PRESS AND OTHER CRITICISM 165 



" If the result of other more extended and similar 

 experiments is to confirm the correctness of this 

 observation, we shall be face to face with a discovery 

 of prime importance, for it is wellnigh certain that 

 this growth-accelerating effect of the extract cannot 

 be brought about by the nitrogenous or other 

 ordinary substances contained in that extract. 

 The actual amounts of nitrogen and of phosphorus 

 contained in T |^- ounce of the bacterized peat 

 must be extremely small far too small, as it would 

 seem, to produce a marked increase in the rate of 

 growth of plants potted in ordinary garden soil." 



Gardeners' Magazine, October 3, 1914. 



" Professor Bottomley, of King's College, London, 

 has found that when peat has been subjected to the 

 action of bacteria it becomes transformed, and acts 

 as a manure of considerable value." 



Pall Mall Gazette, June 6, 1914. 



" The whole conception of the growth of plants 

 may have to be altered as the result of some im- 

 portant experiments that have been made at 

 King's College, London, and since submitted to 

 successful tests at Kew and Chelsea. Just as 

 modern research has discovered that growing animals 

 cannot get the full value out of pure food, and will 

 not continue to grow unless there is some trace of 

 what is termed " accessory food body" used with 

 it, so it is thought there is in bacterized peat a sub- 

 stance similar to the accessory food bodies necessary 

 for growing animals. And the theory is that plants, 

 just like animals, must have some of this substance, 

 otherwise they will not be able to utilize the food 

 material in the soil. . . . Some very striking results 

 have been obtained with barley. Seven is usually 



