Abstract

Calcium is one of the most important elements in plant animal nutrition and is necessary to the healthy growth of all animals and green plants with the exception only of some of the lower algae. The animals get their calcium requirements from the plants on which they feed. Thus the plant is the great intermediary by which calcium in the soil is assimilated and made available to animals and man. The luxuriance of a plant is not necessarily a criterion of its nutritive value or its calcium contents. Man and animals may develop marked symptoms of disease on calcium deficient but apparently fertile soils. An example, commonly cited to prove the inadequacy of calcium in the laterite soils of West Coast, is the poor build of the local cattle, apparently resulting from the lack of calcium in the feed.

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