86 



THE SPIRIT OF THE SOIL 



actual figures of one of a score of experiments that 

 have been done somewhat on these lines, only on a 

 more elaborate scale. It shows the enormous pre- 

 ponderance of treated peat in available nitrogenous 

 plant food. 



If the object of the experiments undertaken at the 

 Botanical Laboratories of King's College had been 

 merely to find some new source of manure to replace 

 the supplies of stable manure, which both market 

 gardeners and agriculturists know are year by year 

 steadily shrinking, the successful conversion of 

 insoluble peat into a material rich in soluble plant 

 food comparable in value, but far less bulky than 

 that obtained in stable manure, would have been a 

 notable achievement. It is true that there would 

 have been nothing startling in the idea that it was 

 possible by means of the decomposition bacteria to 

 speed up the natural process which was known to 

 occur slowly in peat, and thus secure a valuable 

 fertilizer for the land. It is true also that the 

 chemist has been perfectly well aware that the same 



