426 



NATURE 



[January 31, 191: 



tated to place carnotite, which at most carries 60 per 

 cent, of uranium, before the pure uranium mineral 

 pitchblende, of which considerable deposits are known 

 to exist both at St. Joachimsthal and in Cornwall, as 

 well as in other countries. 



Doubtless the balk of the present supply of radium 

 has been won from Colorado carnotite ores, but the 

 discovery of radium, all the pioneer work on its separa- 

 tion, and the whole of our first supplies of the salts 

 came from pitchblende. When the present abnormal 

 cpnditions due to the war have passed, work upon 

 uraninite, both in Bohemia and Cornwall, now prac- 

 tically suspended, will probably become considerable. 



J. H. Gardinhk. 



The Growth of Conifers. 



My friend, Mr. D. M. Andrews, has communicated 

 to me an observation which seems to deserve comment. 

 At the Government nursery near Monument, Colorado, 

 at an altitude of 7000 ft., there are two beds of two- 

 year-old seedlings of Engelmann spruce {Picea Engel- 

 manni), a common tree of the Rocky Mountains. Each 

 lot is shown to be hardy in the locality, having passed 

 a winter in the open, protected only by a covering of 

 oak branches. The seedlings in one bed, raised from 

 seed gathered in the Pike's Peak, Colorado, region, 

 %ere, when examined, about 2^ in. high, and had 

 matured their buds and ceased growing for the year 

 in the latter part of August. The seedlings in the 

 other bed, from Arizona seed planted at the same 

 time, were about 4 in. high, and had not yet completed 

 their growth for the year. The Arizona seedlings were 

 green, those from Colorado strongly bluish. Seeking an 

 explanation for this difference, it appears probable that 

 the Colorado trees .became adapted to a more severe 

 climate during the waning of the last glacial period, 

 and have not yet lost the physiological characters ap- 

 propriate to past conditions. The Arizona trees, the 

 ancestors of which lived in a milder, more southern 

 region, did not develop such adaptations, and now that 

 our climate has changed they are actually better fitted 

 for Colorado conditions than trees of Colorado 

 ancestry. T. D. A. Cockereli,. 



University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 

 December 29, 1917. 



THE OUTLOOK IN FRENCH 

 AGRICULTURE. 

 T^HE Revue Scientifique for September 22 

 ■*■ contains a report on the position and 

 prospects of French agriculture presented 

 by M. Louis Mangin, of the Acad^mie des 

 Sciences, to the National Council of the Ligue 

 Fran9aise on behalf of the Committee on 

 Economic Organisation of that body. The position 

 revealed is far from reassuring. Wheat produc- 

 tion has fallen to barely 70 per cent, of the pre- 

 war crop, potatoes to 80 per cent,, wine to 65 per 

 cent., and sugar-beet . to little more than 30 per 

 cent. The situation as regards live stock shows 

 the same disquieting features. Practically 20 per 

 cent, of the pre-war head of cattle fell into the 

 hands of the enemy, and ill-devised measures taken 

 to secure the meat supply in the early days of the 

 war further seriously accentuated the shrinkage. 

 Although the cattle position from the point of 

 view of numbers has since been substantially 

 improved, the proportion of young stock is so 

 NO. 2518, VOL. 100] 



great that substantial relief of the meat stringency 

 cannot be expected from home resources for a 

 considerable time. The decline in numbers of 

 sheep which had set in long before the war has 

 been greatly accentuated. Pigs also show a 

 decline of 38 per cent, since the end of 191 3. No 

 reference is made to the position as regards milk 

 production. A survey of the forest area completes 

 the tale of depleted resources, something like one- 

 eighth of this area having been already denuded, 

 with but little provision lor its replacement. 



Many suggestions are put forward for the 

 relief of the present situation and for the future 

 restoration and strengthening of French agri- 

 culture. The claims of rice as a diluent of 

 wheaten flour are strongly urged in view of the 

 large supplies available in the Asiatic colonies. 

 To overcome the difficulties of shortage of manual 

 labour on the land, the organisation of supplies 

 of African and yellow labour is suggested, whilst 

 further relief could be obtained by a more active 

 policy with reference to the production and use 

 of motor tractors and farm machinery in general. 

 The example of England in placing this manu- 

 facture under the same control as that of muni- 

 tions of war is warmly commended. Consolidation 

 of estates is urgently necessary and should be 

 accompanied by a revision of the legister of lands. 

 The price of corn should be left sufficiently free 

 to rise to encourage production, whilst at the 

 same time the rise in the price of bread should be 

 restricted by all appropriate means. It is sug- 

 gested that these two apparently irreconcilable 

 objects can be effectively attained through the 

 establishment of municipal bread bureaux, which 

 should subsidise or tax the bakers according to 

 the fluctuations in the price of corn. This ex- 

 pedient was successfully resorted to during the 

 I Crimean War. 



j It is urged that the home production of manures 



should be fostered by using every measure to 



increase the output of sulphate of ammonia, by 



I developing the synthetic manufacture of nitrates 



I and ammonia from the atmosphere, and by in- 



j creasing the production of superphosphate, all 



i of which industries, it is urged, should have the 



same privileges as munition factories. To secure 



increased crops arrangements should be made for 



free distribution of manures to small cultivators. 



Measures must be taken for restoring the head 

 of live stock. To this end restrictions must be 

 placed upon slaughter of home stock; the colonial 

 resources of Madagascar and Africa must be 

 drawn upon for meat, to be prepared there in 

 frozen or otherwise preserved condition in order 

 to reduce costs of transport. For the same 

 reason abattoirs and refrigerating plants should 

 be established in the home meat-producing dis- 

 tricts, whereby cheaper production and reduction 

 in the number of middlemen would be secured. 

 The strong prejudice of the people against re- 

 frigerated or preserved meat must be broken 

 down, and much could be done in this direction 

 by the use of such products throughout the Army 

 and Navy. 



