116 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



of leaves for protection and food storage and many re- 

 lative topics. 



No city in America has such an opportunity for cre- 

 ating a love for plant life, and an intelligent interest in 

 its conservation as has Pittsburgh, through the generos- 

 ity of one of its citizens. 



Standing in close proximity to Phipps' Hall of Botany, 

 and in front of the Phipps' Conservatory in Schenley 

 Park, is the Robert Burns' Monument, which was ac- 

 cepted by Mayor Jos. C. Armstrong on October 27, 1914, 

 on behalf of the city of Pittsburgh, as a gift from An- 

 drew Carnegie, David AI. Kirk, George Lauder, James 

 H. Lockart, Thomas Morrison, Alexander R. Peacock, 

 Janies Scott and the late Robert Pitcairn. 



PHYTOCHEMISTRY TO SOLVE OUR SOIL 

 PROBLEMS. 



By W. A. Hamor, Pennsylvania. 



There has long l>een a certain antagonism of interest 

 between agriculture and industry, both supporters of 

 national welfare. The gulf which at one time threat- 

 ened to separate them, would, no doubt, have become a 

 barrier to cordial relations, owing to the more rapid 

 progress of industry, had not chemistry, now the 

 inteligence bureau of both, come between them as the 

 mediator at a most opportune time. To quote one of 

 the most eminent organic chemists, Herman Kolbe : 

 "It seems marvelous and almost incredible to the un- 

 initiated that, after a pursuit of agriculture for thou- 

 sands of years, and after the establishment of the gen- 

 eral belief that agriculture was being rationally carried 

 out on the basis of a thousand years of experience, a 

 chemist, who had never been a farmer, had never held 

 the plough, never tilled the ground, should from his 

 desk teach the agriculturists how to treat the soil, in 

 order to impart to it constant productivity ; and that 

 only through Liebig's doctrine of the treatment of the 

 soil and of the natural laws governing the cultivation 

 of the ground, a truly rational system of agriculture 

 has been inaugurated." 



Agriculture has, in fact, now become applied phy^to- 

 chemistry, the chemistry of plants, and agricultural 

 production ultimately rests upon the same chemical 

 laws and operations which are employed in laborato- 

 ries. It is therefore to the phytochemist that agricul- 

 turists — and florists and gardeners are members of 

 that family must turn if they intend to be careful to 

 further and increase the growth of plants, especially 

 food plants, by supplying them with just the sub- 

 stances which the soil cannot offer to them in sufficient 

 amount. The remark of the late Marquis of Salisbury 

 is apropos in this connection: "If farmers would only 

 manure their land with brains . . . there would 

 be much less heard about agricultural depression." 

 This utterance with that of Dean Swift — that "the man 

 who makes two ears of corn or two blades of grass to 

 grow, where only one grew before, is a great benefac- 

 tor to his country" — will indeed always constitute the 

 practical principles guiding the relation of chemistry 

 to agriculture. 



The progress of agricultural research in the United 

 States has been notable. The results of practical im- 

 portance already attained have inspired the public with 

 such confidence in the value of this kind of investiga- 

 tion that Congress and the State legislatures have been 

 very liberal to the Federal Department of Agriculture 

 and to the 63 experiment stations distributed through- 

 out the country. Hand in hand with agricultural prog- 

 ress has been a constantly^ growing demand for well- 

 trained workers in agricultural science, for the man- 



agers of business enterprises requiring scientific knowl- 

 edge and skill have awakened to a much clearer appre- 

 ciation of the value of the services of such men. 



Agricultural chemistry forms, of course, a basically 

 prominent part of the instruction in agriculture at the 

 \-arious State colleges and universities, but, if we ex- 

 cept the very superficial treatment of the subject as 

 given in courses on pharamacognosy and materia 

 medica at the schools of pharmacy, phytochemistrv, 

 the chemistry of plants in its broadest aspects, does not 

 have a part in the curricula of our universities. The 

 courses offered in agricultural chemistry at the State 

 universities usually consist of instruction and practice 

 in the analysis of soils, fertilizers, plants, feeding 

 stuff's, and rain and drain waters ; and little or no time 

 is devoted to a study of the chemistry of the important 



ROHERT DURXS irOXUMEXT, SCHEXLEV PARK. PITTSBURGH. 

 PHIPP'S CO\SERV.\TORY IN B.\CKGROU.XD. 



substances occurring in plants, of the technology of 

 plant products, and of the soil as a medium for plant 

 life. This may in part be excused by the confused state 

 of that vague mi.xture known as agricultural chemistrv : 

 but since the foundations of this subject have now been 

 critically examined and the important evidence has 

 been weighed, the time seems ripe for the introduction 

 of phytochemistry into the courses of study of the 

 higher institutions of learning. 



At the University of Pittsburgh, a course in the 

 chemistry of plant growth as governed by^ soil condi- 

 tions and constituents, is offered for 1915-1916 in the 

 School of Chemistry. This course, which is intended 

 primarily for graduate students, will consist of lectures 

 and laboratory field work, under the direction of an 

 expert phytochemist, on the conditions governing plant 

 growth. The object of this course is to afford an oppor- 

 tunitv to the advanced student of chemistrv to familiar- 



