jV.-l TURE 



[November 7, 1907 



TtiE SOILS OF IRELAND. 



A Dcs-:nplio„ of the SoiJ-Gcolo^iiy "f Irchiud. based 

 upon ecological Survey Maps and liccords, -.vitli 

 Notes oit Climate. By J. R. Kilroc. Department of 

 Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. 

 Pp. xii+300. (Dublin: H.M. .Stationery Office, 

 1907.) Price 6.?. 



T N his preface the author states that on the com- 

 '- pletion of the one-inch geological map of 

 Ireland " the opportunity seemed favourable for pre- 

 senting to the public a succinct account of the geology 

 of the country, prepared chicfiy from the standpoint 

 of agriculture," of which opinion the present work is 

 the outcome. 



It is certainly a matter of cardinal importance to 

 nn agricultural country like Ireland that its Geological 

 Survey officers should have the needs of the farmers 

 before them, and should in the progress of their 

 mapping look at the country-side with something of 

 the farmer's eye, and an appreciation of the kind of 

 information that is likely to be of value to him. 



It is perhaps too much as yet to ask that the 

 (ieological Survey should give rise to a second depart- 

 ment charged with the preparation of soil maps, though 

 in other countries the State is undertaking this service 

 for the agriculturist; but, failing so large a measure, 

 what information of value to the working farmer 

 can the geologist proper put into his maps and 

 memoirs? A good "drift" map must be the 

 basis, a map in which, however, the drift should be 

 differentiated further than it is on our present maps, 

 where the common designation of " boulder clay " is 

 often made to cover in a single district true clays, 

 coarse stony gravels, and deposits that are little more 

 than sand. Of course, the boundaries of such 

 drifts can only be indicated approximately, partly 

 because they grade into one another in some places, 

 and in others thin out insensibly into true " sedentary " 

 soils derived from the underlying " solid " rock. To 

 the farmer, lithological character is the important 

 feature in a drift, not its origin, and we believe the 

 field geologist would find no difficulty in providing 

 the information if he had the requirement before 

 him from the outset. -Again, some indication 

 of the thickness of the drift might be given, 

 with notes as to the proximity of valuable soil 

 ameliorators, like beds of marl below peat or 

 chalk below clay. Of course, much chemical analysis 

 cannot be recorded, but we think the map 

 should indicate whether a clay formation is calcareous 

 or deficient in lime; again, some notes on drainage 

 and water supply might be added to the memoir. A 

 farmer, for example, finds a certain field full of 

 springs ; a geologist could generally tell him whether 

 this is due to the outcrop of an impermeable band or 

 to a fault (in which case a ditch can be cut to tap 

 the springs), or to general ground water, in which case 

 the field will want tile draining. 



-Mr. Kilroe, however, has no opportunity in this 

 book of working on such a scale; his object 

 has rather been to do for Ireland what the late Prof. 

 E. Risler did for France in his "Geologic Agricole," 



NO. 1984, voL^ yj] 



to t,ake the formations one by one and show how the 

 nature of the rock is reflected in the physiography and 

 the soil constitution, and in its turn in the agriculture 

 of the district it occupies. To produce such a book is 

 a noble ambition, but we fear that the materials for it 

 hardly exist as yet in the case of Ireland, for through- 

 out Mr. Kilroe 's book we are struck by the paucity of 

 data really bearing on the point at issue. The 

 analyses of rocks and soils, even of waters, are 

 rarely of Irish origin ; often, indeed, they refer to 

 Continental specimens, and they are of very various 

 dates and values. There is hardly a reference to Irish 

 farming in the book ; for instance, barley grow- 

 ing is a very special and localised culture in Ireland, 

 and one which has had considerable attention from the 

 Department of Agriculture, but when we inquire if it 

 is associated W'ith any formation in particular, we 

 find no reference to it, nor, indeed, to the distribution 

 of any other crop, in Mr. Kilroe's book. Instead, Mr. 

 Kilroe gives us too much of his views on agricultural 

 chemistry, generally in the form of extracts from 

 other writers, and these extracts only show how diffi- 

 cult it is for a specialist to preserve a due critical 

 sense when " getting up " another subject. For ex- 

 ample, we read : — 



" When it is considered that silicate of alumina 

 (clay) in itself furnishes no essential element of plant 

 food ... it is evident that the stony particles, pebbles, 

 &c., contain the stock supplies of mineral nutrients." 



Or again : — 



" The waters flowing from the Old Red Sandstone 

 would doubtless be poor in lime for the purpose of 

 irrigation. They, however, probably contain such a 

 proportion of potash as would justify some expense in 

 distributing them over meadow-land or pasturage 

 not being grazed." 



We only wish that Mr. Kilroe could have tempered 

 his zeal for imparting information. It is just the same 

 with the section on climate ; we have a series of para- 

 graphs on soil and air temperatures, on cyclones 

 and weather forecasts, on clouds and similar generali- 

 ties, but little or nothing on the Irish climate or its 

 local distribution, which counts for so much in the 

 agriculture of the country. 



" Cut the cackle and come to the 'osses " was an 

 old and sound piece of advice, and the " 'osses '" we 

 hope to get from Mr. Kilroe are Irish — Irish rocks, 

 Irish soils, Irish crops and stock. .\. D. H. 



SCHOLARSHIPS AND INDUSTRY. 



Dyeing in Germany and .America. By Sidney H. 

 Higgins. Pp. xvi + ii2 (Manchester: University 

 Press, 1907.) Price is. net. 



THE Gartside scholarships of commerce and in- 

 dustry were established in 1902 for a period of 

 ten years. They are of a special character, the main 

 feature of the scheme under which they are adminis- 

 tered being the close manner in which they are linked 

 up with industrial life. The first year of the scholar- 

 ship is tenable in the University of Manchester, a 

 course of study being adopted which will directly 

 qualify the scholar to investigate some special branch 



