THE AGKICULTURAL NEWS. 



January 4, 1913 



present. Among them was the striking conclusion 

 from statistics, that rather more than one- half of its 

 total food reiiuirements are produced by the United 

 Kingdom — that is to say, excluding products like 

 sugar, tea and coffee, which are not, or cannot, be 

 grown to any extent in the country. The actual 

 figures are about one hundred and eighty million 

 pounds for home production and two hundred and 

 sixty million for imports, of which latter quantity 

 thirty-nine million pounds pays for sugar, tea, cotfee 

 and cocoa. As is stated: 'These figures came as 

 a great surprise to the meeting, and it is cert^xinly 

 satisfactory to know that British agriculture has so 

 well maintained its position in competition with other 

 countries.' There is, however, a matter for regret in 

 the falling off in wheat production, which seems to be 

 partly due to the competition arising from the 

 circumstance that wheat appears to be a pioneer crop 

 in the development of those new countries to which it 

 is suited. 



An account of the progress of agriculture in 

 Scotland during the past fifty years showed that, while 

 there has been a decrease of many thousands of acres 

 under grain, turnips and potatoes, the areas under 

 rotation and permanent grasses have increased — the 

 latter very considerabl\'. There have also been large 

 increases per acre of all crops, particularly of wheat 

 and potatoes. 



In order to deal effectively with meteorological 

 matters, a joint meeting was held v. ith the meteoro- 

 logical department of the niatheraatical and physical 

 science section. Dr. W. N. Shaw opened the session 

 by dwelling upon the use to the agriculturist of fore- 

 casts, and the application of the present knowledge of 

 climate: in the latter connexion, the meteorolog-ist 

 wanted to know if his statistics are useful to the agri- 

 culturist, and in what form they should be presented for 

 employment by him. Among the papers that were of 

 more direct agricultural interest was an account by 

 Dr. E. J. Russell of the eflfect of climate on the plant, 

 both directly, and indirectly through its influence on 

 the soil; in the latter connexion, the chief matter for 

 consideration was the increase uf nitrates in the soil 

 during warm weather, and their removal by heavy rains. 

 Another matter of direct import in relation to the rais- 

 ing of crops was the testimony by a practical farmer as 

 to the great utility of local observations in conjunction 

 with a central organization like the Meteorological 

 Qflfice, the speaker expressing the opinion that meteor- 

 ology ought to be taught to all those who are preparing 

 to take up responsible positions on fai-nis or estates. 



For the consideration of animal nutrition, another 

 joint meeting was held — in this case with the physio- 

 logical section. One of the m..st interesting [lapers 

 dealt with ten years' experiments in sheep and cattle 

 feeding, and showed that linseed cake holds a pre-emi- 

 nent position as a food, 'animals fed on this always 

 making greater progress than those on other sub- 

 stances.' A further matter of much interest is that, 

 'a mixture uf wheat, cotton seed and cotton cake made 

 up to give the same analysis as linseed cake proved 

 economically a ftilure.' These and other matters lead 

 to the conclusion that: 'our present methods of valuing 

 feeding stuffs do not afford particularly useful informa- 

 tion.' An explanation of this fact was supplied in 

 another paper, which showed that the expression of 

 the value of a food in terms of carbohydrates, fats and 

 proteids is insufficient, for there are other equally 

 important nutritive bodies whose removal decreases 

 the value of the diet or even causes disease in the 

 animals to which it is given. A succeeding paper 

 gave an illustration of such bodies in the vitamines 

 which, it may he mentioned, have received brief atten- 

 tion already* in this joarnal. 



Other work of more local interest, relating to 

 nutrition, was concerned with the relative values of 

 white and standard bread, and the rearing of calves. 

 For the latter, investigation has shown that whole milk 

 is the best food, up to the time of weaning; but that 

 later, cotton seed oil and linseed oil may be substituted 

 for butterfat in the ration, without causing any lessen- 

 ing in the weight of the slaughtered animals. 



The matter would not be complete by reference 

 to the special subjects alone. There were several 

 general papers of great interest, but among them any 

 mention at length can only be made to those by 

 Dr. Hutchinson, dealing with the action of lime in soils 

 and with experiments on nitrogen assimilation. The 

 author shows in the first case, that lime can partially 

 sterilize the soil in the same way as antiseptics or heat; 

 it causes at first the death of many of the protozoa, 

 and then there is a marked growth of bacteria and 

 a consequent increase of plant food. Lastly, the work 

 on nitrogen assimilation demonstrated that the action 

 of bacteria in this process is increased by adding 

 to the soil organic substances, among which sugar 

 is included, the influence of the latter being especi- 

 ally marked at high temperatures — a fact that must 

 enter into the consideration of the effect of molasses on 

 the soil. 



AyricuUund News, Vol. XI, [i. 3.')!). 



