January 18, 1917] 
amount of wheat imported from North America in the 
“seventies and ’eighties. In the past forty-three years 
‘Great Britain has lost 3} million acres of tillage crops, 
including 14 million acres of wheat, and has produced 
no more meat, although the milk production has 
doubtless increased. This fact supports the contention 
thatthe area of land under crops may be largely 
increased without any decrease of stock-keeping. 
After contrasting the English and German increase 
in food-production in ‘the past forty years as shown 
‘by the recent Memorandum of the Board of Agricul- 
‘ture, and summarising the recommendations of the 
English, Scottish, and Irish Committees for increased 
food production during the war, Prof. Somerville urges 
that the post-war problem of a large permanent in- 
crease in food.production is the more difficult to solve. 
The solution of the problem is complicated by the con- 
sideration that if a durable peace is obtained ‘there will 
be a long period available for the reconstruction of 
our agriculture, whilst if only an ‘‘armed" peace 
results from the present conflict, rearrangement will 
be necessary in the shortest possible time. Given that 
jit is desirable to secure an increase of a million acres 
of wheat, many consider that this could be effected 
by guaranteeing a minimum price, which presumably 
wwould haye to be extended to oats as well as to wheat, 
since the latter is of quite subordinate importance in 
Scotland and Ireland. ; 
__A rather more attractive suggestion is that farmers 
‘should be granted a bonus on the area of grass land 
‘converted to arable: this has recently been adopted in 
France. - But there is one way in which an immediate 
and large increase in production can be effected, 
namely, by using on British land the whole of. the 
‘ammonium sulphate produced in this country. Of the 
400,000 tons of this fertiliser annually produced, 294,000 
-tons were exported in 1915, and for 1916 the amount 
.was probably about 250,000 tons. If the latter were 
used on one-fourth of the area under wheat, oats, 
roots, potatoes, and hay, it would only give 60 Ib..to 
the acre. Representing sulphate of ammonia in terms 
of wheat. the amount exported in 1916 is equivalent 
,to 23 million quarters of wheat—i.e. an addition of 
‘more than 30 per cent. to our present home-grown 
supply. Further, the exportation of fertiliser and im- 
‘portation of wheat require shipping to the extent of 
‘800,000 tons, and result in an adverse trade balance 
of 4,575,000. ; 
’ The case for prohibiting the export of ammonium 
sulphate is.enormously strengthened by the reduction 
in the import.of sodium nitrate in 1916. Since the 
‘latter decrease has not been compensated for by in- 
‘creased use of sulphate of ammonia, the land must 
have suffered a reduction in fertility. The 40,000 tons 
of basic slag exported in 1916 could be used on British 
land even more easily than the ammonium sulphate. 
It would suffice to produce 3,200,000 Ib. of meat 
annually for five years, and here again considerations 
of freight and exchange are in favour of prohibited 
export. The use of basic slag on second-rate and 
inferior pastures is the most certain way of increasing 
production of food, and it is imvortant now, because 
it involves only a fraction of the man and horse labour 
‘necessary for tillage. : 
Prof. Somerville is of the opinion that some measure 
of compulsion will be necessary, and advocates the 
establishment of local committees to decide which 
farms can make best use of the sulphate of ammonia 
and basic slag available, and which grass. lands 
_are to be tilled. . Although recognising _ their 
obvious advantages, he considers that the creation of 
small holdings would prove more a hindrance than 
a help in regard to the production of the major part 
of the people’s food. ; . 
NO. 2464, VoL. 98] 
NATURE 
Eee 
401 
ITALIAN METEOROLOGY} 
A NUMBER of useful meteorological memoirs by 
Prof. Eredia, of the Central Meteorological and 
Geophysical Institute of Rome, deal with various 
aspects of the meteorology of Italy. No. 1 is the 
Italian meteorological observers’ handbook, copiously 
illustrated, in which full instructions are given regard- 
ing the installation of instruments for a normal sta- 
tion, along with practical hints regarding its main- 
tenance. Instructions are also given for the taking 
of phenological observations. “The Variation of the 
Climate in Italy” (No. 2) is a reprint of apaper read at 
the tenth International Geographical Congress held in 
Rome during 1913, in which the mean annual tempera- 
ture from 1866 to 1910 at sixteen stations is discussed, 
The warmest year was 1879, except in the insular areas, 
while 1900 was the coldest. The temperature varia- 
tions, it may be said, are in. general the reverse of 
those in the British Isles.. Fog frequency over the 
region embraced by Lombardy, Venetia, and Emilia, 
based on data for twenty-three-stations over the period 
1892-1914, forms the subject-matter of No. 3. From 
May to August there are few fogs, the maximum 
taking place in winter Maps of fog frequency are 
given for the autumn, winter, and for the year, while 
several isobaric charts indicate the conditions asso- 
ciated with some. winter fogs. 
The storm of October 7, 1915, along with a synopsis 
of storm frequency at the Tripoli Observatory from 
1892 to 1914, is dealt with in No. 4. Isobaric charts 
referring to 8 a.m. and 9 p.m, illustrate the progress 
of the October storm. At Tripoli during the twenty- 
three years under consideration 164 storms were ob- 
served, the greatest number recorded being twenty in 
1906, and the least number two in 1913 and 1914. The 
frequency by seasons shows that autumn is the 
stormiest time of the year with sixty-nine instances, 
followed by spring with forty-five, winter with thirty- 
three; while.in summer only seventeen were noted. 
The diurnal period shows a maximum in the three 
hours ending 9 p.m., when storms are six times more 
numerous than in the three hours ending with 3 p.m. 
The rainfall associated with the storms discussed is 
small. In forty-five cases none was measured, and 
in forty-one other cases less than 5 mm. fell. In nine- 
teen instances the fall exceeded 20 mm. A general 
review of the various drosometers hitherto employed 
for the registration of the amount of dew is given in 
No. s, along with a description of a new form employed 
by the institute, which has many features to recom- 
mend it. RvGuMe 
ETHNOBOTANY OF AMERICAN INDIANS. 
JN the thirtieth annual report of the Bureau’ of 
American Ethnology, Mr. M. C. Stevenson pub- 
lishes an elaborate article on the ethnobotany of the 
Zuni Indians. This tribe had discovered the medicinal 
value of a large number of plants, one of the most 
important of which is the Jamestown weed (Datura 
meteloides), and the writer observes that from the 
symptoms caused by this drug, its homeeopathic adapt- 
ability to hydrophobia will be at once evident. ‘“¥here 
is-no drug so far proven that deserves as thorough and 
careful a trial’ in this dread disease as stramanium:” 
“They learned the value of Datura meteloides as a 
narcotic perhaps centuries before the birth of Baron 
Stoerck, of Vienna, who first brought it to the atten- 
1 (1) * Norme pe l'impianto e per il funzionamento della stazioni_ ternic- 
udometriche.” p. 41. (Rome, 1916.) (2) “‘ Le variazioni del clima in 
Italia.” Pp. 23. (Rome, 1915.) (3) ‘‘ Lenebbie in Val Padana.” Pp. r2+ 
charts. (Rome, 1916.) (4) ‘‘Sul temporale verificatori a Tripoli nell’ 
ottobre 1915 € sulla distribuzione dei temporali en Tripolitania.” Pp. 17. 
(Rome, 1916.).. (5) ‘‘ Sulla misuraz‘one della rugiada.” . Pp. rr. . (Firenze, 
1915+) é 
