Vasily Williams' contribution to the development of domestic soil science and agrochemistry

Vasily Robertovich Williams (1863–1939) was the founder of one of the finest schools of soil science, a generator of new scientific ideas, and an active administrator. The scientist enjoyed unquestionable authority in the country and served as a consultant to the State Planning Committee, the government, and party bodies. He was called the chief agronomist of the country and a great scientist of the Stalin era. V.R. Williams dedicated his entire life to solving the problem of high and stable yields. While still a student, he was particularly interested in chemistry and the study of soils. In 1888, V.R. Williams published his first work, "Studies of Eight Soils of the Mamadysh Uyezd of the Kazan Governorate," in which he outlined the direction for scientific research of soil. He was interested in the fundamental properties of soil, the most essential of which is soil fertility. From the very beginning, he set himself the task of developing soil science in close connection with solving the practical challenges of increasing crop yields.

With the aim of understanding the conditions of soil fertility, the scientist initially studied its physical properties and became convinced that they depend on the content of humus substances. V.R. Williams was interested in the factors that determine soil properties. He sought to view soil in development, which fundamentally distinguished him from all predecessors and contemporaries engaged in soil science. In his master's thesis, "Experimental Research in the Field of Mechanical soil analysis," V.R. Williams demonstrated the need for a comprehensive approach to the study of soils, discovered the complex interrelationships operating within them, and emphasized that plant physiology is the foundation for all findings and conclusions of agricultural science. By plant physiology, V.R. Williams meant the physiology of higher and lower plants, i.e., in the modern sense, the physiology of plants and microorganisms. In his thesis, the scientist laid the foundations of biological soil science. Subsequent decades of his creative life were devoted to their development.

From 1897, V.R. Williams worked at the Lyubertsy irrigation fields, transforming them into a large production laboratory where he comprehensively investigated issues of soil biology. He was the first in Russia to build "irrigation fields" — facilities based on the purification of urban sewage by the soil. The Lyubertsy irrigation fields, designed by V.R. Williams, lasted for nearly a century, saving Moscow from its own wastewater. In that same year, 1897, he organized a testing station for the quality control of seed, soil, and fertilizer at the department he headed. In 1903, he established lysimetric experiments to study soil water and humus acids. In the course of these experiments, the scientist investigated the properties of soil organic acids and the conditions of their formation depending on different types of vegetation; he determined the role of these acids in physical and chemical processes occurring in the soil and in the formation of its physical structure. In 1904, V.R. Williams organized a nursery for annual grasses at the department to study their biology and economic value. In 1911, he created courses at the department to train agronomists for work with meadows and pastures, which were reorganized in 1914 into the Research Institute for Meadow Management — later the Institute of Forage named after him. Starting in 1926, V.R. Williams led multi-year scientific expeditions to survey soils in regions of the Soviet Union. The scientist devoted almost half a century of his life to agricultural science and the service of the country's agriculture.

V.R. Williams formulated the concept of soil structure, referring to its aggregation. He rightly believed that a water-stable granular or nut-like structure contributes to achieving high yields and prevents soil erosion. The scientist stood for the principles of biological farming, as a result of which the structure of soils and the content of nutrients would be determined by properly selected plants and grass mixtures. Based on this, he proposed a practical method of increasing fertility and obtaining high crop yields — the ley farming system.

The ley system of V.R. Williams involves the implementation of a complex of interconnected links. It includes the theory of soil restoration, a system of its tillage, fertilizers, and the theory of organizing the entire agricultural territory with a scientifically justified placement of meadows, fields, forests, and field-protecting forest belts. He was not against fertilizers. "The art of fertilization consists in the ability to fertilize the plant, not the soil," V.R. Williams said.

From the point of view of modern farming systems, V.R. Williams's ley system can be considered as one of the variants of organic farming, which has a specific ecological niche. The scientist's ideas were very much in tune with later developments in global agriculture, when biological methods of soil improvement, the creation of conditions for nitrogen-fixers, minimal tillage, and mixed sowing were proposed. In this respect, it was V.R. Williams who stands out as the first scientist to put forward the idea of environmentally friendly farming. He was one of the first to demonstrate the possibilities and limits of the influence of biological farming systems. They will always be lower in productivity than intensive farming systems that make wide use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides. However, with a biospheric approach, these systems come to the fore, and the question of the ultimate advantage of one over the other has not yet been definitively resolved. Undoubtedly, humanity cannot feed itself today without fertilizers, but the future will require making major adjustments to our farming systems, as well as to the ratio of cultivated and undisturbed areas. In any case, the principle of biological soil improvement and the creation of environmentally friendly farming has not yet been fully exhausted or refuted; on the contrary, it is finding more and more supporters.

For a practicing agronomist, soil is not merely a mechanical medium for roots, but the loose surface horizon of the land capable of producing a crop. The fundamental quality of this natural body is soil fertility, which directly depends on the organic matter content, as well as the physical and physicochemical properties of the arable layer. Managing soil fertility requires an understanding of whether the soil is in a progressive or regressive stage.

In the progressive stage, properties form within the soil that simultaneously provide plants with both water and nutrients in a favorable way. In the regressive stage, the balance is disrupted, and these vital factors begin to exclude each other. This leads to a sharp decline in the efficiency of applied fertilizer and a loss of harvest.

Biological Cycle and Evolution of the Soil Layer

A modern plough layer is not formed directly from the parent material, but through the evolution of the preceding soil. A key role in this process is played by the small biological and global geological cycles of matter. The basis of the biological cycle is organic matter, the quality and accumulation of which determine the soil structure and the nutrient regime of crops.

A special group of soils is represented by floodplain lands, the classification of which is based on a division into stratified and granular types. This gradation allows agronomists to work effectively with complex soddy, meadow, and marshy soils in river floodplains. The experience accumulated since the end of the 19th century in studying the interaction in the "plant-soil-fertilizer" system now allows for the precise calculation of crop nutrition and the improvement of technologies for the organic fertilizer">application of organic fertilizers.