A^A TURE 



589 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1913. 



PROBLEMS OF SOIL FERTILITY. 

 ( t^s and Methods for Soil Improvement. By 

 Al\a Agee. Pp. xv + 2464- plates. (New York: 

 The Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 1912.) Price 5s. 6d. net. 



THE Pennsylvania State College, of which the 

 author of this book is acting director, is 

 one of the classical research stations of the United 

 States, and one in which students of agricultural 

 science are always interested. A book written by 

 so prominent a member of the staff of the insti- 

 tution as Prof. .\h-a .A.lgee is, therefore, sure of 

 a welcome. 



The volume before us is intended for practical 

 men, and sets out in simple, straightforward 

 language the essential facts which the college has 

 been trying to inculcate. The four causes of 

 infertility most common in Pennsylvania, as in 

 other parts of the eastern States, are lack of lime, 

 inadequate drainage, lack of organic matter and 

 of plant food. These are, therefore, discussed in 

 some detail. 



Lack of lime is a perpetual source of trouble 

 in the eastern States, and, it might be added, 

 in this country as well. It has furnished the reason 

 for some of the best-known work in the States, 

 including the researches of Dr. Wheeler, at the 

 Rhode Island Experiment Station, and the long- 

 continued limestone-fertilised plots at State 

 College. Advice and demonstrations in connection 

 with this subject absorb much of the time and 

 energy of the expert advisers. The simple 

 directions given by Prof. Agee should go far to 

 facilitate matters; the farmer is shown that his 

 land needs lime when it tends to cover itself with 

 alsike, sorrel, plantain and "red top" {Agrosti.': 

 aJha), and he is advised as to the proper method 

 of application. 



When lime or limestone has been added and 

 the land drained, it becomes possible to grow 

 clover. This has a two-fold advantage : it in- 

 creases the amount of animal food produced on 

 the farm and, therefore, the amount of saleable 

 produce and of manure ; and it also enriches the 

 soil in nitrogenous organic matter. Considerable 

 space is devoted to this latter effect and to alter- 

 native ways of bringing it about, such as the 

 growth of lucerne, temporary grass mixtures, &'c. 

 This method of soil treatment is the basis of the 

 plan worked out in the States for restoring fertility 

 to their worn-out soils. 



The improved land will now produce more maize 

 than before. Dean Hunt has adduced evidence 

 to show that the whole prosperity of the eastern j 

 NO. 2257, VOL. 90] 



States would be increased if the area of land under 

 I this crop were increased. Maize has twice the 

 energy value of the other crops grown in the 

 rotation, and it affords green food for dairy cattle 

 and for fatting animals. Further, the use of arti- 

 ficial manures is justified on this improved land. 



Such is the main outline of the author's thesis. 

 How successful the method is in practice is shown 

 by the high crop returns at the experimental 

 stations. Pennsylvania contains some of the best 

 farmed land in the States, but even the best of 

 its farmers will be able to learn much from Prof. 

 Agee's book. E. J. R. 



THE OAK AND ITS LORE. 

 The Oak: Its Natural History, Antiquity, and 



Folk-Lore. By C. Mosley. Pp. ix+126. 

 (London : Elliot Stock.) Price 55. net. 

 '^r^HE editor of "White's Selborne " has given 



X us a most dainty and chatty little volume on 

 the "monarch of the woods." It is adorned on its 

 cover with a panel of real oak, and furnished inside 

 with beautiful illustrations specially produced for 

 this work by the author. The book is divided 

 into chapters on the oak in general ; its economic 

 value ; historic and veteran oaks ; the enemies and 

 parasites of the oak ; the oak in myth and folk- 

 lore; and the oak in Holy \\'ri^ On such a 

 subject, the most important chapter, from a senti- 

 mental point of view, is the one on " Mistletoe- 

 Oaks and Oak-Mistletoe." We learn, as leading 

 facts, that the mistletoe grows on oak only " in 

 odd instances." The known instances are given 

 as the result of careful search and inquiry, and the 

 only present instance, it seems, occurs in the 

 neighbourhood of Eastnor Park, Herefordshire. 

 The only English species of mistletoe is Viscwn 

 album, which grows extensively on apple-trees. 

 In the south of Europe Viscuni aureum or Loran- 

 thiis europaeus grows in abundance on oak trees. 

 Important information on the same subject is 

 given by Sir Norman Lockyer in his "Stone- 

 'nenge " (second edition, pp. 26, 27), and from the 

 facts the following deductions seem natural and 

 reasonable. 



The mistletoe of the Druids was Viscum aureum. 

 The Druids came from a south coimtry where 

 that species grows on the oak. The rarity of 

 even Viscum album on oak in the north accounts 

 for the extraordinary trouble and ceremony with 

 which the Druids obtained the mistletoe for their 

 purposes. As the apple-tree ranked next to the 

 oak in the Druids' estimation, it is to be inferred 

 that the apple-trec-mistietoe was deemed satis- 

 factory for ordinary ceremonials. 



Such facts and deductions constitute circumstan- 



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