WET AND DRY WINTERS 285 



But in a wet winter part is washed out and the young plant 

 is deprived of some of its food. We thus have part of the 

 explanation of the harmful effect of a wet winter, and one of 

 the reasons why the husbandman in all ages has hoped for dry 

 winters. " A wet summer and a fine winter," to quote from 

 the Georgics, "should be the farmers' prayer. From winter 

 dust comes great joy to the corn, joy to the land. No tillage 

 gives Mysia such cause for boasting, or Gargarus for wondering 

 at his own harvest."* English farmers would ask for the wet 

 spring instead of the wet summer, but they would agree 

 entirely as to the winter, and out of their experience they have 

 evolved a variety of similar expressions. Again the man of 

 science has annotated the poet, and Sir Napier Shaw has 

 worked out a mathematical expression showing how much 

 damage is done on an average by winter rain. 



The trouble can be met by a system of green manuring, 

 whereby plants are grown in the autumn to take up the 

 nitrates, and are then ploughed into the land ready for the 

 operation of the soil organisms in spring. A field experiment 

 with this purpose in view has been put in hand. 



REFERENCES. 



" The Effect of Partial Sterilisation of Soil on the Production of Plant Food." 



E. J. Russell and H. B. Hutchinson. J. Agric. Sd., 1909, Vol. III., 



Part 2. 

 " The Effect of Partial Sterilisation of Soil on the Production of Plant Food. 



Part 2, The Limitation of Bacterial Numbers in Normal Soils and its 



Consequences." E. J. Russell and H. B. Hutchinson. J. Agric. Sci., 



1913, Vol. V., Part2. 

 " Partial Sterilisation of Soil by Volatile and Non- Volatile Antiseptics." 



W. Buddin. /. Agric. Sci., 1914, Vol. VJ., Part 4. 

 "Investigations on ( Sickness ' in Soil. I. Sewage Sickness." E. J. Russell 



and J. Golding. J. Agric., Sci., 1912, Vol. V., Part 1. 

 "Investigations on 'Sickness' in Soil. II. 'Sickness' in Glass-house Soils." 



E. J. Russell and F. R. Petherbridge. J. Agric. Sci., 1912, Vol. V., 



Part 1. 



* Georgics, Bk. I., 11. 100-103. 



