INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, EOII 1912-13. 8& 



conditions of water supply have been made and are now in 

 use; green manure (sann) has also been grown for experi- 

 mental purposes. 



Tours- — To Muktesar to discuss various matters con- 

 nected with bacteriological technique in India with the 

 Imperial Bacteriologist. 



To Muzaffevpore to attend meeting of Bihar Planters' 

 Association. 



To Nagpur to examine soil conditions and obtain sam- 

 ples from sewage treated area. 



To Bettiah to investigate potato disease. 



To Sirseah to consult Mr. Bergtheil on the subject of 

 indigo disease. 



II-- -Soil Bacteriology. 



Nitrogen supply in the soil as affected by intervention 

 of bacteria has been the principal subject of enquiry; in the 

 previous year attention was confined to the conditions 

 under which organic nitrogen of manures and residues 

 is converted into ammonia and nitrates; this line of 

 enquiry affords sufficient work to occupy the whole time of 

 any establishment for many years, but it has been considered 

 advisable to add to it an investigation of the natural con- 

 ditions under which nitrogen is taken from the air and 

 added to the soil in this country. This if carried out 

 thoroughly would also involve a very large amount of work, 

 but it seems advisable in dealing with such a question as 

 soil bacteriology in this country, where no work on this 

 subject has been carried out before, to make preliminary 

 enquiries, however superficial, on similar important ques- 

 tions, in order to gain some idea of the most useful direc- 

 tion in which to pursue the subject more fully. This is the 

 more necessary on account of the still early stage of de- 

 velopment of soil bacteriology as a science, and the fact 

 that many fundamental theories connecting bacterial action 

 with soil fertility have not yet been accepted as axiomatic. 

 It is perhaps unnecessary to emphasize the importance of 

 the question of nitrogen fixation, but it may be pointed out 



