May 19, 1 9 10] 



NATURE 



153 



Pusa. The various provinces have also agricultural depart- 

 u.nts, with scientific staffs investigating problems of 

 'cal importance and methods suitable for their own 

 iistricts; an example of the kind of work they do is 

 fforded by a study of the Madras report. The methods 

 jf bringing the scientific work to the notice of the culti- 

 vators were discussed by a committee of the Board of 

 Agriculture and collected in their report — the second on 

 our list. Whilst they vary somewhat in the different 

 provinces, they may be classed roughly as (i) agricultural 

 associations; (2) local demonstrations; (3) village agencies 

 which hire out improved implements and demonstrate their 

 use ; (4) vernacular journals controlled by the Department, 

 those run by private enterprise not being always satis- 

 factory ; (5) leaflets, circulars, and communiqiies to the 

 Press ; (6) shows ; (7) itinerant assistants, who, under 

 suitable conditions and when working on one definite 

 problem, have been found of considerable service ; (8) seed 

 farms and depots to do the work which seed merchants 

 do here ; (^9) schools to train the sons of cultivators ; 

 (10) colonisation with expert cultivators. Like the culti- 

 vator of the soil in all countries, the ryot is conservative 

 but not unwilling to take up a new thing that is clearly 

 going to be of advantage ; he suffers, however, sorely 

 from lack of funds, and we are told that he often has 

 to pay so much as 24 per cent, interest or more per annum 

 for the money which he must borrow if he is to effect 

 improvements. He must therefore get more than 24 per 

 cent, return or he loses on the transaction, and so it may 

 happen that an improvement which would be profitable 

 elsewhere is of no advantage to him. This state of affairs 

 can only slowly be remedied, and must for long remain 

 a bar to the general improvement of Indian agriculture. 



But when we turn to the large cultivators there is no 

 such hindrance, and it may reasonably be expected that 

 they will gain considerable benefit from the scientific work 

 that is being done. To give only one instance, Mr. 

 Bergtheil is investigating the problems of the indigo 

 planters, and has already obtained results of value, a 

 number of improvements having been effected of notable 

 aggregate value. It has been shown, further, that the 

 yield per acre can be increased very considerably by 

 substituting the Java for the more common Sumatrana 

 variety. By selection and hybridisation it may be possible 

 to get even better results. The belief is expressed in the 

 report that the natural indigo will yet compete successfully 

 with the synthetic product. 



Such large works as irrigation are outside the scope of 

 the present reports, although of great importance to the 

 advancement of agriculture. Work is, however, in hand on 

 the reclamation of reh or alkali land, a condition that 

 may accomoanv irrigation unless drainage is also attended 

 to. Mr. Henderson is making satisfactory progress in 

 reclaiming the very salt soils of Sind. Other important 

 improvements are going on, and we may in the near 

 future look for great returns for the work that is now 

 being done. E. J. R. 



THE MESSINA EARTHQUAKE 

 ' PREDECESSORS. 



AND ITS 



I 



TALI.AX Gbvernment Commissions have recently issued 

 two valuable reports on the earthquakes of Calabria 

 and Messina. One of them deals with the earthquake of 

 November 16, 1894, a shock of great interest, but over- 

 shadowed by the disasters of 1905 and igo8. The greater 

 part of this report, of 350 quarto pages, consists of a 

 detailed account of the earthquake by Prof. A. Ricc6. 

 Sig. E. Camerana considers the nature and distribution of 

 the damage to property, and suggests methods of con- 

 struction that should be etnploved in future ; Dr. M. 

 Baratta investigates the relations of the earthquake with 

 its predecessors; and Dr. G. di-Stefano describes the geo- 

 logical structure of the district. The epicentral area 

 includes the villages of San Procopio, Santa Eufemia, and 

 Seminara, which lie near the west coast of Calabria and 

 about twenty miles from Messina and Reggio. The 

 number of persons killed at these and other places was 

 loi, and the number of wounded about a thousand, the 



NO. 2 116, VOL. 83] 



highest death-rate, of about 5 per cent., occurring at San 

 Procopio. The epicentre coincides nearly with that of the 

 well-known Calabrian earthquake of February 5, 1783. 

 The isoseismal lines of the two earthquakes were similar 

 in form, both being flattened and compressed towards the 

 east, and e.xpanding in the opposite direction. The earth- 

 quake of 17S3 was, however, much the stronger, the loss 

 of life far greater (the death-rate at one place rising to 

 75 per cent.), and the after-shocks were five times as 

 numerous as in 1894, were of greater intensity, and were 

 spread over a longer interval of time. The earthquake of 

 1894 was, in fact, a replica, on a much smaller scale, of 

 the greatest of all Calabrian earthquakes. 



The Messina earthquake of 1908 is of far greater interest 

 and imfKJrtance than its predecessor of 1894, and it is 

 satisfactory to find that the reports on it are being issued 

 without undue loss of time. .A Royal Commission, under 

 the presidency of Prof. Blaserna, was appointed to investi- 

 gate the sites best adapted for the re-building of the ruined 

 towns. The report of the commission is of more than 

 local value. As regards Messina, while recognising the 

 unsatisfactory nature of the subsoil, it is realised that, for 

 commercial and other reasons, the city must be re-built 

 on its former site. It is recommended, however, that the 

 building regulations adopted for districts of high seismicity 

 should be rigorously enforced, and that no buildings in- 

 tended as permanent dwellings should be erected on loose 

 sands and gravels on sloping ground or within a hundred 

 metres of the sea, and the commission also points out 

 certain suburban districts in which the city might be 

 allowed to expand. 



Two or three of the appendices to the report are of con- 

 siderable interest. In one, Sig. P. Marzolo, director of 

 the Hydrographic Institute, compares the results of the 

 soundings recently made in the Straits of Messina with 

 those made in 1876-7. There are, he finds, no abrupt 

 changes of level, but outside the Straits, to the north, the 

 bathymetric curves of 200 and 300 metres are now much 

 farther from both the Sicilian and Calabrian shores than 

 they were in 1877, while the curve of 400 metres near the 

 Calabrian coast no longer exists. Sig. Marzolo, however, 

 refers the change to deposits from ocean currents rather 

 than to elevation of the sea-bed. In the harbour of 

 Messina, the bathymetric curves for the years 1903 and 

 1909 are practically coincident, and this is also nearly the 

 case with the curves for 1908 and 1909 for the harbour of 

 Reggio. 



In another appendix Sig. A. Loperfido describes the 

 results of new series of levellings, former series having 

 been made along the same lines in 1907-8. In each case 

 the new levellings were begun at points so distant that 

 their altitude may be regarded as unchanged by the earth- 

 quake. In Calabria they started at Gioia Tauro (9 km. 

 north of Palmi), and were continued round the south 

 coast over a length of 87 km. The changes of level, at 

 first inconspicuous, begin to exceed a tenth of a metre at 

 Favazzina, and from this place to Saline they indicate a 

 continuous lowering of the coast, amounting to 42 cm. at 

 Villa S. Giovanni and 54 cm. at Reggio, with a maximum 

 of 58 cm. about a kilometre south of Reggio. In Sicily 

 three shorter lines of levelling were carried out. one from 

 Capo Peloro to Messina, and the others inland from the 

 latter city. They show a lowering of 65 cm. at the mareo- 

 graph of Messina, a maximum of 71 cm. being attained 

 about 3 kilometres farther north. 



A paper by Sig. F. Eredia on Messinese earthquakes 

 has appeared in the BoHettino of the Italian Seismological 

 Society (vol. xiii., pp. 481-96). In this he describes a 

 series of earthquakes which occurred in .August, 1898, the 

 centres of which were near Rometta, which lies seven 

 miles south-west of Messina. Two of these shocks (on 

 August 6 and 12) were strong enough to cause slight 

 damage to buildings at Rometta, and before the end of 

 the month they were followed by at least eighty slighter 

 tremors. The centres of both shocks were beneath the 

 Peloritan mountains. Comparing the areas most stronglv 

 shaken by them with others disturbed in .April, 1893, and 

 February, 1904, it would seem that, during the eleven 

 years, there has been a continual northerly migration of 

 the epicentres. C. D. 



