THE SOIL.

I.

"--the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness."--_Isaiah, xxvii:_ 10.

It is a fact, which has impressed itself upon all readers of history, that countries which have been the homes of the most powerful and cultured nations, are now great stretches of the veriest desert. No country teaches this truth better than the extensive valley of the Mesopotamia which looms giant-like in the dawn of history. Upon its plains and highlands, the great nations of antiquity acted the tragedies of their existence; like the schoolboys' snowman, they rose, with vast proportions, in a day, and fell ere the setting of the next sun. In this district, advanced and retreated with wonderful precision, as it appears to us so many ages removed from the time of action, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians and the a.s.syrians; here the Medes and Persians achieved the victories that made them famous, and here came all the great generals of old to crown their successes. A hundred populous cities cl.u.s.tered, in the lower part of the valley, around Babylon the great, the most marvelous city of any past age; a hundred cities were in the upper half, with Nineveh, also magnificent and great, as their center. From Mesopotamia come evidences of art--painting, sculpture, music, literature and architecture--the indication of a higher civilization. Still, today, even the sites of many of the great cities are lost, and Mesopotamia is a stretch of barren land.

To the west of Mesopotamia is the valley containing the promised land of Palestine--it, also, has fallen from its former splendor, and is a desert compared with the days of its greatest prosperity. Still further west and south lies the land of Egypt, in the valley of the Nile. It was the fostermother of science, and the shaker of empires.

It has fallen likewise; and a blight has come upon the soil, until it bears the appearance of a sandy waste. Over the sites of other famous nations of antiquity, in Europe and Asia, hovers, today, the spirit of desolation.

The same story is told on the American continent. Peru, the land of the Incas, once populous, powerful, wealthy, is today largely a wilderness. Mexico, the Aztec home, is now a vast desert, in spite of the evidence, through the discovered ruins of mighty cities and gigantic temples, that it was once the home of a strong people.

Central America tells a similar story. It seems to be a general fact that wherever a large people lived formerly, there, today, a desert often occurs.

However, these countries are deserts only because human effort is no longer applied to them; by proper treatment the lands would again be raised to the flouris.h.i.+ng condition that prevailed in their prosperous days. Intrinsically the soils are extremely fertile, but are dry and require the application of water to make the fertility suitable for the use of crops. The soils of Babylon, a.s.syria, Egypt, Peru and Mexico, raise crops of wonderful yields when properly irrigated; and there is abundant proof that in former days irrigation was practiced in these countries on a scale far larger than in Utah or in any other country of the present day.

Many of the old irrigation ca.n.a.ls of Babylon still exist, and prove the magnitude of the practice, there, of the art of irrigation. The old historians, also, agree in explaining the ingenious devices by which whole rivers were turned from their courses to flow over the soil. In Egypt, likewise, irrigation was more commonly practiced in the past than it is today; though even now a large portion of the soil of that country is made to yield crops by the artificial application of water. In Peru, Central America, and Mexico, the irrigation ca.n.a.ls that remain from prehistoric days are even more wonderful as feats of engineering and as evidences of a populous and enlightened condition of the country than the ma.s.sive temples and extensive cities that are also found. In the construction of these ca.n.a.ls every precaution, apparently, was taken to have the water applied to the lands in the right manner, and to reduce the loss to a minimum. In some places immense ca.n.a.ls remain, that are tiled for miles, on sides and bottom, in order to render them watertight, and thus prevent any loss by seepage.

Instead of saying, then, that the countries where most great nations have lived are now deserts, we may as well say that most great nations have lived in countries where irrigation was necessary; in fact, that history indicates that a dense population, and high culture, usually go hand in hand with a soil that thirsts for water. What can science, the great explainer, say on this subject?

II.

"Science moves, but slowly, slowly, moving on from point to point."--_Locksley Hall_.

A plant feeds in two ways--by its leaves, and by its roots. The leaves feed from the air; the roots from the soil. In the air is found a colorless, heavy gas, known as carbon dioxide, which is made up partly of the element of carbon, or charcoal. When an animal or a plant is burned at a low heat, it first chars, showing the presence of charcoal; then if the burning be continued, it disappears, with the exception of the ash, as the gas, carbon dioxide. Since animal and vegetable matters are constantly being burned upon the earth's surface, naturally the air contains a perceptible quant.i.ty of carbon dioxide. The leaves of a living plant, waving back and forth, draw into themselves the carbon dioxide with which they come into contact, and there break it up and take the carbon away from it. The carbon thus obtained by the leaves is built into the many ingredients of a plant, and carried to the parts that are in greatest need. The plant is able to do this by virtue of the peculiar properties of the green coloring matter in all its leaves, leaf green; which acts, however, only in the presence of bright sunlight. Since one-half or more of the dry matter of a plant is carbon, the importance of the leaf-air-feeding of a plant may be understood.

The water which a plant contains and the incombustible portions, the mineral matters or ash, are taken directly from the soil by means of the roots. The old idea that vegetable mould and other corbonaceous matters are also taken from the soil by the roots has been shown to be erroneous. The mineral portions of a plant are of the highest value to the life of the plant--without them, in fact, it languishes and dies.

If a soil on which a plant is growing contains, for instance, no iron, the leaves become pale, soon white, and finally they lose the power of appropriating carbon from the air. If potash is absent from the soil, the plants growing upon it will develop in an imperfect manner and finally die. It has been found by careful experiment that seven mineral substances must be found in every soil, if it shall support the life of plants, namely: (1) Potash; (2) lime; (3) magnesia; (4) oxide of iron or iron rust; (5) sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol; (6, phosophoric acid, and (7) nitric acid or aqua fortis. The fertility of any soil or soil district is determined by the quant.i.ty of these indispensable ash ingredients contained by it.

All soils are produced by the breaking down of the mountains under the influence of weathering. The broken down rock is washed into the hollows and lowlands by the rains and floods of melted snow, and there forms soil. Soil may, therefore, be defined, in a general way, as pulverized rock. Nearly all rocks contain the elements above enumerated as being essential to a plant's life; and nearly every soil will, consequently, be in possession of them. Rocks, however, in being subjected to the action of weathering, undergo other changes than mere pulverization. The potash, lime and other plant foods held by a rock are in an insoluble condition, and can not be taken up with any ease by the plant roots. As the rock is pulverized in the process of weathering, it is also made more soluble, and the juices of the plant roots can then absorb the needed foods with greater facility. This process of making the soil more soluble, continues while time lasts, and every year will find the soil more soluble than the year before, if there are no opposing actions. Therefore, the fertility of a soil is determined not only by the quant.i.ty of plant food it contains, but also by the condition of solubility the soil const.i.tuents are in.

According to the facts above given, it would be fair to infer that a soil becomes more fertile with every year that pa.s.ses. This would be the case were it not for opposing tendencies. First, the crops grown upon a soil remove considerable quant.i.ties of mineral plant food. This alone would not seriously affect the fertility of a soil did not other forces act in conjunction with it. The most important cause of lowering the fertility of soils is the loss of plant food due to drainage. In districts of abundant rainfall, as, for instance, the Eastern United States, sufficient rain falls to soak the soil thoroughly and to drain through and go off as drainage water. The water, in pa.s.sing through the soil, will dissolve, as far as it can, the soluble ingredients, including the plant foods, and carry them away into the rivers and finally into the ocean. This action, continued for many years, will rob the soil to feed the ocean; in fact, the saltness of the ocean is due, largely, to the substances washed out of the soils. Most of the poor soils of the world have been rendered infertile in this way. If, on the other hand, only a small quant.i.ty of rain falls upon the soil--an amount sufficient to soak the soil without draining through--the water will gradually be evaporated back into the air, and there will be no loss of plant food. In such a district the soils, if they are treated right, become richer year by year, even though subjected to tillage, if the tillage be according to our best knowledge.

In every rainless district, or in every district where the rainfall is so slight as to render irrigation necessary, the soils would be expected to be richer than in a place of abundant rainfall. Leaving out of consideration differences due to local conditions, this has been verified by the study of soils from many parts of the world. The soils of an arid district contain more soluble plant food than those of a humid district, and, with proper treatment, will not only raise larger crops, but remain fertile much longer. They will also bear harsher treatment, closer cultivation, and are in every respect superior to the water-washed soils of a humid country. A recent study of the soils of Utah has shown that the fertility of our soils is exceedingly high, and that they will endure long and close cultivation; that is, that because of the peculiar climatic conditions of the State, they can support bountifully a large population.

Several years ago Dr. E. W. Hilgard, an eminent student of climate and soils, threw out the suggestion that upon the facts just discussed rests the explanation of the historical datum that the great nations of antiquity on this and on other continents sought for the abodes the rainless, arid stretches of the world. A large, active population, which does not depend on other peoples for its support, must of necessity possess the most fertile lands, which are found only in districts of limited rainfall. In the whole history of the world, the great granaries of the world have been located on the arid stretches; and on our continent, the great West, largely arid, is becoming the source of the food staples of the nation. Utah is the heart of the arid region of North America; her soils are heavy with wealth of plant food. If the time comes that her valleys be filled with people, crowding in from the nations of the earth, her soils, responding to the better treatment which science is developing day by day, will display their strength, and feed the world, should the demand be made.

III.

"Therefore will I make solitary places to bud and blossom, and to bring forth in abundance, saith the Lord."--_Doctrine and Covenants_.

Sixty years ago the facts of plant feeding, as just outlined, were practically unknown. The erroneous ideas of the preceding century still held full sway. In 1840 Liebig published his treatise on agricultural chemistry which threw a faint light on the relation of the plant and the soil. During the twenty years following, the indispensable nature of some of the plant foods was ascertained; and it is only within the last ten or fifteen years that the superiority of arid districts over humid ones, for the purpose of supporting man, has been demonstrated. Even today it is a new light which has not been fully received.

In 1842 Joseph the Prophet wrote: "I prophesied that the saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains * * * and some of you will live to go and a.s.sist in making settlements and build cities and see the saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains." Why did Joseph Smith speak of the Rocky Mountains as a gathering place for his people? Was it simply because the place was far off and offered, apparently, good security?

If so, he builded better than he knew. But what prompted Brigham Young to plant his cane by the sh.o.r.e of an alkali lake and say, Here we shall remain? That certainly was not for security only. Perhaps he was tired of wandering? Though he may have been so, yet he was not the man to give up when near something better. Perhaps he thought the valley fair, and the blue mountains may have rested his eyes? If that was the motive of settlement, he, too, builded better than he knew. Certainly it is that these two men who historically hold the responsibility for bringing the Latter-day Saints here, did not know, by the world's learning, that the valleys of Utah are filled with the richest soil, waiting only to yield manifold to the husbandman; for the world did not yet know, and had no means for predicting it. These men were not scientists. They had no laboratories in which, by long hours, over long drawn fires, and among a hundred fumes, to draw out for themselves the law of the fertility of arid soils, which has but recently become the property of modern science. It is not likely that the records of a lost learning, unknown today, taught them this fact.

Though they had had such records, they were unlettered men, and the ancient tongues would have been dead indeed to them, had they attempted an interpretation by their own efforts. Why then, did they bring the people here? Was it a chance move? A blind effort, acting out the desperation that comes from long persecution? If an element of chance entered into the location in the valleys of Utah, it was akin to wisdom.

_And it was wisdom_ of the highest kind; at which the world ever stands in reverent wonder; inspiration from the living G.o.d. The logic that science, itself, applies to facts in the deduction of its laws, makes it impossible to believe that the settlement of the pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley was a chance move. Nothing, from the point of view of human wisdom, encouraged the pioneers to remain in Utah--they were in the center of a desert; the leaders were urged by many of the company to go on, for there were fairer climes to the west or the south, or on the islands of the sea. But the leaders were possessed of a wisdom higher than that of men, and founded an empire on the wastes of the Great American Desert.

Now, let every reader of this paper consider these wonderful facts: Of the vast possibilities of agriculture in Utah being the same with those of the countries where the great nations of the world have lived; of a people, claiming that the nations shall in the future flee to it for safety, making its home in a place which possesses the capabilities of supporting the nations; and of the choice of that country when it was named a desert; when science, the world's knowledge, did not dream of the fertility of that desert any more than it was able to give a correct explanation of the fertility of the valley of Mesopotamia: and every honest heart will recognize the unseen hand of the G.o.d of Israel, guiding the people of G.o.d to the destined land.