6 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



experiments on manuring have shewn the yield of oats when 

 fully manured to be about a third more than on unmanured 

 plots, and about a third more also than the average yield in 

 Scotland. As regards artificial manures, this country was 

 chiefly dependent on Germany for its supplies of potash ; 

 but a process has now been discovered by which sufficient 

 can be obtained for our needs. The manufacture of other 

 artificial manures has undergone great development ince the 

 war in response to the closing of the usual channels of our 

 supplies. Many other substitutes for substances formerly 

 used for different manufactures have been found. Thus 

 bark is used for making paper, willow herb (Epilobium 

 hirsutum) andtypha instead of jute. These are in Germany, 

 where jute is, I presume, unobtainable. Rhubarb leaves 

 were recently recommended as a vegetable ; but questions 

 have arisen about their wholesomeness ; and we may perhaps 

 wait until compelled by necessity, as there are many wild 

 plants which are more suitable for food. Ragwort has lately 

 been put forward as a poisonous plant to cattle, though its 

 effects are slow ; but it is an exceedingly abundant w T eed in 

 many semi-waste pastures, and the animals in them must have 

 always eaten a good deal of it with impunity. The cultivation 

 of sugar-beet, which has never met with much success here, 

 has now been encouraged b % y the Government with financial 

 and other support, and it is- hoped that it may flourish. An 

 estate in Nottinghamshire has been bought for this purpose. 

 The growth of flax, hemp, and tobacco has been likewise 

 aided by pecuniary grants. Little seems to be known about 

 the flora of New Guinea, a collection of 330 plants made there 

 recently being found to contain no less than 100 which were 

 new to science. As the country is opened up this will no 

 doubt be rectified. An African grass, new to -the locality, 

 has suddenly appeared in the Island of Ascension, clothinc 

 large bare tracts of volcanic ash with vegetation. An inter- 

 esting account of the Somme battlefield last summer describes 

 it as clothed with large masses of common flowers poppies, 

 chamomile, charlock, rosebay willow herb, and others, 



