138 



NA TURE 



June 8, 1905 



AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



T^HE annual report of the Transvaal Department of 

 Agriculture for 1903-4 is a volume of more than 400 

 pages, which contains, in addition to an introduction by 

 the director, reports on the fourteen sections into which 

 the work of the department falls. In discussing the 

 personnel of the department, the director refers to the 

 difficulty of obtaining expert assistants, a difficulty which, 

 so far as agriculture is concerned, exists in all countries 

 supplied from Britain, and even in such countries as the 

 United States, where the training of the expert receives 

 more attention than it does here. Many of the chief 

 positions in the Transvaal department have now been 

 filled up, but assistants are still required, and as the work 

 expands it is probable that a considerable number will be 

 engaged. The report states that men for scientific work 



will doubtless best be obtained from amongst students 

 who have had good careers at one or other of the universi- 

 ties, and who have done a certain amount of research 

 after taking their degree. A thorough grounding in pure 

 science is a sine qua non, and if they are not acquainted 

 with the applied side of Science, this knowledge will have 

 to be acquired in our laboratories whilst acting as 

 assistants to the Chief of their particular Division." 



The above named report contains many interesting para- 

 graphs. Here is one that appears under the heading 

 " Farmers' Cooperative Experiment Reports " : — From 

 General Louis Botha, Pretoria, " They (mangels from 

 England sent for trial by the Department) do not grow so 

 quickly as other sorts of root-crops, but if sown earlv they 

 will grow splendidly and give a good winter crop in May ; 

 therefore I ordered a big quantity which I intend to use 

 this year." 



In papers contributed to the first four parts of the 

 Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope for the 

 current year, Mr. D. E. Hutchins, conservator of forests 

 at Cape Town, makes out a strong case for the extension 

 of tree planting in South Africa. The coast districts have 

 a very favourable climate, grow^th is rapid, and the quality 

 of the timber produced is good ; but while native resource's 

 have not been developed, timber to the value of ji millions 

 is imported annually. There is no reason whv most of 

 the wood required for building and mining purposes should 

 not be grown in the country, and it is estimated that every 

 i/. spent in afforesting suitable land would bring in an 

 annual revenue of il. in thirty-five years' lime! If Mr. 

 Hutchins can convince the financier that this estimate is 

 correct, South Africa should soon grow its own timber ; 

 but in this branch of agriculture the sower seldom reaps,' 

 and the investor is not easily convinced. It is likely' 

 therefore, that in South Africa! as elsewhere, the lack of 

 capital will prove a more serious difficultv to the enthusi- 

 astic forester than either soil or climate. 



In a recent number of the Bulletin of the College of 

 Agriculture, Tokyo Imperial University, there is an article 

 of considerable interest to British agriculturists The 

 Japanese farmer, like the English farmer of half a century 

 ago, IS given to employing lime more freely than is good 

 for his land, and in some districts the injury done by 

 liming has caused the authorities to interfere with the 

 practice. Following up some work by Kellner and 

 Bottcher on the effects of lime on the action of certain 

 phosphates, Nagaoka investigated the results of employing 

 a number of phosphatic fertilisers on limed and on'un- 

 Iimed land. Rice was grown, and it was shown that lime 

 greatly interfered with the action of those phosphatic 

 manures which were of animal origin, such as bone meal 

 or fish bones; on the other hand, when the phosphates 

 were derived from a vegetable source, the effects of lime 

 were not very pronounced. The injury was about twice 

 as great in manures of animal as in those of vegetable 

 origin The injurious action of lime extended into a 

 .second year. Nagaoka's results confirm those obtained by 

 Kellner and Bottcher in Germanv, and indicate that such 

 manures as bone meal and fish meal should not be used 

 < n recently limed soils. 



We have received from the committee of the Lawes 

 Agr^ultural Trust a copy of the report of the director, Mr. 

 A. D. Hall, on the work done at the Rothamsted Experi- 

 NO. 1858, VOL. 72] 



mental Station for the year ending March 31. The well 

 known experimental fields are still continued without any 

 essential change; in addition, a new field has been laid 

 out to test the residual value of various manures in the 

 second and succeeding years after their application. Other 

 experiments deal W'ith calcium cyanainide, the new manure 

 containing nitrogen derived from the atmosphere, and with 

 the various cultivations of bacteria which have been 

 recently introduced for the inoculation of leguminous crops, 

 with the view of making them more elTicient collectors of 

 atmospheric nitrogen. During the vear in question seven 

 papers have been issued from the station, all of which deal 

 with investigations on the soil, methods of soil analysis, 

 &c. The annual losses of carbonate of lime in the Roth- 

 amsted soil have been determined, both that due to natural 

 agencies and that caused by the use of manures. Certain 

 restorative actions have been investigated which account 

 for the maintenance of the fertility of many soils which 

 are almost devoid of lime. Another of the papers deals 

 with the remarkable accumulations of fertililv in certain 

 plots of land which have been allowed to run wild for the 

 last twenty years, and have in that time gained nitrogen 

 to an extent not readily explicable by the accepted theories. 

 ■The Lawes Trust committee continues to find its inconi' 

 very inadequate to the proper development of the station ; 

 only donations and subscriptions from various sources, in- 

 cluding 300/. from the Goldsmiths' Company, 50/. from thi- 

 Clothworkers' Company, 50/. from Lord Rothschild, &c.. 

 have prevented a serious deficit on the year's working. 

 Mr. J. F. Mason has also promised to erect and equip a 

 new laboratory for agricultural bacteriology, which will be 

 the first of its kind in this country, as a continuance of 

 the experiments carried on for many years by his father, 

 the late Mr. James Mason, at Eynsham Hall, Oxon. 



REPORTS ON SEA FISHERIES. 



T^HE report for 1904 on the Lancashire Sea Fisheries 

 Laboratory at the University of Liverpool and the 

 sea fish hatchery at Piel ' contains an. introduction and 

 general account of the year's work, written, as usual, by 

 Prof. Herdman, the honorarv director of the scientific 

 %Tork.- 



A report upon the sea fish hatchery at Piel, by Mr. 

 Andrew Scott, shows that more than a million plaice fry 

 and more than twelve million flounder fry were liberated, 

 the result of hatching eggs laid by fish caught in the 

 autumn and confined in tanks at the hatchery. The useful 

 results to the fisheries of thus confining spawners an<i 

 turning out the newly hatched fry have yet to be demon- 

 strated. 



A paper upon the tow-nettings collected in the Irish 

 Sea, contributed by Mr. Scott, is of little value, because 

 it is far too general, the contents of the tow-nets not 

 having been identified. Such records as " Copepoda, 

 medusoids, gelatinous algse, a fish egg," are perhaps of 

 some value, but of very little. It appears to us that had 

 less been attempted, and some one group properly worked, 

 the value of the paper would have been much greater. 

 In referring to the occurrence of pelagic fish eggs, the 

 scientific names of the various species might have been 

 mentioned with advantage. 



Bacteriological investigations in relation to shell-fish 

 pollution by sewage matter, by Mr. James Johnstone, is 

 an interesting paper continuing an investigation carried 

 on during the previous year. Mr. Johnstone is also re- 

 sponsible for a paper upon plaice-marking experiments, and 

 for another upon the internal parasites and diseased con- 

 ditions of fishes. The plaice-marking experiments are 

 upon a small scale, but no doubt will give results of 

 interest in time. Dr. J. Travis Jenkins, recently appointed 

 to the post of superintendent of fisheries of the district, 

 contributes an interesting discussion of official fishery 

 statistics, from which it appears that the Board of Trade 

 returns are not always accurate. Dr. Jenkins's remarks 



Report or 1904 on the Lanc.is'iire Sea Fisheries Laboratory at 

 Iversity of Liverpool and the ?ea-fish Hatchery at Piel ; and Syllabu 

 sons on Marine liiology. (Liverpool, 1905. 



