1^ 



THe JOURNAL 



OF 



T'fis department of 



Vol. V. Papt 3. 8th March, 1907. 



THE OUTLOOK FOR ACIlUOl LTIRE.* 



T. Clicrry, M.D.. M.S., Director of AgricitlUirc. 



«OTanjc 



In taking a survey of the agricultural outlook for Australia at the 

 present time, I wish first to briefly summarize some of the main facts 

 which will determine the future of our agriculture ; then to take a glance 

 at the position of our leading products in the world's markets; and, .Anally, 

 to briefly sketch the main lines on which, I think, we can maintain 

 agriculture — the ultimate basis of a country's prosperity — in a healthy and 

 flourishing condition. 



I need hardly remind vou that the true measure of the fertility of 

 the land is the readiness with which the plant food of the soil is made 

 available for plants which serve as food for animals or man. It is true 

 that a certain amount of agricultural wealth consists of timber trees, and 

 fibre plants ; but, on the whole, these form accessory rather than staple 

 products. The plant uses the energy of the sun to build up compara- 

 tively simple chemical substances into much more complex ones. These 

 latter serve as food for the animal, and the energy of thd animal is derived 

 from the process of turning them Ijack again into simple ones. Ultimately 

 they are returned again to the earth or the atmosphere, and sooner or 

 later undergo such changes that thev may once more serve as food for 

 the plant. It is in connexion with the preparation of the food for the 

 plant that the most far-reaching generalization of recent agricultural science 

 has been made. This is the discovery of the part played by microscopic 

 plants or bacteria in producing and maintaining the fertility of the soil. 

 Not only do thev break down the excreta and dead tissues of animals into 

 forms available for the plant, but they cause the free nitrogen of the 

 atmosphere to combine with oxygen, and so begin the wondrous ascent 

 which leads to living protoplasm. I am inclined to think that the best 

 measure of the fertility of the soil is the number of micro-organisms 

 contained in it. The soil is looked upon no longer as dead and i'lert, 

 _ but as alive and active. No small part of the activity of soil bacteria is 

 ^ seen in the extent to which they form" acids and alk alies from woody fibr e 



■^ *Presidential address delivered before the Association for the Advancement of 



C*«3 Science, January, 1907. 



CC 1315. E 



CL 



