Efficiency of Peat Fertilizers and Prospects for Their Use in Tomsk Oblast

P. L. Matyushin

The interests of communist construction require the steady advance of agriculture and an increase in the production of agricultural products. In recent years our Party and the Central Committee of the CPSU have devoted great attention to this most important branch of the national economy. In this respect a special place was occupied by the March (1965) Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, which provided a scientific and economic basis for agriculture and put an end to subjectivism and voluntarism in the management of agricultural production.

The beneficial influence of the decisions of the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee was not slow to show itself already in that year. Despite the unfavorable conditions that developed in a number of oblasts, especially in Western Siberia, the state received: milk—7.2 million tons more, meat—1 million tons more, and eggs—2.2 billion more than in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The country obtained a good harvest of cotton, sugar beet, potatoes, vegetables, and other agricultural crops.

As of December 1 of that year, the collective and state farms of Tomsk Oblast overfulfilled the plan for sales to the state of all types of livestock products, as well as potatoes and flaxseed.

Compared with the previous year, deliveries to the state increased: meat by 40 percent, milk by 27, eggs by 42, and wool by 2 percent.

As is known, the principal means of production in agriculture is land, and the level of agricultural production depends on its rational use. By rational use of land is meant active intervention in the chief property of land—its fertility—in order to create the best conditions for the growth of agricultural crops and for obtaining a harvest. It is also known that the level of natural soil fertility in the various zones of our country, and also of our oblast, differs greatly. Thus, according to Professor N. F. Tyumentsev, this difference in Tomsk Oblast (from south to north) ranges from 75 to 22 points. Therefore, raising the culture of farming, as an entire complex of agrotechnical and organizational measures, provides for increasing the fertility of our agricultural lands and, above all, arable land.

One of the most important conditions for increasing the fertility of agricultural lands is the application of organic and mineral fertilizers.

In recent years, as a result of measures adopted by the Party and the Government for the development of the chemical industry, agriculture—including the collective and state farms of our oblast—has begun to receive more mineral fertilizers. Whereas in 1963 our oblast received 15 thousand tons of fertilizers, this year farms received 24.5 thousand tons of mineral fertilizers.

Along with the increased supply of mineral fertilizers, a more extensive use of local organic fertilizers—manure, slurry, humus (old deposits), and also peat—is an important source for raising soil fertility.

The use of peat as a fertilizer is of great importance for Tomsk Oblast.

It is known that, in terms of peat reserves, Tomsk Oblast occupies one of the leading places in the Soviet Union. According to data that are far from complete, these reserves amount to 25 billion tons, recalculated as air-dry peat.

Peat bogs of lowland, raised-bog, and transitional types occupy enormous areas in the territory of Tomsk Oblast.

However, until recently peat has been used as a fertilizer in small quantities, although its application under vegetables and other crops has produced positive results.

The first to begin using peat on a considerable scale as a fertilizer in our oblast was the “Tomsky” state farm.

According to land-quality appraisal data carried out by Professor N. F. Tyumentsev in 1961–1962, a total peat reserve of 7 million tons was established within the land-use territory of this state farm.

With an annual need for peat for bedding and compost preparation of 54 thousand tons, the farm’s identified peat reserves will suffice for 140 years.

The available peats are mainly of the lowland type, of three kinds:

1. Highly decomposed—suitable for application to the soil in a mixture with mineral fertilizers.
2. Moderately decomposed—for livestock bedding.
3. Moss peats—for construction, fuel, and bedding.

The peat used on the state farm for fertilizing fields is well decomposed, high-ash, contains vivianite, and can even deacidify soils, having a pH of 5.4–6. The nitrogen content ranges from 1.5 to 3% on an absolutely dry matter basis.

Peat was piled into stacks on the bog in summer and autumn by bulldozer and, via a trestle, loaded into motor vehicles. During loading, 10–12 kg of phosphorite meal and 5–10 kg of potassium salt were added per ton of peat.

Peat was hauled to the fields in winter in heaps weighing 3.5–5 tons; in spring it was spread and leveled with a rail drag and incorporated into the soil with stubble-cleaners and a disk harrow, mainly under maize and potatoes.

No special experiments on the effectiveness of applying peat for field fertilization were conducted on the state farm. However, on plots where peat was applied under potatoes and maize, the yields of these crops increased considerably.

In 1962 the state farm hauled 18 thousand tons to the fields; in 1963, 30 thousand; in 1964, 43 thousand; and this year, 57 thousand tons. Altogether over four years this amounted to almost 130 thousand tons, including 90 thousand under maize on an area of 3,200 ha, and 20 thousand tons under potatoes on an area of 540 ha (applications may have been repeated on the same field).

The table gives yield data.

It is evident from the table that, thanks to the application of organic fertilizers (manure and peat), the yields of corn and potatoes at the state farm have in recent years become more stable and have increased annually even in such unfavorable years as 1963 and 1965.

Table

According to data from the Narym Breeding Station, when manure with peat was applied (20 tons of manure + 20 tons of peat) under winter rye, the yield increase amounted to 5.8 centners per hectare.

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In 1964, for the first time in Tomsk Oblast, peat procurement—when a special decision of the oblast executive committee was adopted—was put on an industrial basis.

In accordance with this decision, the oblast association “Selkhoztekhnika” created a mechanized unit for peat procurement in the Tagan bog on the territory of the Takhtamyshevo State Farm.

Before this, Professor G. N. Blinkov of the Tomsk Pedagogical Institute had thoroughly surveyed, among other deposits, the peat of the Tagan bog; chemical analysis of many samples was carried out in the institute’s laboratory.

The careful study showed that this deposit has enormous reserves of peat with an almost neutral reaction, a high degree of decomposition, nitrogen content from 2.5 to 3.1%, and phosphorus (a great deal of vivianite) from 3.7 to 9.4% (in the 5–30 cm layer).

For the development of this deposit, the institute “Giprozem” prepared documentation and carried out the necessary preparatory work (laying out maps, drainage, clearing of stumps).

In the summer of 1964, peat procurement was organized by a mechanized method using the usual layer-by-layer technology, with the peat, at 60% moisture, stacked in clamps and subsequently hauled out to the fields of the Takhtamyshevo State Farm.

For the 1965 harvest (in autumn and winter), 40 thousand tons of peat were hauled out, of which 20 thousand tons were for potatoes and 20 thousand tons for corn and vegetables.

The results of the experiment and agronomic observations confirm the effectiveness of applying peat.

The potato yield on the experimental plot (with the application of peat alone at a rate of 400 tons per ha) amounted to 166 centners per ha, compared with 150 centners per ha on the control; the application of peat with manure and peat with mineral fertilizers and ash gave a yield increase of from 27 to 133 centners.

A considerable yield increase was obtained when peat was applied under corn.

Very interesting observations were carried out on vegetables.

At the “Chernaya Rechka” farm, new hotbeds were placed on sandy soil; the farm had no possibility of bringing in sod soil.

It was decided to fill the greenhouses with pure peat alone from the Tagan bog and to plant cucumbers.

In the course of caring for the plants, only watering and two applications of \(NPK\) fertilizer were carried out.

When recalculated, it turned out that on pure peat the cucumber yield was 10 kg per square meter. This is not a bad yield for open ground. Apparently, peat can also be widely used in greenhouse farming.

Over the course of 4 years at this state farm (prior to mechanized preparation), peat was applied under cabbage as an organic fertilizer in an amount of 40–60 tons per hectare; in addition, when seedlings were planted, a peat-mineral mixture was placed in the hole at a rate of 10 tons per hectare. This ensured yields of 330–350 centners per hectare over the entire area.

Thus, from the examples cited it is evident that, under the conditions of Tomsk Oblast, the use of peat as an organic fertilizer has a positive effect. Therefore one cannot but agree with the Belarusian professor Kurbatov, who rightly points out that “peat application to the soil should be regarded as a kind of capital investment in soil fertility.”

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In the summer of 1965, the mechanized column of “Selkhoztekhnika” organized, at the Tagan deposit, the preparation of peat-mineral composts and their transport to the fields of the Takhtamyshevsky and Rybalovsky state farms for the 1966 harvest, up to 100 thousand tons.

This, apparently, will be the most reasonable and economically advantageous use of peat as an organic fertilizer.

With the expansion of machine-reclamation stations (there will be 8 of them in the oblast), the extraction and use of peat in Tomsk Oblast should increase greatly and, by the end of the five-year plan, amount to no less than one million tons per year.

First of all, a sharp increase in the use of peat should take place in all suburban farms of Tomsk District.

We have not yet organized work on the use of peat in animal husbandry as bedding, which should fundamentally improve zoohygienic conditions on farms and improve the quality of manure and peat as local organic fertilizers.

Worthy of attention, especially under our conditions—when each additional hectare of arable land is won “with a struggle” (difficulties of development)—is the question of using peatlands as agricultural land for the cultivation of fodder crops, potatoes, vegetables, and cereals. This is especially important when, in connection with the development of the extraction of oil, gas, and other minerals, we must seriously prepare for expanding the agricultural base in the northern districts of Tomsk Oblast, in the places of bogs—huge peat deposits.

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Our conference must summarize the accumulated experience in the comprehensive use of peat in the agriculture of Western Siberia, provide recommendations on this important question, and thereby promote its most rational use for the purpose of further raising agricultural production.