This book by a distinguished agronomist and agricultural researcher is a factual presentation designed to show farmers how they can increase their crop yields and reduce their production costs so they may enjoy a higher standard of living. Known in some agriculture circles as a rebel because he raises common sense, experience, and scientific fact above the claims of those who manufacture commercial fertilizer and the teachings in many college agriculture courses, Dr. Tiedjens’ More Food From Soil Science provides concrete examples of ways to help cure the agricultural doldrums.

In this book, Dr. Tiedjens has taken sharp issue with the fertilizer manufacturers. “If we look into the reason for our increase in yields during the past 75 years, groups with different interests like to take the credit. The group with the biggest political lobby, the commercial fertilizer industry, likes to take most of the credit when actually they have contributed the least and probably have done the best job of bungling our thinking. Because of the influence of the bigness of the lobby, many of our young scientists have been dazzled into thinking propaganda is truth to the extent that they have allowed the propaganda to guide their thinking. When a person thinks long enough, he begins to adapt his thinking into a lifetime philosophy. The fertilizer industry has been guided by agronomists who have gotten their knowledge from the fertilizer industry. Don’t bite the hand that is feeding you.

More Food from Soil Science attributes today’s increased yields to factors outside the fertilizer industry, particularly the use of lime. Dr. Tiedjens writes, “I doubt whether we can say that these big yields are the result of planned treatment. It is true that many of them have received heavy amounts of plant food, but who can say whether we might not have had large yields with considerably less plant food applied?”