24 



THE AORICULTURAL NEWS. 



January IS, 1913. 



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|lgrini]fiu*al l^inuii 



ToL. XII. SATURDAY. .JAXrARY 18, 191-3. No. 280. 



^NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



In this issue the editorial is concerned with the 

 Division of Labour. The subject is considered mainly 

 from the point of view of the practical agriculturist. 



Undei' the heading Departmental Reports, on page 

 19, a review is given of the Report on the Agricultural 

 Department, St. Lucia, for 1911-12. 



One of the matters presented on page 21 is a short 

 article detailing theresults of recent work on the effects 

 of calcium and magnesium in the soil. 



The Insect Notes will be found on ])age 2(i. They 

 oipjisist of the first of two articles presenting a summary 

 of entomological information given under this heading 

 during 1912. 



An interesting article on vegetable silks appears 

 on page 29. 



On pige 'M), the Fungus Notes consist of an 

 account of a disease of tanias in Jamaica, based chiefly 

 on work of investigation that has been carried out in 

 that island. 



The same page contains thr greater jiart of an 

 article of some interest, dealing with new sources of 

 |)aper that have received recent attention. 



The Action of Sulphur on the Soil. 



Jr. has been known for some lime that organisms 

 like Tliiiispirilluiii W inogradski i ut'\]iz.ey as a source 

 of energy, the sulphuretted hydrogen in the soil. They 

 decompose this gas and store up in themselves the 

 granules ofsidphur, which aie eventually used up in 

 the formation of sulphuric acid. This sulphuric acii 

 combines with some base in the soil, generally lime, 

 forming — in the case of lime — gypsum. There exist 

 also in the soil several common decay bacteria lilie 

 Bacillus mycoldes and Proteus calgaris which have 

 the power of decomposing gypsum, and this eventuilly 

 nsults in the formation of sulphuretted hydrogen. The 

 chemical reaction as a whole is therefore biological, 

 revertible and exothermic. 



In connexion with the above facts the effect of 

 adding sulphates to the .soil was tried, and it was found 

 that, though sulphates at first retard humification, they 

 eventually favour nitrification. 



A continuation of this work was the fixvourable 

 effects of the element sulphur when applied to the soil 

 established early in 1912 bv several investigators iii 

 France and iJeruiany. Sulphur was founa to have 

 a fungicidal action: to modify the conditions of life of 

 soil bacteria, and to act eventually as a food for culti- 

 vated plants. 



More recently Boullanger and Dugarin in France 

 have investigated the action of Howers of sulphur on 

 nitrons or nitric bacteria in the soil. It is stated in 

 the Bulletin of f]i,e Bureau of Agricultural Int'dli- 

 gence for October last that they have found that 

 sulphur promotes the activity of ammonifying bacteria 

 but that it has no influence on the nitrogen-fixing 

 bacteria {Aziitohacter, Clostridium, etc.). It would 

 ajipear from this that the favourable effect produced 

 on crops is due to the increased rate of ft)rmation of 

 available ammonium salts from unavailable nitrogenous 

 compounds in organic matter. 



Sacchulose: A New Foodstuff. 



The name Sacchulose has been given to the 

 transformed product resulting from the treatment of 

 sawdust with a weak solu'ion of sulphurous acid under 

 a pressure of about 100 lb. to thi' srpiare inch (("lassen 

 Process). A paper on the subject, by A. Zimmerman, 

 ap])ears in the Jnurnal of the Roytd tfocictg (f Arts, 

 for December (i, 1912. In this a table shows the 

 extent of the conversion that occurs during the Classen 

 Process. 



From this table it appears that, after conxersioa 

 and the expulsion of volatile substances, the percentage 

 of sugar had increased from nothing to 'I'r, whilst the 

 other carbohydrates soluble in acid and alkali had 

 decreased from 310 to 180 per cent., and the carbo- 

 hydrates insoluble in acid and alkali from (i^-.'i to 

 o(i 8 per cent. 



It will be observed that the 2o"0 per cent, of sugar 

 is apparently drawn etpntlly from the soluble and 

 insoluble carbohydrates, though in the discussion which 

 followed the reading of the paper, W. F. Reid doubted 

 the conversion of cellulose into sugar and suggested 

 that it had been derived from other substances con- 



