PRESS AND OTHER CRITICISM 161 



plant food new to science, and one which in addition 

 to its extraordinary scientific interest, may prove of 

 very great practical importance." 



The Field, May 21, 1914. 



; ' There is good reason to think that Professor 

 Bottomley has solved the problem of enhancing the 

 fertility of the soil by the application of bacterial 

 cultures. As has already been explained in the 

 garden department of the Field, peat has been 

 utilized as the medium for impregnating the land 

 with the cultivated bacteria, and the results at Kew, 

 the Chelsea Physic Garden, and other centres, exceed 

 even the expectations of the inventor. The farmer 

 is not entirely dependent upon the experiments with 

 garden plants for his appreciation of the discovery. 

 The bacterized peat, as the preparation has been 

 aptly termed, has been used for potatoes, turnips, 

 beet, onions, and carrots, and the effect in all cases 

 has been pronounced, the treated peat easily sur- 

 passing farmyard manure and a mixture of arti- 

 ficials in influencing production. The average in- 

 crease in potatoes over artificials was 75 per cent., 

 and over dung 41 per cent. ; turnips, 47 per cent, and 

 26 per cent.; beet, 54 per cent, and 53 per cent.; 

 onions, no per cent, and 46 per cent.; and carrots, 

 20 per cent, and 28 per cent. Most of these crops 

 are of chief interest to the market gardener, but it 

 may be assumed that the material will be similarly 

 effective upon field crops. The discovery promises 

 to be of the greatest importance to intensive culti- 

 vators, whose prosperity has been menaced by the 

 reduction in the supplies of town manure. Mineral 

 and chemical fertilizers are valuable substitutes, but 

 a vegetable preparation such as treated peat would 

 be attended with less risk of ultimate injury to the 

 land. The preparation will not be put upon the 



