Agricultural Education Exhibition, Shrewsbury, 1914. 171 



University College of Wales was well represented in another bay. 

 The Meteorological Office, Sonth Kensington, had two bays 

 allotted to them, and the College of Agriculture and Horti- 

 culture, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, occupied an equivalent area. 

 The Agricultural and Horticultural Research Station, Long 

 Ashton, Bristol, and the Agricultural Education Association also 

 sent exhibits ; and the Royal Agricultural Society's Woburn 

 Experimental Station was also to be found showing results 

 from the well-known Stackyard Field, and pots of growing 

 plants from the Pot Culture Station. In the annexe were to 

 be found two most interesting exhibits — one home-grown 

 tobacco, and another which sought to bring fresh interest into 

 the old occupation of flax growing, in connection with the 

 experiments the Leeds University are carrying put on this 

 important question. 



Royal Agricultural Society of England Woburn Experimental 

 Station. — The continued interest that is shown in this section 

 of the Society's work is plainly noticeable in the number of 

 members and visitors who make a point of visiting and dis- 

 cussing the exhibits and matters of general agriculture with Dr. 

 Voelcker and Mr. Freear. To some it appeared an extraordinary 

 proceeding to manure a wheat crop with such substances as 

 sulphate and carbonate of copper, but the force and utility 

 of the work was fully realised when it was explained that 

 where there was a possibility of the continuous use of spraying 

 materials containing copper salts, for the suppression of potato 

 disease and the eradication of certain weed growths, these com- 

 pounds might possibly, in the course of time, accumulate in the 

 soil to such an extent as to become poisonous to the growth of 

 future crops. It is satisfactory to know from these experiments, 

 and those of previous years, that such a contingency is very 

 remote, as it was not till amounts equivalent to 0'05 per cent, of 

 the soil's weight of copper had been applied that marked toxic 

 action on the wheat plant took place, whereas amounts as low as 

 002 per cent, of the soil's weight of copper became stimulative in 

 its action. It is particularly interesting to note that pot experi- 

 ments are showing the value of carbonate of lime (chalk), finely 

 ground, as a corrective application to acid soils ; and that 

 methods have now been worked out whereby the total amount 

 of acidity in a soil can be estimated in terms of carbonate of 

 lime per acre. The examples shown were on soil from the 

 well-known acid plots of Stackyard Field, the total amount 

 of acidity having been determined and the calculated amount of 

 finelj' ground chalk added. In the one case the chalk added 

 was sufficient exactly to neutralise the acidity, and in another 

 case an excess of chalk was given amounting to 50 per cent, 

 beyond the point of neutrality. The crops of barley growing 



