Abstract
IT is generally recognized that the mineral composition of crops has an important bearing on human and animal health, and increasing attention is being paid to the interrelationships between such fields of investigation as soils, fertilizers, plant composition and the nutritive value of food. Although it is true that several nutritional diseases can be directly traced to the deficiency or excess of particular minerals, as yet the data are usually quite insufficient for the laying down of direct recommendations for agricultural practice. A valuable review and compilation of this subject has been made by K. C. Beeson entitled “The Mineral Composition of Crops with Particular Reference to the Soils in which they were grown” (U.S. Dept. Agric. Misc. Pub. No. 369). The question is approached from two main aspects, namely, the soil characteristics associated with nutritional diseases in man and animals, and the various factors which affect the mineral composition of plants. In the first case, bone diseases, anæmias, goitre and selenium poisoning are among the instances discussed, while as regards the crops, fertilizers, climate, irrigation, age and part of the plant are shown to have an important influence on its chemical composition. More than six hundred references are quoted, which cover work carried out in various parts of the world. The publication concludes with extremely useful tables giving the chemical composition of a large number of crops, figures for many of the minor elements being included.
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Mineral Composition of Crops. Nature 148, 137–138 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148137d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148137d0