X. ITU RE 



[September 5, 1918 



straightforward and less controversial than the 

 political and economic problems. If food produc- 

 tion is wanted it can be done so far as scientific 

 problems are concerned. The political and 

 economic problems lie outside our present scope; 

 the}' have been fully discussed in Lord Selborne's 

 report on rural reconstruction. During the war 

 these problems have, in fact, been largely solved, 

 and in the view of Lord Selborne's Committee the 

 increased production could be permanently main- 

 tained. 



Assuming this were done, then, it would be neces- 

 sary to put on a permanent basis the present re- 

 arrangement of areas under crops. Various 

 schemes have been submitted. Broadly speaking, 

 they involve the maintenance in arable cultivation 

 of the three and a half or four million acres now 

 taken off permanent grass and adding it to 

 corn, thus extending the rotation from four 

 courses to five, or from five to six. The inter- 

 position of a corn crop in this manner is quite 

 possible in practice on two conditions — the land 

 must be kept clean and fertilisers must be used. 

 A reasonable dressing to use for cereals in these 

 circumstances would be 1 cwt. of sulphate of am- 

 monia or nitrate of soda and 2 cwt. of superphos- 

 phate per acre. This would not give a measure 

 of the total consumption of fertiliser necessarv, 

 because the taking out of 4,000,000 acres of per- 

 manent grass would necessitate the improvement 

 of the remainder in order that the same quantity 

 of grass might be grown ; an average dressing per 

 acre of 1 cwt. of basic slag would be a reason- 

 able application here. Two estimates are given in 

 the report : — 



Estimated Post-war Consumption. 



Pre-war con 



sumption : 



tins per annu 



Sulphate of ammonia... 60,000 



Superphosphate 743,000 



Basic slag 263,000 



It is improbable that the production of basic 

 slag would ever attain the high figures quoted 

 here, while, on the other hand, much greater 

 quantities of superphosphate can be made even 

 than the r6 millions required on Sir Charles 

 Fielding's estimate. Some of the slag would 

 therefore in practice be replaced by superphos- 

 phate. 



Of the two sets of figures Sir T. H. Middleton's 

 is the more likely to be realised. Estimates for 

 sulphate of ammonia are difficult to make because 

 to a large extent, and yet not altogether, sulphate 

 of ammonia is replaceable by, and can itself re- 

 place, nitrolim or calcium ey'anamide and nitrate 

 of soda. It would not be difficult to make a 

 reasonable guess at the total amount of combined 

 nitrogen the farmers of the United Kingdom 

 might be expected to use, but it is impossible to 

 forecast the way in which they will take it. Thus 

 we might assume the following distribution of 

 crops and consumption of fertilisers : — 



549, vol. 102] 



Sir T. H. Sir Charles 



Middleton's Fielding's 



estimate : estimate : 



tins per annum tons per annul 



36o,00O 



1,367.000 1,643,000 



892,000 1,463,000 



Total 



467 22'0 1,730,000 470,000 



Here all the combined nitrogen is expressed for 

 convenience in the form of sulphate of ammonia, 

 but it must be understood that other compounds 

 can be used also. This leads to the conclusion 

 that 470,000 tons of sulphate of ammonia (or the 

 equivalent of nitrolim and nitrate of soda) and 

 1,730,000 tons of phosphates (superphosphate and 

 basic ' slag) could be utilised annually in the 

 United Kingdom — figures, however, which are 

 below those of Sir Thomas Middleton in so far 

 as phosphates are concerned. 



However, all these estimates are necessarily 

 hypothetical ; no one knows what will happen 

 after the war. Unless the great political and 

 economic problems involved are satisfactorily 

 dealt with we may yet see the land going back 

 to grass in spite of all our endeavours. 



E. J. Russell. 



THE VALUE OF THE HERRING AS 

 FOOD. 



THE report for 1917 of the Lancashire Sea- 

 fisheries Laboratory is chiefly devoted to a 

 paper by Dr. J. Johnstone on the dietetic value of 

 the herring. It is not necessary to emphasise the 

 present importance of this subject, for the fact is 

 now well known that in the days before the war 

 a small proportion only of the herrings landed in 

 this country was consumed by our own popula- 

 tion, a proportion which Dr. Johnstone estimates 

 at as low as 20 per cent. The Government 

 Departments responsible for fishery questions are 

 fullv alive to the possibilities which will occur 

 after the war for utilising the fish which were 

 previously exported, and so adding substantially 

 to the national food supply. Already steps are 

 being taken with the view of placing these fish on 

 the market in a more attractive and palatable 

 form than the salted or pickled herrings which 

 constituted the bulk of the exported article, and 

 if the public once realises the food value of the 

 fish the whole supply might well be retained at 

 home. 



Dr. Johnstone's analyses of the flesh of the 

 herring have been made chiefly on fish from the 

 Irish Sea, and as the most novel feature of his 

 results is the clear and definite way in which 

 he shows that the composition of the flesh 

 varies very greatly in samples of fish taken at 

 different seasons and in different states of develop- 

 ment, it becomes important that analyses of 

 a similar kind should be carried out in other 

 fishery regions, especially in connection with the 



