102 



♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



[March 1, 1889. 



thrown awaj-. It should not be used on light porous soils 

 in districts where much rain is expected. It should as a 

 rule onl}' be applied where living plants already exist to 

 make immediate use of the nitrogen ; hence it forms an 

 excellent material for top dressings in the spring. It is 

 very soluble, and rain is required to make it s;nk into the 

 ground and cause it to come in contact with the roots of the 

 plants it is intended to nourish. On the other hand, too 

 much rain would cause it to sink in the .'■oil beyond the 

 i-ange of the roots, and hence become useless to the plants. 

 This is the gi-eat cause of loss in connection with the use of 

 nitrate of soda, and for this reason much more than the 

 theoretical quantity of nitrate has to be employed for manur- 

 ing crops. According to our first table, 100 lbs. of nitrate 

 of soda ought to produce about 1,500 lbs. of wheat crop, but 

 in practice only about 15 to 20 per cent, of the nitrogen 

 applied in this manner is recovered in the crop. Therefore 

 the resulting increase is correspondingly smaller, being 

 nearer 250 lbs. than 1,500 lbs. Both grain and root crops 

 are benefited by applications of nitrate of soda, and there 

 is little doubt but the largest quantities will find their way 

 to those countries where many acres of beet are grown for 

 the production of sugar. 



Plants dressed with nitrogenous manures always look 

 much greener than plants grown without a good supply of 

 nitrogen ; intense greenness does not, however, necessarily 

 indicate heavy or good crops — in fact, such a condition 

 is more frequently the result of a deficiency of other plant 

 foods in the soil ; and although much chlorophyll accumulates, 

 the plants, owing to imperfect nutrition, are not able to 

 transform it into useful material such as starch and sugar ; 

 consequently such plants rarely mature properly. It must, 

 therefore, be remembered that nitrogenous manures alone will 

 not insure a good crop, unless all the mineral constituents 

 required by the plants are also present in abundance in the 

 soil ; failing this condition the application of nitrogenous 

 manure may be attended with loss instead of profit. 



THE SHO-BANDAI-SAN ERUPTION. 



3HE eruption which destroyed the peak of 

 ShoBandai-san in Japan on July 15 last is, 

 next to the Krakatoa eruption, the most 

 gigantic and disastrous volcanic disturbance 

 of modern times. Sho-Bandai-san is, or 

 rather was, one of a group of four conical 

 mountains known collectively as Bandai- 

 san, forming the walls of an old elevated crater basin, and 

 rising to a height of some 6,000 feet above the sea-level. 

 Stratified volcanic rocks, of the most part gneiss and 

 andesite, constitute the greater portion of this mountain 

 mass, and are mainly disposed in six great layers, the work 

 of as many successive eruptions, the last of which took place, 

 according to Japanese annals, 1,081 years ago. It had thus 

 come to be regarded as an almost harmless, if not an 

 extinct volcano, an idea that was, however, ruthlessly dis- 

 pelled by the violent and destructive outbreak of July 15. 

 On the morning of that day, after a slight (jreliminary earth- 

 quake shock, there came a shock of prolonged and fearful 

 intensity. Then while the ground in the whole region was 

 still heaving and groaning, and causing the houses to rock 

 like ships at sea, a dense black column of debris, mud, and 

 steam was shot forth from Sho-Bandai-san to a height of 

 about 4,000 feet. During the next minute there were 

 several repetitions of this phsnomenon, all accompanied by 

 loud explosions, and flashes of lightning, probably resulting 

 from th'? electricity generatsd by the steam, shot forth from 



the ascending columns. In the meantime the lighter par- 

 ticles of the black columns, consisting of mingled steam and 

 dust, reached an altitude of 12,000 or 15,000 feet above the 

 summit of the mountain, and spread out into a vast flat 

 cloud, which, until dispersed bv the wind, enveloped the 

 earth beneath it in the densest darkness. From this cloud 

 descended a shower of volcanic du>t granules, small masses, 

 grayish in colour, which fell on the surrounding country 

 in a scalding rain, causing dreadful injuries to people, and 

 clothing the ground with a hot mantle on which it was 

 painful and difficult to walk. This dust covered a land area 

 of 1,0-10 square miles, and spi-e;id itself out in a fan shape, 

 and at the Pacific shore, a distance of sixty-two miles, it 

 had a breadth of forty- one miles. The noises of the 

 explosions were of such intensity as to be plainly heard for 

 a distance of sixty-two miles. 



The amount of the ejecta may be judged from the fact 

 that twenty-seven square miles of country were buried 

 beneath volcanic debris, having over that area an average 

 thickness of 57 feet. The matter distributed over the 

 country by this eruption has been estimated to be equal in 

 weight to 2,880 millions of tons. B. J. 11 



PENSION TO MK3. R. A. PROCTOR- 



Readers of Knowledge will have heard with sincere 

 pleasure that the Queen has been pleased to grant a civil list 

 pension of 100/. a year to the widow of the late R. A. 

 Proctor. Amongst the signatures to the Memorial to the 

 First Lord of the Ti-easury recommending the grant were 

 the names of — • 



The Duke of Abgyli.. 



The Marquis of Lobse. 



The Lord Ashburton. 



The Duke of Northumber- 

 land. 



Lord Balfour of Burleigh . 



Lord Monxrieff. 



John Ixglis, Lord Justice 

 General of Scotland. 



A. Rutherford Clark, Jadge, 

 Court of Sessions, Scotland. 



The Lord Bishop op London. 



The Lord Bishop of Chester. 



R. Brock LEBANK, D.L., Lanca- 

 shire. 



Vernev Lovett Camerox, 

 C.B., DC.L. 



Lord Randolph Churchill. 



SlKRlCHARDTEMPLE,Btrt.,M.P. 



Colonel E. B. Malleson. 



Sir O. T. Burne 



Sir Geo. Birdwood. 



Robert Hay Hurray. 



Edwin Clark. 



Col. Thos. A- AVetherbd. 



C. S. ilORDAUNT. 



Evelyn Hay Murray. 

 J. F. Clerk. 



CHATTO Si. WiNDUS. 



John Evans (Treasurer Eoyal 



Soc). 

 Sir Penrose G. Julyas, 



K.C-U.G., C.B. 

 Sir W. Hart Dyke, Bart., M. p. 

 R. Richardson Gardner, M. P. 

 Hy. J. .\tkinson, M.P. 

 Wm. Fbedk. Lawrence, M.P., 



Liverpool. 

 ALFRED Austin. 



J. W. COITYNS Cabb. 



Richard Morris. 

 A. Egerton Leigh. 

 Edward G. Mullins. 

 Edwaed Stubbs, Captain R.N. 



Wm. Huggins (late President 

 Fioyal Astro. Soc). 



John Tyndall. 



T. W. Huxley (late President 

 of the Royal Soc). 



W. Mattieu Williams. 



Herbert Sadler. 



G. L. Tupman, Col. R.A. (Sec- 

 retary Royal Astro. Soc). 



Warren de la Rue, F.R.S. (late 

 President Royal Astro. Soc). 



William Lant Caepe.vter. 



Sir Henry Ro.scoe (late Presi- 

 dent of the Brit. Assoc). 



C. J. LoXGil.\N (Messrs. Long- 

 mans & Co.). 



Grant Allen. 



Edw. Clodd. 



Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P. 

 (late President Brit. Assoc.) 



Clements R. Maekham, C.B., 

 F.R.S. 



Spottiswoode & Co. 



Sir Robert Ball (Royal As- 

 tronomer, Ireland). 



C. PiAzzi Smyth (late Astro- 

 nomer Royal, Scotland). 



Evan Hartnup, Liverpool Ob- 

 servatory. 



A. Norman Tate, F.S.C, F.C.S., 

 F.G.S., &c. 



Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 



J. Herschel, Colonel R.E., 

 D.C.L. 



A. S. Herschel (Prof. Durham 

 Coll. of Science). 



W. H. Allen & Co. 



Lord Grimthorpe. 



The Earl of Crawford (late 

 President Royal Astro. Soc). 



Ralph Copeland (Astronomer 

 Royal for Scotland) 



Sib F. L. McClintock, Admiral. 



Andrew Lang. 



