AucusT 22, 1912| 
NATURE 
651 
plots and also the changes in the nitrogen content 
of the soil at different dates. 
There are two possible recuperative actions to make 
up for the crops removed—the Azotobacter working 
upon the carbonaceous matter returned in the turnip 
crop, and the growth of the clover, for that crop, as 
we know, gathers nitrogen from the atmosphere by 
means of the organisms living in the nodules upon 
its roots. When neither clover is grown nor are the 
roots put back the soil is slowly losing nitrogen; when 
either occurs singly a fair production is maintained 
without loss of soil nitrogen; when both take place 
during the rotation the average removals from the 
soil become as high as thirty-five bushels per acre of 
wheat, thirty-four of barley, and more than two tons 
of clover hay, yet the soil is, if anything, gaining 
rather than losing in fertility, though no extraneous 
nitrogen is being introduced. 
Thus we see that we can maintain indefinitely a 
production of more than four quarters per acre of 
wheat, and their equivalent in other crops, by natural 
agencies alone without recourse to external supplies 
of nitrogen, provided we repair the small annual 
losses of phosphoric acid and potash, which, of course, 
cannot be regenerated from the atmosphere. But 
such a level of production, though equal to the average 
of the British Isles, is below that which a modern 
intensive farmer must attain, and the lesson that 
we have to bear in mind is that at a higher level, 
say that of five quarters of wheat, the wasteful actions 
of which we have spoken are increased out of all 
proportion. Hence we have to add as manurial 
nitrogen not merely the difference between that con- 
tained in the extra quarter of wheat, but four to 
five times that amount to repair the waste, and so 
on to an even greater extent if we still further raise 
the fertility and the production. 
The essential wastefulness of highly intensive agri- 
culture such as must be forced upon the race as the 
new countries fill up is a serious question, but the 
prospect of reducing the waste is not entirely hope- 
less. The losses, as we have seen, are due to bacteria, 
which attack the nitrogen compounds with liberation 
of nitrogen gas, the particular bacteria doing this 
being most active in soils rich in organic matter, until 
at Rothamsted we only recover in the wheat crop 
about one-quarter of the nitrogen applied in the heavy 
dressing of farmyard manure. The problem before 
us is to bring the soil bacteria under control, and 
we already begin to see in various ways that such 
control is not impossible. For example, the researches 
of Drs. Russell and Hutchinson at Rothamsted have 
already proved that in one simple way we can so 
rearrange the microfauna and flora of the soil as to 
obtain a much higher duty from the reserves of 
nitrogen therein contained. 
It is too long a story to enter upon now. I can 
only briefly say that by putting the soil through 
various processes of partial sterilisation, such as heat- 
ing or treatment with antiseptics, like chloroform or 
toluene, we can eliminate certain organisms which 
keep in check the useful bacteria in the soil—i.e. the 
bacteria which break down the nitrogen compounds 
to the state of ammonia, a form assimilable by plants. 
Heating the soil to the temperature of boiling water 
for two hours will double its productivity, and such a 
process has been found to be commercially profitable 
in the case of greenhouse soils. The market growers 
of cucumbers and tomatoes make up an exceptionally 
rich soil of virgin loam and stable manure, but in a 
few years such soil, while still enormously rich on 
analysis, becomes incapable of growing a_ profitable 
crop. The partial sterilisation processes of which I 
have been speaking restore and even enhance its 
NO. 2234, VoL. 89] 
fertility by eliminating the injurious organisms, and 
we learn from the detailed results that after such 
treatment a much larger percentage of the soil- 
nitrogen is recoverable in the crop than normally 
prevails in untreated soil. At present the processes 
have not been extended to the open field, but progress 
is being made in that direction, and gives some promise 
of a method by which ultimately the unseen fauna 
and flora of the soil will be domesticated, the useful 
races encouraged, and the noxious repressed, just as 
the larger flora and fauna have been reduced to our 
service since the days when primitive man first turned 
from hunting to agriculture. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
A seguest of the late Mr. J. E. Taylor of 20,0001. 
to the Victoria University, Manchester, has now 
become payable by the recent death of his widow. 
Ir is announced in The Morning Post thatthe 
foundation stone of the Agricultural College for Devon- 
shire will be laid in October, probably by Mr. 
Runciman, President of the Board of Agriculture. 
The college is being provided as the result of a 
bequest by the late Mr. Charles Seale Hayne, M.P. 
for Mid Devon, who left nearly 100,000l. for the pur- 
pose. Of this 20,000l. will be spent on the buildings, 
and the balance will form a fund for administrative 
purposes. The site is the Howton estate, covering 
more than two hundred acres, near Newton Abbot. 
Tue Extension Section of the Manchester Micro- 
scopical Society will continue its useful activities 
during the coming session. We have received from 
the honorary secretary, Mr. R. Howarth, 90 George 
Street, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, the list of avail- 
able lectures, for which the section is willing to make 
arrangements in and about Manchester. There are 
sixty-eight subjects to choose from, and nearly all 
the lectures are illustrated by means of the lantern. 
It will be remembered that the work of lecturing and 
demonstrating is entirely voluntary and gratuitous on 
the part of the members. The purpose of the section 
is to bring scientific knowledge, in a popular form, 
before societies unable to pay large fees to profes- 
sional lecturers. The cost of these lectures as a rule 
is limited to the out-of-pocket expenses of the lec- 
turers, which in most cases do not exceed a few 
shillings. Secretaries of societies desirous of includ- 
ing nature-study lectures in their programmes should 
communicate with Mr. Howarth. 
On July 4 last, Mr. James Bryce, British Ambas- 
sador at Washington, visited the University of Sydney, 
where he was presented with an address, which was 
read by the Chancellor, Sir Normand MacLaurin. In 
replying, Mr. Bryce delivered an eloquent address, 
which was printed in The Sydney Morning Herald. 
Dealing with questions which are at present engaging 
the attention of university authorities throughout the 
Empire, Mr. Bryce remarked :—‘‘ How are the claims 
| of theoretical science and applied science to be recon- 
ciled? How are the claims of languages, and 
geology, history, philosophy, and economics to be 
reconciled with the claims of physical science, and 
particularly the claims of applied science? At this 
moment science seems to have had all its own way. 
The development of scientific discovery has been such 
—so great and numerous have the applications of 
science to industry and commerce been, so far-reach- 
ing and potent in their results—that we have come to 
think of science as if it were the main object of human 
knowledge, and ought to take that primary place in 
