;io 



NATURE 



[September 19, 189- 



to which allusion has already been made, trees and 

 bushes are being raised for distribution amongst the 

 Duke's tenantr\-. We are pleased, however, to find that 

 these practical steps for the promotion of fructiculture do 

 not originate in any extravagant notions of the all-saving 

 powers of fruit-growing to remedy the present agricultural 

 distress. Much harm has been done in this country by 

 the special pleading of those who are faddists on the 

 subject, and who advocate their fad by holding up to 

 \iew all the notable cases of success, and all the possible 

 advantages to be gained, while they keep in the back- 

 ground all the difficulties and dangers, minimise the costs 

 of planting, and hide the numerous cases of failure. No 

 one can question the fact that fruit-growing in England 

 is a profitable occupation when properly conducted 

 under favourable conditions of soil, climate, and dis- 

 tance from market ; nor can it be doubted that 

 a certain proportion (perhaps 5 or 10 per cent.) 

 of those who are now ordinary farmers could become 

 fruit farmers with great advantage to themselves, and it 

 must also be admitted that the distribution of some 

 knowledge of fruit-growing over the country generally 

 would render the thousands of orchards attached to 

 homesteads a source of small, or often substantial, profit 

 to the holders, instead of being, as they are at present, a 

 mere waste of land and money : but to imagine that 

 every farmer can become a fruit grower is as absurd as 

 imagining that every fanner could become a horse 

 breeder. Even if such a metamorphosis were possible 

 it would be suicidal : yet it should be pointed out that the 

 fruit market in England is an exceptionally expansible 

 one, and that prices of hard fruits would probably be but 

 little affected even if the supply were doubled ; the 

 rapidly increasing importation of apples, which has now 

 reached 5,000,000 bushels a year, has had no effect what- 

 ever on the market price of the fmit. These might have 

 been grown in England just as well as abroad, for with a 

 proper selection of varieties England need never fear a 

 competition with foreign-grown apples. 



It is certainly a fallacy to suppose that it is only in a 

 few exceptionally favoured districts that fruit can be 

 profitably grown : the appearance of the trees and the 

 abundant crop of strawberries at the Woburn Experi- 

 mental Fruit Farm are sufficient to demonstrate that a 

 field of ordinar)' arable land of average fertility, with 

 nothing to recommend it for fruit-growing beyond having 

 a gentle slope to the south-west, and with a reputation 

 amongst farmers of being the most unmanageable in the 

 district, may be rendered highly suited for the production 

 of fruit. To produce such results, however, right methods 

 of procedure are, of course, essential, and nothing could 

 be more striking than the difference between the bulk of 

 the apple-trees at the farm, and those growing on two 

 plots where the planting and subsequent treatment were 

 such as is usually adopted by farmers : the ground where 

 these trees were had, mdeed, been properly trenched and 

 cleaned once, but the trees had been carelessly planted, 

 the branches had not been cut back, and the weeds hael 

 been subsequently allowed to grow : the result was. that 

 along the branches there were only a few halfdead 

 lca\ es (if not more than one-fifth of the proper size, and 

 it ...nil] liave required a trained horticulturist to have 

 f Ijat these trees were of the same variety as 



ti ' liad been properly tended. 



\ iaiiots were also much struck by the e\idence which 

 the results at the farm afforded of the hardiness of 

 English fruit trees. No season could have been more 

 trj-ing for recently-planted trees than that just experi- 

 enced. A very wet autumn, during which the heavy soil 

 of the farm was unworkable, was followed by a winter of 

 almost unprtcedentrd severity, and this, in its turn, by a 

 still more trying ptrind of drought. Yet, with the ex- 

 ception of the young slocks and a few strawberry plants, 

 the mortality amongst the thousands of trees and bushes 



NO. I 35 I, VOL. 52] 



brought on to the ground in the autumn, was confined to 

 about six individuals and half of these were killed 

 through the improper method purposely adopted in 

 planting them. 



All readers of N.ATURE will wish success to an enter- 

 prise so well begun and so liberally conducted, which is 

 clearly destined to afford results of high economic and 

 scientific value. 



THE REVISION OE THE " liRITISH 

 PHAR.MACORiEIA." 



'T'HE last edition of the "British Pharmacopoeia'' was 

 -*• issued in 1S85, and though a thin volume of 

 "Additions" was publi«iiied by the General .Medical Council 

 in iSgo, the progress of science and the requirements of 

 medical practice have rendered necessary a complete 

 revision of the official handbook. The work has accord- 

 ingly been entrusted to a Committee of the Council, con- 

 sisting of Sir Richard Quain, F.R.S,, Chairman, the only 

 remaining member of the Committee of 18S5 ; Sir Dyce 

 Duckworth and Mr. Carter, of London : Dr. Leech, of 

 -Manchester; Dr. Batty Tuke, of Edinburgh : Dr. Donald 

 M.ic.'Vlister, of Cambridge ; Dr. Mc\'ail, of C.lasgow ; 

 and Dr. .A.tthill and Dr. tMoore, of Dublin. Dr. Nestor 

 Tirard, of King's College, London, has been appointed 

 secretary to the Committee, and Prof .-\ttfield, F.R.S., of 

 the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, general 

 editor. On questions of chemistry. Dr. T. E. "I'horpe, 

 F.R.S., Principal of the Government Laboratory at 

 Somerset House, with Prof Emerson Reynolds. F.R.S. , 

 of Dublin, and Prof Tilden, F.R.S., of the Royal College 

 of Science, have been invited to act as scientific referees. 

 Mr. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, F.R.S., Director of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Mr. Holmes, Curator of 

 the Pharmaceutical Society's Museum, have received a 

 similar invitation as regards botanical questions. The 

 rapid growth of experimental pharmacology has, more- 

 over, rendered it desirable to enlist expert assistance in 

 regard to the physiological properties and actions of new 

 remedies, and accordingly difficult questions of this nature 

 will be referred to Dr. Lauder Brunton, of London, Prof. 

 Eraser, of Edinburgh, and Prof \V. G. Smith, of Dublin. 

 Lastly, on matters of pharmacy, the Pharmaceutical 

 Society have been asked to give their valu.ible aid, and 

 have promptly formed a strong committee of practical 

 experts. To this committee many questions as to the 

 compounding and preparation of drugs will doubtless have 

 to be referred. 



.A circular inviting suggestions for the improvement of 

 the " Pharmacoporia " has been addressed to the several 

 universities and medical licensing corporations of the 

 United Kingdom, and from the m.ajority of these careful 

 and elaborate replies have been received. They contain 

 numerous proposals for the omission of doubtful or obso- 

 lete preparations, for the incorporation of new drugs that 

 have come into practical use since 1S85, and for the 

 simplification and correction of the text in general. 



In response to rei|ucsts transmitted through the Pri\y 

 Council to the medical authorities of the colonies and 

 India, a very large body of materials, submitted with the 

 object of adapting the " Pharmacopoeia" to the require- 

 ments of the empire at large, have reached the editing 

 committee. These open up a multitude of somewhat 

 diflficult questions ; for though the " Pharmacopivia" is 

 by law recognised as the official standard of reference at 

 home, it has not the same legal sanction outside the 

 British Isles. While therefore it is possible that something 

 may be done as regards the recognition of important 

 natural drugs used in Indian or colonial practice, it is 

 highly probable th.it these may have to be relegated to a 

 special appendix. The desire to go as far as may legally 

 be practic.ible in making the " Pharmacopceia " an ini- 



