December 26, 1912] 



NATURE 



473 



superior to that obtainable elsewhere. The two older 

 universities are also to be the chief centres for re- 

 search. 



The Commissioners further approve of loans to 

 local authorities for afforestation of suitable land, 

 e.g. water catchment areas. 



Some advance has been made in matters com- 

 prised under the remaining headings of the report, 

 namelj' : — 



III. Lani Drainage and Reclamation. — One Irish 

 scheme (Owenmore) approved. 



IV. Rural Transport. — Considering the vital im- 

 portance to small holders and others of this matter it 

 is astonishing to find that only a very few applica- 

 tions, all Irish, have been received. No grants were 

 recommended. 



V. Harbours. — The Commissioners make a number 

 of important recommendations, on the lines indicated 

 in an earlier part of this review. 



\T. Inland Navigations. — Technical difficulties re- 

 tard this direction of advance, but loans are recom- 

 mended for improvement of the Stort and Upper 

 Medway. 



\'ll. Fisheries. — Substantial grants to various 

 authorities are recommended, partly for scientific' re- 

 search, and partly for improvement of harbours, and 

 other purposes. Concessions to Irish fishermen by 

 way of loans are also recommended. 



\TII. Miscellaneous. — An application by the 

 Meteorological Office was not entertained. 



IX. Compulsory Orders for the Acquisition of Land. 

 — Only one small and unimportant order has been 

 made. 



Within the limits of our space it is impossible to 

 deal with the last part of the report, which is devoted 

 to finance, but it is stated that in all cases the Com- 

 missioners " have tried to follow sound principles of 

 finance and administration, to take a broad view of 

 the questions involved, and to avoid any haphazard 

 and spasmodic distribution of public money." 



The Commissioners may be congratulated on having 

 made very considerable progress during the year, and 

 the principles of their action appear to be fairly 

 sound, though they are somewhat handicapped by the 

 unusually small proportion of scientific experts to be 

 found among them. It is, however, very gratifying 

 to know that the whole time of Mr. A. D. Hall is in 

 future to be given to development work. Now and 

 then we find that a sound principle advocated is not 

 worked out satisfactorily in practice by the responsible 

 authority. For example, on p. ii of the report we 

 read that the grants available from various resources 

 " will provide for utilising to the full the energies of 

 the Agricultural Colleges in teaching, in research, 

 and in giving technical advice to farmers on practical 

 difficulties involving problems which are beyond the 

 scope of either an experienced agriculturist or even 

 a member of the County Staff." Yet a grant of loooZ. 

 per annum for advisory work in horticulture and agri- 

 culture has been made to the Universitv of Bristol, 

 none of which has been allocated to the associated 

 Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, the pioneer 

 institution, accustomed to give the kind of advice 

 contemplated for nearly seventv years. The progress 

 made as regards cooperation and rural transport is 

 disappointingly slow, considering the great import- 

 ance of these for enabling farmers to cope with 

 foreign competition, but the Commissioners can 

 scarcely be blamed for the delay. Ultimately, we may 

 hope to see a ■substantial reduction in the enormous 

 sums paid to foreign countries for agricultural 

 products. 



NO. 2252, VOL. go] 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS ON THE 

 FERTILITY OF THE SOIL. 

 O ECENT inquiries have shown that the fertility 

 -•■^ of agricultural land in Europe has very materi- 

 ally increased owing to the use of commercial 

 fertilisers and green manuring, but it has often been 

 stated that this increase is effected at the expense of 

 virgin lands. Mr. Coventry therefore instituted an 

 inquiry in India to see if there is any evidence of a 

 progressive decline in fertility there. The results are 

 published in vol. vii. of The Agricultural Journal of 

 India, and show that the average of productivity may 

 have become lower, but this can be entirely explained 

 by the fact that inferior lands have been taken into 

 cultivation on account of the great agricultural pros- 

 perity and expansion brought about under British 

 rule. When allowance is made for this it is seen 

 that the fertility is not declining, but rather tends to 

 increase. 



It is, however, undeniable that phosphoric acid and 

 potash are removed from the soil in the crop and 

 transferred to the centres of population. Impoverish- 

 ment of the virgin soils necessarily takes place, 

 although the productiveness is not affected until lack 

 of these particular nutrients becomes the limiting 

 factor in crop production. This position has beeii 

 reached in parts of the United States, and has in- 

 duced Prof. Whitson and his colleagues at the 

 Wisconsin Experiment Station to undertake a valu- 

 able set of investigations on the effect on the soil of 

 rock phosphate, which fortunately is readily obtain- 

 able. In the admirable surveys of Wisconsin now 

 being made by Dr. Weidman it is shown that con- 

 tinued cropping has caused phosphate exhaustion, 

 which can be remedied by dressings of rock phos- 

 phate. 



The other side of the question, the increased phos- 

 phorus supply to land near cities, is very well seen 

 in many parts of England, and has recently been 

 strikingly illustrated by Messrs. Hughes and 

 .Madjem in a paper in The Agricultural Journal of 

 Egypt (vol. i., part ii.). Analysis of soils taken from 

 various places in the Delta showed that certain spots 

 were much richer in phosphates than usual, although 

 in other respects the soils were fairly uniform. 

 Detailed examination of one of these cases showed 

 that the authors were working on the site of an 

 ancient city where a considerable population had 

 existed for a period of at least four thousand years 

 before the Arab domination. To supply such a 

 population and the animals belonging to it with food 

 must have required the produce of a large area, while 

 the refuse of the city would be used as manure only 

 on the nearer land. The city and its population have 

 long since vanished, but the concentration of phos- 

 phoric acid in the soil remains an indelible record of 

 the past : — 



Distance from the centre 



of Koni, kilometres ... o-i 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 

 Total phosphoric acid, 



per cent ... 0-34 029 0-26 0'22 o'22 



Easily soluble phosphoric 



acid, percent o'o86 0069 o"o65 0'05i 0036 



Nitrogen compounds are also transferred, like 

 phosphorus compounds, but they take part in a per- 

 petual cycle in which the nitrogen of the air plavs 

 a part, so that the accumulation and depletion pro- 

 cesses are both limited. Much work is being done 

 on this cycle; in particular, investigators in all 

 countries are finding that addition to the soil of 

 easily oxidisable organic substances, such as sugar, 



