ToL. I. No. 9. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



139 



LECTURES Oy SOME OF THE PHYSICAL 

 PROPERTIES OF SOIL. By Professor P.. Warrington, 

 F.K.S. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1900. 



The volume deals with the iihysieal properties of soil 

 .and their bearing on crop produetion, a branch of Agricul- 

 tural investigations which has Ijcen greatly neglected liy 

 English workers but lias attracted a considerable amount of 

 attention in the United Ktates and Germany. In the former 

 country, a special branch of the Department of Agriculture 

 i-s maintained to conduct inipiiries in thi.s field. That the 

 failure on the part of investigators in England to ajipreciate 

 the importance of the physical properties of the soil ha.s 

 <ione much to maintain the divorce between practice and 

 science in the minds of agriculturists in that country is 

 plainly stated by the author as follows ; — 



'There can be no doubt that the neglect of the physical 

 conditions of the soil as a subject of study, and in 

 consequence, as a subject of teaching, has done much to 

 binder the appreciation of science by practical men. The 

 experienced farmer knows the overwhelming imjiortance of a 

 proper texture of the soil for the profitable cidtui'e of each 

 crop. His scientific teacher has, however, little to say on 

 this subject, while ho freely recommends the use of expensive 

 manures which a proper culture of the soil might render 

 unnecessary, and which must fail to yield a jirotitable return 

 if a favourable physical condition of the soil is absent. 

 The farmer feeh that this teaching is out of toucli with the 

 experience he has gained on the farm ; lie also fretpiently 

 finds that the plan suggested is not a financial success. 

 He therefore characterises the advice given as "theoretical," 

 and concludes that science is not a safe guide to the farmer.' 



As the author points out in the preface, it is only on 

 the results of experimental investigations that agricultural 

 science can be safely built. Any general principles under- 

 lying soil constitution must therefore be deduced from a 

 careful study of accurate and long continued exijeriments. 

 Proceeding in this way the author has condensed the va.st 

 masses of results accumulated by King and other workers 

 in the United States, by many investigations in Germany 

 and those obtained at Piothainsted, which bear on the subject, 

 into the volume before us. The result is, as would be 

 expected from the distinguished author, a masterly treatise 

 which should find a place in every agricultural library. 



While parts of tlie work deal with matters and condi- 

 tions which are foreign to West Indian experience, the 



.greater portion will prove of great interest to all connected 

 with field experiments in these Colonies. Especially useful 

 are the earlier chapters dealing with the physical constitu- 

 tution of the .soil, mechanical analysis of soil, the production 



•of tilth, the relation of the plant to water and the ameli- 

 oration of the physical properties of the soil. 



SCHOOL GARDENS. 



The Church Wecldy for March 27, contains an 

 interesting article on School gardening. We repro- 

 duce the greater porti(jn : — 



' There is nothing new under the sun,' said the Wi.se 

 Man, and every day we jirove the truth of the assertion, and 

 learn that our most wonderful discoveries are but the re[)ro- 

 duction of some made in what we are [)leas9d to term the 

 ' Dark Ages.' Three hundred years ago there was a 

 jNIarconi, and about the .same time tJomenius was urging that; 

 ' a garden be connected with every school where children 

 can gaze on trees, flowers and herbs, and be taught to enjoy 

 them.' Francke, in 109.5, established a garden in connexion 

 with his school for orphans. But it was Rousseau, in 1762, 

 who fully develoiied the idea of garden work as a part of 

 real education in his ' Emile.' 



The school garden suggested by Austria was rapidly 

 taken up throughout Europe. In 1869 the Austrian 

 imperial law |ircscribed that, where practicable, a garden and 

 a place for agricultural experiments should be esfcibli.shed in 

 connexion with every rural school. 



There are at jiresent in Austro-Hungary 18,000 such 

 gardens. The Fetleral Government of Switzerland ai)pro- 

 priates money annually for their establishment. In France 

 since 1887 no plan of a school building is accepted without 

 an adequate garden attachment. In Belgium each sdiool 

 must have a garden of at least 39.' square rods. Vegetaljle 

 culture must Ijc taught, and fitness for this sjieciality is made 

 to determine the acce[itance of teachers. In 1876 Sweden 

 had 1,600 school gardens, and now .she has over four 

 thousand. In Southern Russia are found school gardens in 

 which are cultivated, by the children, grapes, berrie.s, vege- 

 table.s, grain, together with silkworms and bees. There are 

 twelve thousand fruit trees in such garden.s, and to bring 

 them to their [irojicr condition is as much a part of the pupil's 

 work as lessons in mathematics. Germany has in soma 

 resi)ects gone even further ; for not only with the real-.school.s 

 and gymnasia are there gardens, but the normal schools are 

 provided each with a few acres of land, where teachers get 

 their training in the industries. 



In England the movement has been sporadic. A recent 

 letter in The Tiriifs recounts a i)rivate enterprise, where 

 each boy has a plot of land, 30 feet by 10 feet, for individual 

 experiment — besides the work he must do in the larger 

 garden connected with the school. Instruction is given in 

 soils, in vegetable botany, in manures, in growing plants, 

 flowers and vegetables. The pui)ils are required to take 

 notes, and all their private investigations are under 

 review by the teachers, and their iiniuirie-s are carefully 

 answered. From their personal plots they may sell what- 

 ever fruits or vegetables or flowers they are able to raise. 

 The results of this sort of education are not immediately 

 apparent. But it is a. universal comment that there is 

 a very speedy result in the way of an impulse to imi)rov3 

 home grounds. The school garden or gardens stand as object- 

 lessons to the whole country about. Not only the pupils 

 themselves, but their parents, have their amliition awakened 

 to have their homes surrounded with the beautiful as well as 

 the useful. In .some }iarts of England the county councils 

 are doing the work — aiipointing instructors who are practical 

 gardeners. It is reported that upwards of 40,000 crops 

 have been grown since 1892, and subjected to rigid examina- 

 tion and valuation. It is noted also that great gain has l)een 

 made in the ca.sh value of the work accomplished by the 

 pupils. 



