January 28, 1915] 



NATURE 



601 



PARIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The Bonaparte Fund. 



'J 'HE committee appointed to deal with the alloca- 



*■ tion of the Bonaparte Fund for the year 1914, 



has made the following proposals, which have been 



unanimously adopted by the academy : — 



(i) 2000 francs to Pierre Breteau, to enable him 

 to pursue his researches on the use of palladium in 

 analysis and in organic chemistn,-. 



(2) 2000 francs to M. Chatton, to give him the 

 means of continuing his researches on the parasitic 

 Peridinians. 



(3) 3000 francs to Fr. Croze, to enable him to con- 

 tinue his work on the Zeeman phenomenon in band 

 and line spectra, the amount to be applied to the 

 purchase of a large concave grating and a i6-cm. 

 objective. 



(4) 6000 francs to Dr. Hemsalech, for the purchase 

 of a resonance transformer and a battery of condensers 

 for use in his spectroscopic researches. 



(5) 2000 francs to P. Lais, director of the Vatican 

 Observatory, to assist in the publication of the photo- 

 graphic map of the sky. 



(6) 2000 francs to M. Pellegrin, to facilitate the 

 pursuit of his researches and the continuation of his 

 publications concerning African fishes. 



(7) 2000 francs to Dr. Trousset, to aid him in his 

 studies relating to the theory of the minor planets. 



(8) 2000 francs to M. Vigouroux, to assist him in 

 continuing his researches on silicon and its different 

 varieties. These researches, in which it is necessary 

 to make use of hydrofluoric acid, necessitate the use of 

 expensive receivers. 



(9) 3000 francs to M. Alluaud, for continuing the 

 publication, undertaken with Dr. R. Jeannel, of the 

 scientific results of three expeditions in eastern and 

 Central Africa. 



(10) 9000 francs to be divided equally between MM. 

 Pitard, de Gironcourt, and Lecointre, all members of 

 the scientific expedition to Morocco organised by the 

 Societe de Geographie. 



(11) 2000 francs to Prof. Vasseur, to assist him in 

 his geological excavations in a fossil-bearing stratum 

 at Lot-et-Garonne. 



(12) 3500 francs to Dr. Mauguin, for the continua- 

 tion of his researches on liquid crystals and the 

 remarkable orientation phenomena presented by these 

 singular bodies when placed in a magnetic field. The 

 grant will be applied to the construction of a powerful 

 electromagnet. 



(13) 2000 francs to Dr. Anthony to meet the cost 

 of his" researches on the determinism of the morpho- 

 logical characters and the action of primary factors on 

 the course of evolution. 



(14) 4000 francs to Prof. Andoyer, a first instalment 

 towards the cost of the calculation of a new table of 

 fifteen figure logarithms. 



(15) 4000 francs to M. Benard, to enable him to 

 continue his researches in experimental hydrodynamics 

 on a large scale. 



(16) 2000 francs to Dr. Chauvenet, to enable him to 

 continue his researches on zirconium and its complex 

 coinbinations. 



(17) 2000 francs to Prof. Francois Franck, for the 

 chronographic study of the development of the embryo, 

 with special examination of the rhythmic function of 

 the heart. 



(18) 2000 francs to Prof. Sauvageau, for the pursuit 

 of his studies on the marine algae. 



XO. 2361, VOL. 94I 



PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTIOX L\' AGRI- 

 CULTURE.^ 



''T^HE fact that this address is to be delivered in the 

 ^ capital city of a State in which semi-tropical, 

 and even tropical, conditions prevail, suggests some 

 consideration of the future of countries in which 

 vegetative development, and therefore the production 

 of food, can attain such a level as is possible here. 



At the outset let me remind you of two prime facts 

 in the natural history of man. In the first place all 

 civilisation is based upon food supply ; no other in- 

 dustry is creative, and the wealth of a community 

 might almost be measured by the amount of time that 

 remains at its disposal after it has secured, either 

 from its own land, or by exchange, the food it needs 

 to live upon. Secondly, we must look forward at no 

 very distant date, as the life of nations goes, to the 

 exhaustion of those capital stores of energy in the 

 world — coal and oil — on which the current industrial 

 system is based. How long the stores may last is a 

 matter of dispute, but 500 years is a liberal estimate, 

 and we can be pretty sure, in a world in which 

 prophecy is notoriously unsafe, that nothing remains 

 to be discovered which can take the jilace of those 

 savings from the energy of bygone epochs that are 

 represented by coal and oil. With the passing of 

 industrialism the importance of agriculture will grow, 

 and while the world as a whole will still be able to 

 support the same number of people as are fed by 

 agriculturists of to-day, great readjustments of the 

 population will have to be effected, according to the 

 productive powers of the land in each country. Should 

 population continue to increase, and the spread of 

 organised and stable government ensures that it will 

 grow, there must come a demand for the better 

 utilisation of the land and for a higher production of 

 food than at present prevails ; indeed, even in the last 

 few years symptoms of this increasing demand for 

 food have been in evidence. Let us see what the land 

 can be made to do at the present time in the wav of 

 supporting population, and for that we must turn to 

 the East, where long experience of the art of intensive 

 agriculture goes hand in hand with an optimum 

 climate and a population of maximum densitv. Rural 

 Japan is reported to earn,- a population of 1922 to the 

 square mile, entirely supported by agriculture, but 

 maintaining in addition its quota of officials and in- 

 dustrials. Even this number is exceeded in China, 

 i where a farm of two and a half acres will support a 

 family of eight to ten people, and where, in some 

 j special cases, as on the island of Chungming, the 

 j population living wholly on the land may rise nearlv 

 i to 4000 per square mile. Compared with these figures 

 I the density- of population on Western land is trifling. 

 ; The L'nited States is said to maintain no more than 

 i 61 per square mile of its cultivated land, England 

 , something above 90, Ireland about 120, and Belgium, 

 j perhaps the most intensely cultivated of European 

 j countries, not more than 200 per square mile of 

 cultivation. Now, these enormous densities of rural 

 I population are accompanied by a ver\- low standard 

 i of living; the people, if strong and healthy, exist on 

 i the ver\' margin of sustenance. To take a cash 

 standard, an experienced rural labourer in China 

 , cannot command more than 6d. a dav, on which he 

 will support a family. But for this small pay of 6d. 

 i a full day's work will be obtained; indeed, such a 

 j day's work as the white man would find it almost 

 j impossible to give under the climatic conditions pre- 

 ' vailing. 



1 Part II. of the presidemisi add'css delivered before Section M (Agricul- 

 tnre)orthe British Association at Btisbane, by ihe president of the section 

 A. D. Hall, F.R.S. Part I. appeared in Nature of October 8, 1914. ' 



