2 I 2 



NA TURE 



{Dec. 27, 1888 



Queensland, where he remained till his death, occupying many 

 public posts, the last that he filled being that of Postmaster- 

 General. Some years ago he received the gold medal of the 

 Royal Geographical Society. 



THE FARMER'S GUIDE TO MANURING.^ 

 'X'HE low average yield of wheat in Australia, of some 8 

 bushels per acre, appears to be due in a great measure to 

 defective cultivation. Victoria, however, enjoys a more promising 

 soil, and in the little pamphlet before us, 15 to 18 bushels of 

 barley are given as probable yields of this cereal on unmanured 

 land. It has frequently been observed that the most worn out 

 soils respond with the greatest effect to the application of 

 fertilizers, and in agreement with this principle we find that by 

 the use of artificial manures, the 15 bushels is converted into 50, 

 and the 18 bushels into 47. Such results could not happen upon 

 a well-cultivated English farm. The law of the land with 

 reference to its condition appears to be that the higher it is in 

 degree of fertility the greater is the difficulty of producing 

 further increments of produce. This is really a crttx in English 

 farming. Every succeeding bushel is wrung out of the soil at a 

 greater cost than the last, and this constitutes one of the most 

 difficult problems in connection with high cultivation. Now, in 

 a country like Australia, or even like many of the States of 

 America, this difficulty does not as yet exist, and the land is able, 

 according to Mr. Pearson, to answer with extraordinary alacrity 

 to the application of fertilizers. This is the only way in which 

 we can account for the statement made in the pamphlet in 

 question, and for the fact that it is thought worthy of being 

 published by the Government at Melbourne. Profits of 145 and 

 of 215 per cent, from artificial dressings are somewhat startling, 

 but we are not disposed to dispute their possibility. Such 

 results are not entirely beyond our experience, on worn out soils, 

 when the crop is apparently entirely due to applications of dress- 

 ings. We have seen on such soils a miserable crop on the portion 

 left unmanured and a good crop on the plots liberally treated, 

 and this, of course, is parallel to the cases cited in Victoria. 



The merit in Mr. Pearson's suggestions lies not so much in 

 their originality as in their practical utility. We are familiar 

 with the wants of plants for nitrogen, potash, lime, and phos- 

 phoric acid ; and there is nothing new in the idea of a "complete 

 manure." But the suggestion that manures should be carefully 

 compounded for experimental purposes, properly labelled, and 

 sent out by well-known firms, subject to Government control, is, 

 if not novel, at least enterprising. These manures are labelledas 

 follows : C. for cereals, L. for Leguminosae, R. for root crops ; 

 and are accompanied with simple directions for their proper 

 application. 



Plots one-fortieth of an acre in extent are recommended, and 

 full directions for their measurement are supplied thus : — 



9 feet wide, the length taken should be 121 feet. 



If the lands 

 measured from \ 

 the middle of 

 one furrow to | 

 the middle of 

 the next be 



10 ,, 



12 ,, 



13 ,. 



15 links 



16 ,, 



17 „ 



&c. 



&c. 



109 „ 



99 „ 



91 ,, 



„ . 84 „ 



I chain 67 links. 



I M 56 „ 



I „ 47 M 

 &c. 



Nothing could well be simpler or more calculated to enlist the 

 sympathies of agriculturists. With properly mixed, weighed, 

 and labelled bags, neatly turned out by good firms, and 

 controlled in composition by the Agricultural Department, and 

 with simple rules for measuring off plots, and with directions 

 for carrying out these simple experiments — what more could a 

 farmer want ? 



In conclusion, farmers, and all engaged in cultivating the 

 ground, are earnestly recommended to give a trial to this system of 

 test plots. By making use of them they can see from season to 

 season what manure produces the best effect upon their land, 

 and instead of working in the dark they will know exactly 

 how they are laying out their money. 



The question is, Will they avail themselves of the offer of the 

 Department, and the assistance promised in carrying out the 



' " The Farmer's Guide to Manuring," by A. N. Pearson. Printed by 

 order of the Hon. J. L. Dow, Minister of Agriculture, by authority. 

 . (Melbourne; Government Printing Office, 1888.) 



instructions ? Probably not ; but one thing is certain — that if 

 the farmers of Australia and America once grasp the idea of 

 intensive culture as opposed to their present system of extensve 

 cultivation, and go in for producing high yields per acre, the 

 promised relief from foreign competition in wheat-growing must 

 be indefinitely postponed. We look forward with some interest 

 to learn how far the efforts of Mr. Pearson and the Minister of 

 Agriculture will be seconded by the farmers of Victoria. 



John Wrightson. 



ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE OLENELLUS 

 FA UNA IN THE LO WER CAMBRIAN ROCKS 

 OF BRITAIN. 



'X'HE brief paper on the " Stratigraphical Succession of the 

 -'■ Cambrian T'aunas in North America," communicated to 

 Nature (vol. xxxviii. p. 551), will have been read by British 

 students of the geology of the Lower Palaeozoic rocks with 

 especial interest and satisfaction, as it puts an end to a con- 

 troversy between European and American geologists, and brings 

 into harmony the sequence and palceontology of the Cambrian 

 faunas on both sides of the Atlantic. 



The remarkable fauna of the Olenellus, or lowest Cambrian 

 zones, originally discovered in America, by Dr. Emmons, in 

 1844, was first recognized in Europe by the late Dr. Linnarsson 

 in 1871, in the basal beds of the Cambrian, near Lake Miosen 

 in Norway ; but its typical genus, Olenellus, was then referred by 

 him to the allied but more recent Paradoxides. This reference 

 was corrected by Prof. Brogger in 1875, and the various brilliant 

 papers on the primordial formations by this author have given 

 the Olenellus fauna a marked and peculiar interest. In 1882, 

 Linnarsson next made known the existence of the Olenellus 

 fauna in Scania, at the base of the Swedish Cambrian. In 1866 

 the same fauna was detected by Mickwitz in the Lower Cam- 

 brian of Russia (Esthonia), and this Russian fauna has been 

 lately figured and described in detail by Dr. Schmidt, of St. 

 Petersburg. Still more recently (December 1877), Dr. Holm 

 has signalized the existence of the Olenellus fauna in the Cambrian 

 of Lapland, where it was detected by Mortsell in 1855. Thus the 

 existence of this peculiar fossil-group (the oldest well-marked 

 fauna yet recognized by geologists), in the Lower Cambrian 

 rocks, has been already demonstrated in three main regions : 

 (i) in the region of the Rocky Mountains ; (2) in the region of 

 North-East America ; and (3) in the region drained by the Baltic 

 Sea. But, up to the present time, no notice of its presence has 

 been recorded from the British Islands, where the oldest fauna 

 hitherto described is that of the overlying Paradoxides zones, or 

 Middle Cambrian formation. 



The existence of traces of the Olenellus fauna in the Cambrian 

 rocks of the west of England, has, however, been known to 

 myself for some time. The first recognizable fragments of the 

 characteristic genus Olenellus were detected by me on the flanks 

 of Caer Caradoc, in Shropshire, in 1885, but they were too im- 

 perfect for description. During the summers of 1887 and 1888, 

 Mr. H. Keeping, who has been collecting under my direction 

 the characteristic fossils of the Lower Palaeozoic rocks of the 

 district for the Woodwardian Museum, has obtained a sufficiency 

 of fragments to enable us to recognize a large and well-marked 

 species of Olenellus. This species possesses characters apparently 

 intermediate between the European form Olenellus Kjerulfi (Lin- 

 narsson), and the undescribed American form Olenellus Brbggeri 

 (Walcott, M.S.); but it is so closely allied to the last-named 

 species, that I prefer to await the publication of Walcott's 

 diagnosis of his form before publishing its specific description. I 

 have provisionally named it Olenellus Callavei, after Dr. C. 

 Callaway, F.G. S., who was the first to demonstrate the presence 

 of fossiliferous Cambrian rocks in this Shropshire district, and to 

 collect Cambrian fossils from the strata under notice. 



The Lower Cambrian or Olenellus formation of this Shropshire 

 area consists of two main members : {a) the basal Quartzite of 

 Lawrence Hill and Caer Caradoc, and {b) an overlying green 

 sandstone, the Comley Sandstone (Hollybush Sandstone of Dr. 

 Callaway). This formation follows unconformably upon the 

 so-called Uriconian volcanic rocks of the district, and occurs 

 in many localities, as at Lilleshall, the Wrekin, Caer Caradoc, 

 Cardington, &c. In mapping this formation through the district, 

 I find that its fossils are mainly confined to the sandstones, and to 

 certain calcareous and phosphatic beds within them. In addition 



