PRESIDENT S ADDRESS—SECTION G. I byte: 
that for several reasons, of which some are even now not suffi- 
ciently appreciated. Such advantages as the conservation of 
soil moisture, facility for clearing the land, possibility of early 
seeding, and general improvement of the land, are patent 
enough, and the great majority of farmers fully appreciate them. 
But we are justified in believing to the limit that analogy can 
be stretched that there are influences brought into fuller play 
by the practice which are of potent utility in the amelioration 
of the soil—the biological or bacteriological activities. The 
old theory that soil nitrates were produced from organic matter, 
or, rather, ammonia, as the result of direct chemical action, was 
long ago found insufficient. Schloesing and Muntz, first in 
1877, Warrington, Winogradsky, and others later by experiment 
and pure culture have demonstrated that the disintegration of 
organic matter in soils is the work of organised ferments, pro- 
ducing in sequent process ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. They 
have shown that the action of these ferments is favoured by 
conditions of warmth, humidity, zeration, and darkness. All 
this is history, but the application of the knowledge does not 
yet obtain, and it is this I wish to encourage. The importance 
of nitrates from the point of view of farming no one questions. 
From the point of view of wheat-growing a supply of nitrates in 
the soil is indispensable. But nitrogenous manures are ex- 
pensive, and accordingly it becomes desirable to govern the 
processes of cultivation as far as practicable in favour of the 
accumulation in the soil of what, for the want of a more apt 
designation, may be termed natural nitrates. Of the favouring 
conditions just mentioned it will be allowed we have of warmth 
a sufficiency. The activity of the ferments increases as the 
temperature of the soil rises from 41 deg. F. to 99 deg. F., then » 
decreases until 131 deg. F. is reached, when it ceases. Thus prac- 
tically all the year through if moisture be present, nitrification 
may be proceeding in well cultivated erated soils. Unfor- 
tunately, while the temperature reaches high enough for best 
results, or even too high, our soils are liable to become deficient 
in moisture, and in this relation I would urge that an awakening 
is necessary. Deherain found that nitrification could be induced 
in soils containing 5 per cent. of water, and that 15 per cent. 
of water, with a moist atmosphere, was sufficient to allow of 
activity. While we cannot hope to maintain a sufficient humidity 
throughout the year in our fallows (those of us at least who 
work in the drier districts), we nevertheless find it desirable 
to endeavour after this condition. It is at least practicable to 
have our fallows lifted earlier in the rainy season to secure 
wration while there is moisture abundant, and to lead to the 
increase of the percolation of water into the soil, so that by 
judicious surface cultivation the presence of moisture may be 
prolonged well into the summer, or even throughout the year. 
