72 AGRICULTURAL STUDENTS' GAZETTE. 



the favourable season of 1894, the last manure applied to the land 

 being fifty-five years ago. Owing to a succession of unfavourable 

 seasons between 1871 and 1883, the average yield of the unmanured 

 land was lower than it has been during the last ten years. Still there 

 is a gradual decline in the crop going on ; and if the seasons were 

 always exactly alike instead of being widely different, we might expect 

 to find this decline exactly the same each year. As I before remarked, 

 the property which the cereal crops possess of obtaining their food 

 from an unmanured soil over very long periods of time, while root and 

 leguminous crops fail to do so, points them out as specially suitable 

 for furnishing the human race with the greater portion of their food. 

 In addition to this property they can be increased very largely and with 

 great certainty by the application of ordinary or artificial manures. If, 

 as appears to be probable, it is further proved that during the exhaustion 

 due to the long continued growth of cereal crops fertility can be restored 

 and a fresh series of corn crops be taken, we see why the exhausted 

 soil of one generation may be the fertile soil of a succeeding one The 

 knowledge that the leguminous plants derive a portion of their nitrogen 

 from the atmosphere has not up to the present time been of much 

 practical advantage to the farmer ; while it was still only an idea, he 

 had already made use of it as far as it would go. We have shown upon 

 our rotation ground where no leguminous crop has been allowed to 

 grow, the violent efforts made by the trefoil to establish itself there. 

 Upon the field which had grown beans until it would grow them no 

 longer, magnificent crops of red clover could be grown ; while upon the 

 wheat land, when put out of cultivation, every sort of native herbage 

 has found food suitable to its requirements. What will be the solution 

 of all these problems 1 Will the day come when seeds are sent out 

 furnished with the appropriate organisms to supply the deficiency in 

 our fields 1 The last half-century has seen the rise of artificial manures 

 and their establishment upon a secure basis ; the next generation must 

 take up a new line of enquiry, and I know none which is likely to lead 

 to more important results, and to be more beneficial to the practical 

 farmer, than an enquiry into the habits of the leguminous plants. 



THE LATE PROFESSOR HARKER. 



In the last number of the Gazette we grieved to mention the very 

 serious illness of Professor Harker : it is with yet greater grief that 

 we now record that the hopes which we ventured to entertain of his 

 recovery and possible return to his beloved ^work at the College proved 

 vain, and that his death took place at his residence, Oakley Villas, on 

 Wednesday, December 19th, 1894, and the funeral in the Cemetery the 

 following Friday. The Principal conducted the service, and there was 

 a large attendance of the Professors and representatives of the Students 

 and scientific bodies. For some few years his health had caused some 

 anxiety, but with characteristic courage he battled bravely with his 



