Maluma

Early life

William Albrecht was born of German ancestry on a farm on the prairie of north central Illinois in the Midwest United States. After attending the local school, he progressed via preparatory school to the University of Illinois, where he obtained a B.A. degree in liberal arts. This led to a position teaching Latin and other subjects at Bluffton University, Ohio.

Albrecht later returned to Illinois to gain a B.S. degree in biology and agricultural science. He then started graduate research in Botany whilst also teaching in the department of botany. This period was key to his lifelong devotion to the scientific study of plant physiology and agriculture. It enabled him to take a microbiological view of plant structure whilst addressing the soil as a variable environment (either favourable or unsuitable). He presented his doctoral research in 1919, and it was published in the journal Soil Science in 1920 titled 'Symbiotic nitrogen fixation as influenced by nitrogen in the soil' His paper concluded that the nitrogen level in soil had no significant effect on fixation by legumes.

Career

Albrecht was a devout agronomist, the foremost authority on the relation of soil fertility to human health and earned four degrees from the University of Illinois. He became emeritus professor of soils at the University of Missouri. Dr. Albrecht saw a direct link between soil quality and food quality, drawing direct connection between poor quality forage crops, and ill health in livestock.

From the late 1930s, as chairman of the Department of Soils at the University of Missouri, he began work at the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station investigating cation ratios and the growth of legumes. He had been investigating cattle nutrition, having observed that certain pastures seemed conducive to good health, and at some point he came to the conclusion that the ideal balance of cations in the soil was "H, 10%; Ca, 60 to 75% optimal 69%; Mg, 10 to 20% optimal 12%; K, 2 to 5%; Na, 0.5 to 5.0%; and other cations, 5%".

While Albrecht was a highly respected soil scientist, he discounted soil pH, stating that "plants are not sensitive to, or limited by, a particular pH value of the soil." Instead, he believed that the benefit of liming soil stems from the additional calcium available to the plant, not the increase in pH. This belief has continued to be held by followers to this day, despite opinions to the contrary. Like much of the early research into BCSR where soil pH was not controlled, it is difficult to draw solid conclusions from Albrecht's research in support of BCSR.

"..."You have to have a vision. Unless you do, nature will never reveal herself." Dr William A Albrecht.

Throughout his life, Albrecht looked to nature to learn what optimizes soil, and attributing many common livestock diseases directly to those animals being fed poor quality feeds. He observed that :

"...“Food is fabricated soil fertility.”

Albrecht was a prolific author of reports, books and articles that span several decades, starting with his reports on nitrogen fixation and soil inoculation in 1919. MVG

Soil depletion

Albrecht was outspoken on matters of declining soil fertility, having identified that it was due to a lack of organic material, major elements, and trace minerals, and was thus responsible for poor crops and in turn for pathological conditions in animals fed deficient foods from such soils.

He laid the blame as:

"NPK formulas, (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) as legislated and enforced by State Departments of Agriculture, mean malnutrition, attack by insects, bacteria and fungi, weed takeover, crop loss in dry weather, and general loss of mental acuity in the population, leading to degenerative metabolic disease and early death".

Death and commemoration

On his death he left his research papers to his friend Charles Walters who promoted the ideas by founding the magazine Acres USA, which continues to be at the centre of the ideal soil movement, and is the current owner of the research papers.

List of publications

Albrecht published widely from 1918 through 1970:

Variable Levels of Biological Activity in Sanborn Field After Fifty Years of Treatment, Soil Science, 1938

Animals Recognize Good Soil Treatment, Better Crops With Plant Food Magazine, 1940

Organic Matter – The Life of the Soil, Farmer's Week, Ohio State University, 1940

Good Horses Require Good Soils, Horse and Mule Association of America, 1940

Calcium-Potassium-Phosphorus Relation as a Possible Factor in Ecological Array of Plants, Journal of the American Society of Agronomy, 1940

Making Organic Matter Effective in Soil, The Ohio Vegetable and Potato Growers Association, 1940

Calcium as a Factor in Seed Germination, Journal of the American Society of Agronomy, 1941

The Soil as a Farm Commodity or a Factory, Journal of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, 1941

Soil Organic Matter and Ion Availability for Plants, Soil Science, 1941

Biological Assays of Soil Fertility, Soil Science Society of America, 1941

Potassium in the Soil Colloid Complex and Plant Nutrition, Soil Science, 1941

Feed Efficiency in Terms of Biological Assays of Soil Treatments, Soil Science Society of America, 1942

Posthumous publications

Albrecht's Foundation Concepts (The Albrecht Papers, Vol I), [Paperback], William A. Albrecht (Author), Charles Walters (Editor)

Soil Fertility & Animal Health (The Albrecht Papers, Vol II), [Paperback], William A. Albrecht (Author), Charles Walters (Editor)[1]

Albrecht on Calcium (The Albrecht Papers, Vol V), [Paperback], William A. Albrecht (Author), Charles Walters (Editor)

Albrecht on Pastures (The Albrecht Papers, Vol VI), [Paperback], William A. Albrecht (Author), Charles Walters (Editor)

Albrecht on Soil Balancing (The Albrecht Papers, Vol VII), [Paperback], William A. Albrecht (Author), Charles Walters (Editor)