Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries (38 page)

They contain seeds One very large storehouse has not yet been entered, as it is twelve feet high and can be reached only from above. Two copper hooks extend on the edge, which indicates granaries are rounded, as think, is a very hard cement. A gray metal is also found in this cavern, which puzzles the scientists, for its identity has not been established. It resembles platinum. Strewn promiscuously over the floor everywhere are what people call 'cats eyes,' a yellow stone of no great value. Each one is engraved with the head of the Malay type.

The Hieroglyphics

"On all the urns, or walls over doorways, and tablets of stone which were found by the image are the mysterious hieroglyphics, the key to which the Smithsonian Institute hopes yet to discover. The engraving on the tablets probably has something to do with the religion of the people. Similar hieroglyphics have been found in southern Arizona. Among the pictorial writings, only two animals are found. One was of the prehistoric type.

The Crypt

"The tomb or crypt in which the mummies were found is one of the largest of the chambers, the walls slanting back at an angle of about 35 degrees. On these are tiers of mummies, each one occupying a separate hewn shelf. At the head of each is a small bench, on which is found copper cups and pieces of broken swords. Some of the mummies are covered with clay, and all are wrapped in a bark fabric. The urns or cups on the lower tiers are crude, while as the higher shelves are reached, the urns are finer in design, showing a later stage of civilization. It is worthy of note that all the mummies examined so far have proved to be male, no children or females being buried here. This leads to the belief that this exterior section was the warriors' barracks.

"Among the discoveries no bones of animals have been found, no skins, no clothing, no bedding. Many of the rooms are bare but for water vessels. One room, about 40 by 700 feet, was probably the main dining hall, for cooking utensils are found here. What these people lived on is a problem, though it is presumed that they came south in the winter and farmed in the valleys, going back north in the summer. Upwards of 50,000 people could have lived in the caverns comfortably. One theory is that the present Indian tribes found in Arizona are descendants of the includes enameled granaries such as of various kinds.

that some sort of ladder was attached. These the materials of which they are constructed, I serfs of slaves of the people which inhabited the cave. Undoubtedly a good many thousands of years before the Christian era a people lived here which reached a high stage of civilization. The chronology of human history is full of gaps. Professor Jordan is much enthused over the discoveries and believes that the find will prove of incalculable value in archaeological work.

"One thing I have not spoken of, may be of interest. There is one chamber in the passageway to which is not ventilated, and when we approached it a deadly, snaky smell struck us. Our light would not penetrate the gloom, and until stronger ones are available we will not know what the chamber contains. Some say snakes, but other boo hoo this idea and think it may contain a deadly gas or chemicals used by the ancients. No sounds are heard, but it smells snaky just the same. The whole underground
The gloom is like
candies only make
installation gives one of shaky nerves the creeps.

a weight on one's shoulders, and our flashlights and the darkness blacker. Imagination can revel in conjectures and ungodly daydreams back through the ages that have elapsed till the mind reels dizzily in space."

An Indian Legend

In connection with this story, it is notable that among the Hopi Indians the tradition is told that their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon till dissension arose between the good and the bad, the people of one heart and the people of two hearts. Machetto, who was their chief, counseled them to leave the underworld, but there was no way out. The chief then caused a tree to grow up and pierce the roof of the underworld, and then the people of one heart climbed out. They tarried by Paisisvai (Red River), which is the Colorado, and grew grain and corn. They sent out a message to the Temple of the Sun, asking the blessing of peace, good will and rain for people of one heart. That messenger never returned, but today at the Hopi villages at sundown can be seen the old men of the tribe out on the housetops gazing toward the sun, looking for the messenger. When he returns, their lands and ancient dwelling place will be restored to them. That is the tradition. Among the engravings of animals in the cave is seen the image of a heart over the spot where it is located. The legend was reamed by W.E. Rollins, the artist, during a year spent with the Hopi Indians. There are two theories of the origin of the Egyptians. One that they came from Asia, another that the racial cradle was in the upper Nile region. Heeren, an Egyptologist, believed in the Indian origin of the Egyptians. The discoveries in the Grand Canyon may throw further light on human evolution and prehistoric ages.

Introduction
to Bread Prom
Stones

Dr. Raymond Bernard (A.B., M.N., Ph.D.)

Dr. Julius Hensel was the greatest figure in the history of agricultural chemistry even if his powerful enemies, members of the octopus chemical fertilizer trust, have succeeded in suppressing his memory, destroying his books and getting his Stone Meal fertilizer off the market. But eventually the truth comes to the fore, and its enemies are vanquished. Julius Hensel's pioneer work in opposing the use of chemicals in agriculture, a half a century later, found rebirth in the Organic Movement which has swept through the world. But Hensel is more modern than the most modern agricultural reformer, for he claimed, on the basis of theoretical chemical considerations, and supported by practical tests, that his Stone Meal can replace not only chemical fertilizers but all animal ones as well.

It was the German agricultural chemist Liebig who first put forward the phosphorus-potash-nitrogen theory of chemical fertilization. This false doctrine Hensel bitterly attacked and in so doing, won the ire of the financial interests behind the sale of chemical fertilizers, which used agricultural authorities and university professors to denounce poor Hensel as a charlatan and his Stone Meal as worthless.

Though his fight against chemical fertilizers was a losing battle and he died as a defeated hero, it took a generation for Hensel's efforts to bear fruit in the modern Organic Movement, which has not given its founder the credit due him.

The fight between Liebig, advocate [of] one-sided chemical fertilization, and Hensel, who advocated a more balanced form of plant nutrition, including the trace minerals which Liebig completely overlooked, was a battle between an opportunist, who sought to further the sales of chemical fertilizers, and a true scientist, interested in humanity's welfare. Though

From Bread From Stones: A New and Rational System of Land Fertilization and Physical
Regeneration by Dr. Julius Hensel (Agricultural Chemist).
Translated from the German (1894).
227

Liebig, with the Chemical Trust behind him, won the battle, Hensel's ideas finally triumphed . . . several decades after his passing.

Liebig claimed that plants require three main elements—nitrogen, phosphorus and potash—the basis of which conception chemical fertilizers were manufactured that supplied these elements. On the other hand, Hensel claimed that plants need many more than these three major elements, stressing the importance of the trace minerals, which at that time were ignored. In place of chemical fertilizers, supplying only three elements in an unnatural, caustic form, Hensel recommended the bland minerals of pulverized rocks, especially granite, a primordial rock which contains the many trace minerals that meet all needs of plant nutrition.

Hensel first made his discovery of powdered rock fertilization when he was a miller. One day, while milling grain, he noticed that some stones were mixed with it and [he] ground [them] into a meal. He sprinkled this stone meal over the soil of his garden and was surprised to note how the vegetables took on a new, more vigorous growth. This led him to repeat the experiment by grinding more stones and applying the stone meal to fruit trees. Much to his surprise, apple trees that formerly bore wormy, imperfect fruit now produced fine quality fruit free from worms. Also vegetables fertilized by stone meal were free from insect pests and diseases. It seemed to be a complete plant food, which produced fine vegetables even in the poorest soil.

Encouraged by these results, Hensel put his "Stone Meal" on the market, and wrote extensively on its superiority over chemical fertilizers, while at the same time opposing the use of animal manure, and the nitrogen theory on which it is based, claiming that when plants are supplied with Stone Meal, plenty of water, air and sunshine, they will grow healthfully even if the soil is poor in nitrogen, since it was his belief that plants derive their nitrogen through their leaves, and do not depend on the soil for this element.

In opposing this use of chemical fertilizer, Hensel awoke the ire of a powerful enemy, which was resolved to liquidate him—the Chemical Trust. Through unfair competition, Hensel's "Stone Meal" business was destroyed and his product was taken off the market. However, the chief object of attack was his book, Bread From Stones, in which he expounded his new doctrines of Liebig on which the chemical fertilizer business was based, as well as the "Liebig meat extract." (For Hensel advocated vegetarianism, just as he advocated natural farming without chemicals or manure.) Accordingly, his enemies succeeded in suppressing the further publication of this book and in removing it from libraries, until it became extremely rare and difficult to obtain. It is more fortunate that a surviving copy came into the writer's possession.

Dr. Julius Hensel was not only a student of agricultural chemistry, but also biochemistry and nutrition, and he related all these sciences, and united them into a composite science of life, which he labeled "Makrobiology." His theory was that the chemistry of life is basically determined by the chemistry of the soil, and that chemicals unbalance and pervert soil chemistry while powdered rocks help restore normal soil mineral balance, producing foods favorable to health and life. His discoveries concerning the value of powdered rocks as soil conditioners and plant foods, though rejected and ridiculed when he first proposed them, were adopted by agricultural science nearly a century later, when the application of powdered limestone, rock phosphate and other rocks became standard agricultural pratice. Granite, which Hensel recommended as the most balanced of all rocks as source of soil minerals, was first rejected as worthless, but later appreciated and used as a soil mineralizer.

During the course of his researches, Dr. Hensel found that in the primeval rocks, as granite, lie a potentially inexhaustable supply of all minerals required for the feeding and regeneration of the soil, plants, animals and man. All that is required is to reduce them to finely a pulverized form, so that their mineral elements may be made available to plants. Hensel wrote a book describing his discovery of a new method of creating more perfect fruits and vegetables, rich in all nutritional elements and immune to disease and insect pests, with the result that it produced wormfree fruit without the need of spraying. The foods so produced by rockmeal fertilization were true Organic Super Foods, far superior in flavor and value than those produced under the forcing action of manure or chemical fertilizers.

Hensel was the first to put up a fight against the then-growing new chemical fertilizer industry—a struggle that was continued in the next century by Sir William Howard in England and J. I. Rodale in America. The use of chemical fertilizers, claimed Hensel, leads to the following evil consequences:

1. It poisons the soil, destroying beneficial soil bacteria, earthworms and humus*.

2. It creates unhealthy, unbalanced, mineral-deficient plants, lacking resistance to disease and insect pests, thus leading to the spraying menace in an effort to preserve these defective specimens.

3. It leads to diseases among animals and men who feed on these abnormal plants and their products.

4. It leads to a tremendous expense to the farmer, because chemical fer

*Decayedvegetableoranimalmatterthatprovidesnutrientsforplants.
tilizers, being extremely soluble, are quickly washed from the soil by rainfall and needs constant replacement. (Powdered rocks, on the other hand, being less soluble, are not so easily washed from the soil, but keep releasing minerals to it for many years).

The use of various pulverized rocks, [such] as granite, limestone, rock phosphate, etc., in place of chemical fertilizers, will lead, claimed Hensel, to permanent restoration of even poor soils to the balanced mineral content of the best virgin soils; and the rock dust thus applied will remain year after year and not be washed away by rains or irrigation water, as is the case with highly soluble chemical fertilizers. This will be an economic saving to the grower and enable him to sell foods at a lower price than when he must spend large sums on chemical fertilizers. Also, since foods thus mineralized are healthy and immune to plant diseases and insect pests (as Hensel experimentally demonstrated), there is no need for the expense and dangers of spraying.*

Foods raised by Hensel's followers, including many German gardeners and farmers, who were enthusiastic in praise of his method, were found to possess firmer tissue and better shipping and keeping qualities than those raised with animal manure or chemicals. And most important among the advantages of Hensel's agricultural discovery is that foods grown on mineralized soil are higher both in mineral and vitamin content and so produce better health and greater immunity to disease than those grown by the use of chemical fertilizer sprays.

To kill insects by poisons applied to plants does not remove the cause of their infestation, and poisons both the insect as well as the human consumer of the sprayed plant. Only correct feeding of the soil, and consequently of plants by trees, by proper methods of fertilization, thereby keeping them well-nourished, vigorous and free from disease, will accomplish this, for insects do not seem to attack healthy plants. It appears that insects, like scavengers, attack chiefly unhealthy and demineralized plants, not healthy ones. Dr. Charles Northern has performed experiments in which he raised two tomato plants, entwined with each other, in different pots, one being supplied with an abundance of trace minerals, derived from colloidal phosphate, and the other just chemical fertilizer. The tomato plant grown with chemical fertilizer alone was attacked by insects, while the other one given trace minerals was not.