August 3, 1905 J 



NA rURE 



3^5 



atories. To anyone interested either in tine technique 

 or in attempting to , ecure a more thoroughgomg 

 system in this country, Prof. Giglioli's bool< will 

 provide a storehouse oi information. 



We have before had occasion to comment upon the 

 gigantic undertaking of the United States Oepart- 

 nient of Agriculture, which has embarked on the 

 preparation of a map of the soils of the whole country 

 on a scale of one inch to the mile, accompanied by 

 analyses of each soil type with descriptions of its 

 agricultural features and suitability to particular 

 crops and methods of management. Criticism has 

 not been wanting of the manner in which the work 

 is being executed, but when something like 26,000 

 square miles are being surveyed and mapped in the 

 course of a year at a cost of about \2S. per square 

 mile iittle more than a first approximation can be 

 expected. Objection has been taken to the system of 

 adopting a local name, e.g. Norfolk sand, attaching 

 it to a given soil type, and using it all over the con- 

 tinent for soils of that category, whatever their situ- 

 ation or origin. But the argument is after all a 

 formal one, and the value or otherwise of the survey 

 can only be judged by the farmer on the spot, who 

 finds that it does or does not represent his own soil 

 conditions and assist him to utilise them to the best 

 advantage. 



To the foreign reader these volumes ' are chiefly 

 valuable as giving details of the nature of the soil, 

 the climate, and other factors of the notable farming 

 areas in the United States. Here one can compare 

 the conditions under which the very different wheats 

 of the north-west or of the Pacific slope are grown, or 

 make out the climatic and soil requirements of such 

 crops as cotton in Louisiana or tobacco in Connecti- 

 cut. We miss in the present volume the photographs 

 of the country which, to the outsider at least, were 

 one of the most interesting features in the former 

 issues. 



For many years Mr. T. Jamieson has been carry- 

 ing on a series of agricultural experiments, or rather 

 demonstrations, on a comparatively small scale, but 

 in a very careful and neat fashion. Reports on the 

 work done have been issued from time to time, and 

 now the results, which extend over something like 

 twenty-eight vears, have been gathered together in 

 the little volume before us.- The experiments illus- 

 trate the well known principles of plant nutrition, and 

 the account of them affords a brightly written resumi 

 of the elementary facts connected with manures and 

 their application to various crops. When here and 

 there we read that this or that fundamental fact has 

 been discovered or proved by the Aberdeenshire Re- 

 search Association, much as though Mr. Jamieson 

 should tell us that he has discovered water is com- 

 posed of eight parts of oxygen and one of hydrogen, 

 we can onlv admire the innocence in which Mr. 

 Jamieson has managed to preserve his mind. Not 

 for him the knowledge of good or evil that comes of 

 reading other men's work, either past or contem- 

 porary. We miss, indeed, in this volume some of 

 Mr. Jamieson's engaging speculations, as when, in 

 his 1903 report, he told us that potash " appears to be 

 the element chosen in nature to neutralise acidity, 

 and facilitate transmission within the plant, for which 

 purpose it is specially fitted by its alkalinity, solubility 

 and soft or slippery character. Soda, which closely 

 resembles it, but Is of a harder drier nature (as seen 

 in the soft Potash Soap as compared with the hard 



I " Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1903." Fifih Report. 

 Pp. 1310, and a case containing 78 maps. (Washington : U.S. Department 

 of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, 1904.) 



- " Scietice and Practice of Agriculture — Farmer's Handbook.' By 

 T. Jamieson, Director of the Aberdeenshire Agricultural Research 

 Association. Pp. 173. (Aberdeen : The Author, 10 Belmont Street, 1905.) 

 Price IS. dd. 



NO. 1866, VOL. 72] 



Soda Soap) is unable to take the place of Potash in 

 plants, as has been found by former experiments." 

 But as a result the book forms a sufficiently sound 

 and quite clearly written introduction to agricultural 

 chemistry, which, like a visit to Mr. Jamieson's 

 orderlv demonstration plots at Glasterberry, may well 

 be useful to set farmers thinking about the way their 

 crops grow. 



NOTES. 

 The address on " Imperial Defence " delivered by Lord 

 Roberts at a special meeting of the London Chamber of 

 Commerce on Tuesday was a clear statement of the un- 

 satisfactory condition of the armed forces of this country, 

 in comparison with those of other great military Powers. 

 Lord Roberts believes that we could not hope to be 

 successful against an enemy of anything like equal 

 strength, trained and organised as are tht- armies of lead- 

 ing nations. It appears, therefore, that we are as un- 

 prepared for war as Sir Norman Lockyer showed we are 

 for the industrial competition of the future, in his presi- 

 dential address to the British .Association ; and as to the 

 way to remedy our deficiencies Lord Roberts's address — 

 mutatis mutandis — supports the views expressed on that 

 occasion. Higher education and scientific study must be 

 applied to the arts of war as well as to those of peace if 

 our country is to occupy a position in the first rank of 

 progressive nations. Less attention must be paid to such 

 trivial matters as the shapes of headdresses or the cuts of 

 jackets, and more must be given to education and scientific 

 training from early youth. In the war in the Far East, 

 the Japanese have been successful because of their superior 

 intelligence and scientific spirit. Let our statesmen learn 

 from this that intellectual efficiency is now a truer safe- 

 guard of a nation than physical strength. 



The Government Eclipse Expedition organised by the 

 Solar Physics Observatory will leave for Gibraltar on 

 Friday. The expedition, in charge of Sir Norman Lockyer, 

 K.C.B., will tranship there to H.M.S. Venus, which will 

 proceed to Palma, where, by permission of the Spanish 

 Government, the instruments will be erected. Mr. Howard 

 Payn, one of the volunteer observers, is already there super- 

 intending the location of piers for the instruments. It 

 was originally intended to observe at Philippeville, as Bona 

 is occupied by two American parties, but the French 

 Government would not give the necessary authi risation. 



The official party of the British .Association, consisting 

 of the president-elect and general and srctional officers, as 

 well as other leading representatives of science, left 

 Southampton on Saturday last by the mail steamer Saxon 

 to attend the meeting of the association in South Africa. 



Dr. a. C. Houston has been appointed director of 

 water examinations under the Metropolitan Water Board. 



The death is announced, at the age of forty-six years, 

 of Mr. H. Lamb, of Maidstone, author of " The Flora of 

 Maidstone." 



A Reuter telegram from Halifax, Nova Scotia, states 

 that the .Arctic exploration steamer, the Roosevelt, sailed 

 from Sydney, Nova Scotia, on July 26. Commander Peary 

 said he hopes to succeed in reaching the Pole, if not early 

 in 1906, then the next year. He proposes to start on his 

 final dash for the Pole from the eighty-fourth parallel. 



According to the British Medical jouniaJ, a new society 

 has been started in Paris for the scientific study of tuber- 



