OPENING UP LAND FOR CULTIVATION 



1745 



ment of the nitrifying organisms in the peat itself. Not a single subsoil 

 examined, whether obtained from waste or cultivared land, contained 

 any organisms capable of producing nitrites or nitrates. 



3) Every sample tested was able to reduce nitrates, the surface soil 

 of waste land being hardly more active in this respect than its subsoil. 

 Where the land was cultivated, however, the reduction of nitrate took 

 place much more readily with the surface than with the subsoil, and the 

 same was true of cultivated surface soils as compared with the surface soil 

 of waste land, more especially where tillage had been accompanied by 

 liming. No differences were obtained in the denitrifying power of the va- 

 rious subsoils. 



4) All surface soils exhibited a greater power for decomposing cel- 

 lulose than their corresponding subsoils, the difference being very small 

 in the case of waste land and much larger for cultivated land. Cultivated, 

 limed or manured surface soil was also much more active than waste sur- 

 face soil. As with ammonification and nitrification, maximum decom- 

 position of cellulose occured when the soil had previously received a 

 dressing of dung. 



5) In no sample was Azotobader present. Surface soils and cultiv- 

 ated soils fermented mannite more readily than subsoils and waste soils, 

 tha maximum effect being again obtained with the dunged plot. 



1259 - Reclaiming the Everglades of Florida. — wh.ley a. \\.,in Sdenti/ic American, 



VoL CXV, No. 12, pp. 258-259. New-York, September i6, 1916. 



In the south of Florida there are some 4 million acres of swamp known 

 as the "Everglades" which are being converted into agricultural land by 

 drainage. iVn aircurate topographical survey of the district had shown that 



OPENING UP 



LAND FOR 

 CULTIVATION 



Machine used for idgging trenches and pulverisini; the soil. 



