1917] SOILS FERTILIZERS. 215 



yields and reviews experimental data relative to increased yields due to Im- 

 proved soil fertility methods. 



It is concluded that both the average acre-yields and the average acre-values 

 of the most common Illinois crops (corn, oats, wheat, and clover) on the most 

 common Illinois soil can be doubled by the adoption of better crop rotations, 

 including a more liberal use of legumes, with a return of more organic manures, 

 together with a systematic application of limestone and phosphorus in the form 

 of raw rock phosphate but without commercial potassium or commercial 

 nitrogen. 



Live stock and the maintenance of organic matter in the soil, E. O. Flppin 

 (Jour. Ainer. Soc. Agron., 9 (1917), No. 3, pp. 97-105, fig. 1). — This is a review 

 and summary of the results of work by others at several of the State experi- 

 ment stations, from which the following conclusions are drawn : 



" The higher plants are able to use organized carbonaceous foods, both nitro- 

 genous and nonnitrogenous. Carbonaceous food conserves energy in the 

 process of growth of the crop and makes possible a larger total growth in a 

 given time. The organic matter in the soil is the direct source of the car- 

 bonaceous material used by the plant. Any process that permits the destruction 

 of organic matter that might find its way into the soil is likely to be poor 

 economy. 



"Animals destroy from half to nine-tenths of the organic matter in the feed 

 consumed. It is burned up in the body processes and expended as energy. A 

 further large loss occurs in the handling of the manure. 



" It is entirely possible to maintain the organic matter in tlie soil without 

 animal husbandry. On very poor soils, animal husbandry may be bad practice. 

 It may be justified by large profits from the animal products by means of which 

 the loss of organic matter can be made up from other sources." 



The manual of manures, H. Vendelmans (London: Country Life; New 

 York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916, pp. XVI +164, fi9S. 6). — This is a number 

 of the so-called " Increased Productivity Series," and its purpose is to give 

 practical information on manures and fertilizers and their proper uses. A 

 discussion of manures in general is followed by specific information regarding 

 nitrogenous, chemical, phosphatic, and potassic manures, ashes and soot, mag- 

 nesia and silica, and organic manures of different kinds. Materials for soil 

 improvement, including lime-containing compounds, are also discussed, and 

 final sections deal with auximones and the quantities of manures to be used 

 per acre. 



The text of the English fertilizers and feeding-stuffs act is also given. 



Fertilizers and their supply in war time, J. A. Voelckee (Jour. Roy. Soc. 

 Arts, 65 (1917), No. 3356, pp. 32^-337 ) .—The purpose of this paper is to sum- 

 marize the present general agricultvu-al requirements in England in regard 

 to fertilizers as consisting in the supply of superphosphate and basic slag as 

 phosphatic manures and of ammonium sulphate as the nitrogenous one. " The 

 supply of these three is all essential, and if farmers are to meet successfully 

 the demands now made on them, it is all important that they should be put in 

 the way of obtaining an adequate and ready supply of these." 



Artificial manures. — Experiments on their value for crops in western 

 India, H. H. Mann and S. R. Pabanjpe (Dept. Agr. Bombay Bui. 76 (1915), 

 pp. 55). — This bulletin gives the results of a number of fertilizer experiments 

 with various crops in western India, where commercial fertilizers have not 

 proved popular heretofore. The crops were divided into field crops, which 

 included tobacco, potatoes, wheat, cotton, and sugar cane, and garden crops, 

 which included chillies, onions, alfalfa, and bananas. 



