536 



NA TURE 



[October 28, 1909 



adjacent pieces of ground with varying amounts of organic 

 matter, and therefore of moisture, the nitrogen was found 

 to decrease with increasing water content. Thus a strong 

 wheat containing 125 per cent, of nitrogen yielded on 

 newly broken prairie land a grain containing only 9-9 per 

 cent, of nitrogen, but on adjacent older and drier land 

 the grain contained 124 per cent, of nitrogen. Mr. 

 Shutt's view is that the character of the gluten is a 

 matter of heredity, whilst its amount depends on environ- 

 ment. 



Two papers then followed on the strength of wheat, 

 one, by .Mr. A. E. Humphries, in which strength was 

 described from the miller's point of view, and one by 

 Dr. E. F. Armstrong, in which the present position of the 

 chemistry of wheat strength was set out. Good quality is 

 the sum of e.xcellence in several directions. The capacity 

 for making large, shapely, and therefore well-aerated 

 loaves ; the facility with which large masses of dough can 

 be handled in the bakehouse; the percentage of water re- 

 quired to make a dough of standard consistency, are all 

 taken into account by the miller in valuing his flour. 

 This paper of Mr. Humphries is of great value to the 

 chemist in that it sets forth with clearness the problem 

 that has to be solved ; correlations are now wanted between 

 the chemical composition of the flour and these various 

 characters. Dr. .\rmstrong, in a critical review which 

 was much appreciated, showed what had been done up to 

 the present in tracing such connections, and set forth 

 the methods by which it is oossible in particular cases to 

 judge the value of flour. \o one chemical characteristic 

 is suflicient ; account must be taken of various factors, 

 such as the percentage of nitrogen, the size of the starch 

 grains, and others. Prof. Harcourt then described experi- 

 ments he had conducted on the baking qualities of certain 

 flours from the western provinces. When Alberta red 

 flour was mixed with soft Ontario winter wheat, a dis- 

 tinctly better result was obtained than when either flour 

 was baked alone. The value of these flours for blending 

 purposes was thus demonstrated. Mr. \V. B. Hardy then 

 described the experiments he had made with Prof. 'Wood 

 to emphasise the importance of mineral constituents of the 

 flour on the plasticity of the gluten. 



Dr. C. Saunders approached the subject from quite a 

 difi'erent point of view, and described his experiments in 

 breeding wheats. It is fortunately recognised in Canada 

 that wheat may have to be bred to suit focal requirements, 

 and indeed has to be bred if the area of the crop is to be 

 pushed northwards. Early ripening is essential in districts 

 where the harvest may be spoiled bv frost, and early 

 ripening varieties are being produced bv Dr. .Saunders at 

 Ottaw-a. A note on selection was then read by Prof. 

 L. S. Klinck, of the Macdonald College. Finally, Prof. 

 Zavitz discussed the influence of good seed as a factor in 

 wheat production, and described also the work done at 

 Guelph on selection and breeding. Altogether, the wheat 

 papers formed a valu.-ible summary of our knowledge of 

 the various phases of the wheat' problem, and general 

 satisfaction was felt at the decision to print them in 

 exienso and to issue them in the form of a pamphlet. 



Another session was devoted to the discussion of forestry 

 problems. Prof. Somerville opened by a paper on the out- 

 lookfor timber supplies, pointing out' that the consumption 

 of timber is rising faster than" the supplv, the growing 

 scarcity of timber being clearly reflected in its rising prices". 

 Dunng the past twentv-two years, nine out of thirty-two 

 varieties examined had risen more than 100 per cent, in 

 price, and^ only two had risen less than 25 per cent. It 

 IS to the interest of every country to take energetic steps 

 to prevent waste of timber and" to plant up such lands 

 as are not otherwise wanted. The Canadian chief forester, 

 Mr. R. H. Campbell, followed with a paper from which 

 It appeared that perhaps Canada is not vet fully alive to 

 the importance of the problem. The area of forest land 

 IS probably not more than .soo-600 million acres, only 

 half of which appears to be of actual value. Suggestions 

 were made for conserving the supplv, and various adminis- 

 trative, educational, and legislative reforms were urged. 

 The entomological problem was next discussed bv Messrs. 

 Lockhead and Swaine, of the Macdonald Agricultural 

 College, who showed that much remains to be done by 



NO. 20S7, VOL. Si] 



way of survey to ascertain the damage caused by forest 

 insects. ... 



A morning was devoted to live-stock problems. Mr. 

 P. A. Morkeberg, the Danish -Slate expert on the breed- 

 ing of dairy cattle, described the remarkable cooperative 

 system obtaining in Denmark and its. effect in increasing 

 both the output and also the value, of the output from the 

 farms. Mr. .\l0rkeberg came over as the foreign representa- 

 tive of the subsection, and his paper was of great value by 

 reason of its suggestiveness to the Canadian authorities 

 who were present, and who are faced by a not dissimilar 

 problem. Mr. Rutherford, the veterinary inspector at 

 Ottawa, sketched out the general character of the western 

 cattle trade, and Prof. Somerville described his experi- 

 ments at Cockle Park, in which a clay pasture has been 

 improved by basic slag. Prof. Wilson, of Dublin, gave 

 the results of his investigations into the history of the 

 .Aberdeen-.Angus breed of cattle. The idea underlying the 

 method is that an invading race would bring their cattle 

 with them ; thus the original cattle were black ; the 

 Romans brought white cattle; the .\nglo-Saxons brought 

 red ; the Norsemen brought a hornless race ; while p 

 large flecked race was imported from Holland in the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Prof. Wilson 

 examines the history of each district, and shows how the 

 local cattle have been derived. 



The last meeting of the session was devoted to ' soil 

 problems. Mr. F. T. Shutt described the prairie soils as 

 characterised by a high percentage of organic matter, 

 intimately mingled with clay and sand. The percentage of 

 organic 'matter is of the greatest importance in determining 

 their fertility, because it so often happens that water is 

 the factor limiting their productiveness. It is hoped that 

 this paper, which summarises a considerable amount of 

 work on the subject, may soon be available for the agri- 

 cultural chemist. Prof. Alway followed by studies on 

 semi-arid and arid soils, where the problem is quite 

 different in type from that on humid soils. It was found, 

 for instance, that a crop of clover did not increase the 

 succeeding wheat crop, because the clover had taken too 

 much water from the soil. A mere determination of soil 

 moisture is not sufficient to give useful data ; the hygro- 

 scopic coefficient is wanted before the result can be inter- 

 preted. Prof. King, of Wisconsin, sent an admirable 

 summary of his work on .soil moisture, which will be 

 much appreciated by English students. The phenomena 

 connected with the water relationships of soils were dealt 

 with in some detail, and a very useful warning was given 

 with regard to "dry farming." By applying certain 

 methods of cultivation that produce a firm subsoil and a 

 loose surface soil it is possible to economise the ' water 

 supply, and therefore to raise crops in arid or semi-arid 

 regions normally almost desert land ; but Prof. King points 

 out that the rainfall goes more or less in cycles, and that 

 the favourable results so often quoted have in svime cases, 

 at least, been obtained in seasons when there was quite a 

 considerable amount of rain. Whilst fully admitting the 

 close relationship between cultivation and soil moisture, of 

 which, indeed, his own work forms the best illustration 

 we have, he laid stress on the fact that the large-scale 

 methods are in no sense fully developed. 



The last paper, by Messrs. A. D. Hall and E. J. Russell, 

 dealt with the general problem of the conservation of soil 

 fertility, especially with regard to the nitrogen of the soil. 

 .\t least five factors affect the amount of nitrogen present. 

 Two tend to increase it, viz. (a) bacteria fixing atmospheric 

 nitrogen, and (b) the combined nitrogen brought down by 

 the rain ; and three to decrease it, viz. (c) drainage water, 

 (d) bacterial action in decomposing organic matter, with 

 liberation of free nitrogen, and (e) the growth of plants 

 with its concomitant assimilation of nitrogen compounds. 

 Three sets of cases were discussed. It was shown that 

 the nitrogen content of land under arable cultivation de- 

 clines when the produce is entirely removed and no organic 

 matter is added as manure. When land rich in organic 

 compounds is subjected to arable cultivation the destructive 

 agents become very active, and the land loses nitrogen 

 rapidly. On the other hand, when land is carrying natural 

 vegetation which is not removed, there is a gain of 

 nitrogen. 



