530 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



III. THE SOIL AS RELATED TO VEGETABLE PRODUC- 

 TION. 



One of the most marked and withal most fortunate phases 

 of the present progress of agricultural investigation is the in- 

 creased attention given to the study of the soil. The failure 

 of the theories which a quarter of a century or more ago 

 promised such great things from soil-analysis lias been fol- 

 lowed by a reaction, and agricultural chemistry has busied 

 itself mostly with the laws of vegetable and animal produc- 

 tion. The laws of plant-nourishment and growth having 

 been more clearly learned, the need has become apparent of 

 o-oinc: back to the soil and finding how it furnishes food, 

 what else it has to do to help crops to grow upon it, and what 

 are the ways by which we may increase its capacities for so 

 doins:. The result is that an increasing; number of investiera- 

 tors are directing their attention to the physics and chemis- 

 try of the soil. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE SOIL. AGRICULTURAL 



PHYSICS. 



Among the best indications of the development of science 

 are the journals devoted to its special departments. Agri- 

 cultural chemistry has for some years been represented by a 

 number of journals intended more or less exclusively for its 

 furtherance, but covering also more or less territory outside 

 of chemistry. With the year 1S78 a new journal has ap- 

 peared with the title Forschungen auf clem Gebiete der Agrl- 

 k ui Iturphy si/i, and devoted exclusively to agricultural physics, 

 under which title, according to the prospectus, the physics of 

 the soil, the plant, and the atmosphere . . . can properly be 

 classed. The editor, Dr. Wollny, is one of the foremost investi- 

 gators in this direction. The journal fills most admirably a very 

 important place in the development of agricultural science. 



The first number opens with an article on the Present 

 Status of Agricultural Physics, by Dr. Liebenberg. It be- 

 o-ins as follows: "The fact is becoming more and more o-en- 

 erally recognized that the influence of the soil upon the life 

 and growth of the plant is determined not only by its chem- 

 ical, but no less, and perhaps even more, by its physical, char- 

 acters. A result of this is that investigation has, in the last 



