A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THK 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. XI. No. 276. 



BARBADOS, NOVEMBER 23, 1912. 



6oTAi 



Pbiob Id. OAR 



CONTENTS. 



Pack. 



Antigua; A Little-Knimii 



District in 375 



Carbolic Acid, Crude, for 



Mosquito Larvae ... 376 



Chicle jtuiii 375 



Cotton Notes : — 



Mechanical Harvesting of 



Cotton 374 



West Indian Cotton ... 374 

 Dominica, Some Interest- 

 ing Plants in 372 



Egyptian Department of 

 Agriculture, Some 



Work of 377 



Exhibition, International 



Rubber. 1912 .379 



Fungus Notes : — 



Sugar-cane Diseases in 



Porto Rico .382! 



Gleanings 380' 



Insect Notes : — 



Jumping Beans 



Protection of Coco-nut 

 Palms from Beetles... 



Paob. 



Lime Cultivation in Marti- 

 nique .372 



iMarket Reports 384 



Notes and Comments ... ,S7G 



Oil and Oil Seed Trade of 



Marseilles 373 



Ostrich Meat as Human 



Food 377 



Sawdust, Feeding Value of 377 

 Silkworm Rearing in Yuca- 

 tan 377 



Soil Nitrification. Some 



Conditions Influencing 369 



Sugar Industry: — 



Distance of Cane-Plant- 

 ing 370 



Sugar in Formosa ... 371 

 West I idian Sugar-canes 

 in Queensland ... 

 Students' Comer ... 



378 



378 I West Indian Products ... 383 



371 

 381 



Some Conditions Influencing Soil 

 Nitrification. 



iiULL RECOGNITIUN is now given by the 



agriculturist to the importance of the causes 

 ) that operate in the transformation of the 

 nitrogen compounds in the soil into forms that can be 

 taken up directly by green plants. These causes are 

 concerned intimately with bacterial life; the work is 

 divided between different kinds of these organisms, 

 and each kind takes its definite part in the process: the 

 putrefactive bacteria bring about the formation of 



compounds of ammonia from the more complex 

 nitrogenous substances in the soil, and the subsequent 

 successive changes into nitrites and nitrates complete 

 the process that is usually termed nitrification. It is 

 evident that one of the cares of the agriculturist is to 

 determine the conditions required for the most 

 efficient action of this important process, and much 

 work in this direction has been done in recent years. 

 It is the present intention to summarize the results 

 of investigations* of the matter that have been carried 

 out in some detail in Australia 



The experiments were designed to gain further 

 information regarding two matters: the influence of 

 moisture on nitrification in soils, and the influence of 

 chalk (calcium carbonate) and other substances in the 

 same way. For the former, two sets of experiments 

 were devised. In one, the different proportions of water 

 in the soil were ten to seventy per cent., advancing by 

 tens, of its total water-holding capacity; in the other, 

 they were ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, seventy and ninety 

 per cent, of the same quantity Where the former 

 proportions were used, the soil, having been treated with 

 a standard solution of ammonium sulphate and aerated 

 regularly, was found to show a rate of nitrification that 

 did not vary to any great extent where the percentages 

 of water were between forty and seventy: while at ten 

 per cent, there was practically no nitrification, nnd at 

 twenty per cent, it had been gi-eatly reduced. A sandy 

 soil was used in this case, and in the second set of 

 experiments to determine the influence of moisture, 

 the work was conducted with a clay soil as well. Here, 

 the former results with the sandy soil were confirmed, 

 and the additional conclusion was reached that when 



♦ The Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria, 

 Vol. X, 1912, pp. 275 and 393 



