1 897-] Obituary — The Late Georges Ville. 27 



his results have proved of such permanent and immediate value 

 to agriculturists. 



Ville established the value of artificial fertilizers in keeping 

 up the fertility of soil. By trial-plot and vegetative experiments 

 carried on in pots, he was able to demonstrate to the eye the 

 effect, on certain soils and with certain crops, of suitable forms 

 of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash and lime on plant growth, 

 This method of making the crops show the deficiencies, or other- 

 wise, in plant food — or, as it has been tersely put, " making the 

 plant analyse the soil," is now recognized as the only infallible 

 guide to rational and economic manuring— and it is in vogue- 

 wherever progress in farming is being made. 



Professor Ville was born at Port Saint Esprit in 1824, and 

 at the time of his death occupied the Chair of Vegetable Physio- 

 logy in the Museum d'Histoire Naturclle, Jardin des Plantes. He 

 has been called the Lavoisier of Agriculture, for what that great 

 man did for chemistry that did Ville for scientific agriculture. 

 He has introduced exactness ; he has explained underlying- 

 principles ; he has illustrated in the most graphic ways the truths 

 of agriculture. In this way ViHe has helped farmers to help 

 themselves, for he has shown them how their work may be 

 carried on with true economy. 



His published works are many and cover many of the 

 branches of modern agriculture. Certainly one of his chief is 

 " L' Analyse de la Tcrre par les Plantes," a classical work, gi\'ing 

 the results of many years' careful investigation in pot experi- 

 ments with various fertilizers. — F. T. S. 



Notes for the Month of March, Ottawa, 1897. 



By H. B. Small, E^q. 



Although March set in exceedingly cold, the generality ot 

 of the month was marked with iaulty high temperature. More 

 snow, however, fell in this district than all through the previous 

 part of the winter. Spring birds arrived earlier than usual. 



Croivs. — On 6th instant, first flight of crows passed over. 

 Although some of these birds winter around the Experimental 

 Farm and the slaughter-houses up the Rideau river, the}^ do not 

 seem to extend their flight till the mild weather evidences itself, 

 when they apparently wing their way to the ice on the Ottawa 



