Newspapers / Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.) / Jan. 15, 1937, edition 1 / Page 10
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“Dirtless Farming” Goes Outdoors *** * * * ♦ ♦ Tanks of Liquid Plant Food Yield Potatoes at Rate of Over 75 Tons Per Acre California Professor Starts With Water Gardens Under Glass; Now Outdoors BERKELEY, Calif.—“Dirtless farming,” the technique of growing enormous crops of vegetables in tanks of water con taining the necessary fertilizer chemicals, has now been carried outdoors by its inventor, Prof. W. F. Gericke of the University of Southern California. He has obtained enormous yields of potatoes, turnips, carrots, and other garden truck from his out door vegetable beds in tanks, and he states that “crops can be grown out of doors in liquid culture medium, in proper season, anywhere the given crop is grown by agriculture.” Professor Gericke started his experiments and achieved his first successes with Ns and flowers grown under glass— the luxury, out-of-season crops that yield the biggest cash re turns. This has worked out »o well that now several Cali fornia greenhousemen are try-, ing out the system on a large scale, under Professor Gericke’s personal supervision. Now he is pioneering with the next step, to bring his tanks out of their glass houses to test their possi bilities in the raising of more plebian vegetables without the expensive overhead involved in greenhouse culture. Still Experimental Professor Gericke stresses the fact that in spite of the •accesses scored to date he still regards the whole business as being in the experimental stage. All the projects, both in his own laboratory and in the pri vately owned greenhouses that •re co-operating with him are under his daily personal guid ance. He is loath to see his system tried elsewhere by en thusiastic amateurs, or even by experienced gardeners, for, he <*ays, each locality and each crop presents special problems, which cannot be solved on the WWWr-™H^wfßMMrarai><M. . . - MBB 'fS^HhyA 9J --*3? <) . u Science Service Photos. Too: A **hed” of potatoes growing In two of Professor Gericke’a > tanks Alongside is a little experimental wheat, irawiai to another tank. Bottom: The harvest. It in bard to tmartee where more potatoes coaid have found apace to crow, in this limited area. basis oi “mix idduuig experi ence, no matter how skilled. So he makes haste slowly, discour ages “bloom” suggestions, and repeals would-be promoter-. The system is an expansion of experimental methods that have been in use on a labora tory scale for a long time. Plants are grown in glass jars, without soil, in every college botany department, and some times even in the elementary schools. This is only for the purpose of demonstrating the basic scientific principles of plant growth and for research on their mineral requirements; nobody expects such "experi ments to he cash-paying propo sitions. Professor Gericke, however, several years ago conceived the idea that but putting these “so lution cultures” on a wholesale basis they might be made eco nomically profitable, especial ly since they would permit of closer spacing of plants in greenhouses, where space is na turally at a premium. $ wLayjarSr wMWb • jtf* fj&'jmSksjißTfe ... -wfll I MPA, Science Service Photo. These immense tomato vines were raised in water in which were dissolved the necessary fertilizer chemicals. Prof. W. F. Gericke of the University of California, pioneer experimenter in this new botanical method, climbs a ladder to harvest his hot house-water tank crop, while Mrs. Gericke examines a cluster that looks like a bunch of giant grapes. He developed a simple type of tank, made either of red wood, concrete or sheet metal. Standard dimensions are 2 *<4 Cancer-Like Disease of Blood Cells Follows Mendelian Heredity Law COLD SPRING HARBOR, N. Y.—Cancer-like behavior on the part of the white blood cor puscles, a wild uncontrolled growth that turns them from their normal role of “cops’* to the malignant one of “robbers,” follows a definite hereditary pattern, Dr. E .C. MacDowell of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has discovered, in the course of researches con ducted at the institution’s De partment of h»rc. Leukemia, the disease is call ed in medical circles. The name s Greek for “white Moood,” because of the terrific excess of white blood corpuscles that crowd the circulatory system and congest the vital organs. Because the white blood cor puscles are free to move about the body, leukemia is not sus ceptible to the kinds of treat ment that can eradicate or check malignant tumors occur ring in the “stationary” tissues. Hence leukemia is a highly fatal disease. In his efforts to learn the causes of leukemia. Dr. Mac- Dowell has worked with mice instead of men, for a number of obvious reasons. By the closest kind of inbreeding, he has produced a leukemic strain of black mice, of which it can be confidently predicted that only one individual in ten will escape the disease. By similar ly close inbreeding, he has pro duced another strain, light colored, of which only one in a hundred develops it. He has carried this breeding of leu kemic and non-leukemic mice through ,11 mouse generations —equivalent to over a thousand years, in terms of human gen by 10 feet, with a depth of eight inches. Over the top wire netting is spread, to sup port the “seed bed” of saw- - S< ieno* Service I*hot«. Dr. E. C. MacDowell in his leukemia laboratory at Cold Spring normal blood. Right background: Blood of leukemic mice on the Harbor. N. Y. Left background: Highly magnified photograph of same scale. Note the large number of cells that show black in the leukemic blood. 1 hese are white blood cells that were stained dark to make them prominent in the photomicrograph. The small cells are red blood corpuscles. erations. When mice of the two strains are crossed, about half the off spring become leukemic, and the other half do not, although all the hybrids have the here ditary factor that makes for the development of the disease. Dr. MacDowell interprets these results as meaning that in the “pure-line” leukemic mice heredity is so strong a fac tor that environmental influ ences cannot avail to check it; as if fated, the mouse develops the disease regardless. But in the hybrids, the hereditary dose of doom is not so large, so that some of the individuals respond to ameliorating factors in the environment and the malady MarketGrowersTry Gericke Method dust, moss, excelsior, or other similar material. In this the seeds are planted, or young plants set out, and their roots grow down into the water-filled tank below. Over them is spread a “top dressing” of the same material as the seed-bed, to conserve warmth. Electric Heating As used in the green house, the tank also contains an elec tric heating cable, operating on the same principle as a heat ing pad or electric iron. This holds the water at the tempera ture which experiments show will encourage fastest growth in the particular cron under cul tivation. In tne tank he aiso places what he calls a fertilizer unit -—a bottle containing the right amount and proportion of min eral nutrients, with a couple of holes in the stopper to let them diffuse slowly into the water as they dissolve. Yields of the Gericke system have been phenomenal. To bacco plants grew 22 feet high. Gladioli plants surprised even Californians. Each of four heated greenhouse tanks pro duced an average of 30b pounds of tomatoes, and the vines grew until the huge clusters of fruit had to be harvested with the aid of a stepladder. One tank, providing exactly a hundredth of an acre of water surface, produced 25.6 bushels, or three quarters of a ton, of potatoes. So while Professor Gericke insists that his work is still an experiment, he is willing to ad mit that it looks rather like a hopeful experiment. does not develop. As Dr. MacDowell phrases it: “Putting all this together, we find evidence that wild growth does not depend mere ly upon a change in the celLs, but also upon the relation of this change to the growth-con trolling forces of the particular individual . . . Heredity sets limits, environment decides the exact position within these lim its.” Dr. MacDowell's researches were conducted in co-operation with the Department of Patho logy at Columbia University, supported by funds supplied by the Carnegie Corporation New York.
Zebulon Record (Zebulon, N.C.)
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Jan. 15, 1937, edition 1
10
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