480 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 



for work in this direction, which, while of interest to the plant ishysiologist, 

 may be also of general utility. 



Tlie subject of the soil offers problems to the botanist as well as to the 

 chemist and proto-zoologist. lu the plant we are dealing with a living organism, 

 not a machine ; and an adequate knowledge of the organism is essential to a 

 proper study of its nutrition and growth. The facility with which a consider- 

 able sum of money was raised just before the war to improve the equipment 

 at Rothamsted, where work was being done on these lines, indicates that 

 practical men are ready to come forward with financial help if work which 

 promises to yield results of economic importance is being seriously carried out. 

 And it is significant of the attitude of botanists to such problems that there is 

 only one trained botanist on the staff of this institution. 



The study of manures and their effect on the plant should attract the botanist 

 as well as the chemist. In this connection I may refer to Mr. Martin Sutton's 

 recent work at Reading on the effects of radio-active ores and residues on plant- 

 life. A series of experiments was carried out in two successive years with 

 various subjects selected for the different character of their produce, and in- 

 cluding roots, tubers, bulbs, foliage, and fruit. From the immediate point of 

 view of agriculture and horticulture the results were negative ; the experiments 

 gave no hope of the successful employment of radium as an aid to either the 

 farmer or gardener. Speaking generally, the prcK;luce from a given area was less 

 when the soil had been treated with pure radium bromide, or various proprietary 

 radio-active fertilisers, than when treated with farmyard manure or a complete 

 fertiliser, while the cost of dressing was very much greater. To quote JNlr. 

 Sutton's concluding words, ' The door is still open to the investigator in search 

 of a plant fertiliser which will prove superior to farmyard dung or the many 

 excellent artificial preparations now available.' But though the immediate I'esult 

 was unsatisfactory to the grower, there were several points of interest which 

 would have appealed to the botanist who was watching the course of the 

 experiments, and which, if followed up, might throw light on the effect of 

 radium on plant-life and lead in the end to some useful result. As Mr. Sutton 

 points out, many of the results were ' contradictory,' while a close examinatioi^ 

 of the trial notes, together with the records of weights, will furnish highly 

 interesting problems. For instance, there was evidence in some cases that 

 germination was accelerated by presence of radium, though subsequent growth 

 was retarded ; and the fact that in several of the experiments plants dressed 

 with a complete fertiliser in addition to radium have not done so well as 

 those dressed with the fertiliser only may be regarded as corroborating 

 M. Truffaut's suggestion that radium might possess the power of releasing addi- 

 tional nitrogen in the soil for the use of plants, and that the plants in question 

 were suffering from an excess of nitrogen. Certain remarkable variations between 

 the duplicate unmanured control plots in several of the experiments led to the 

 suggestion that radium emanations may have some effect, apparently a beneficial 

 one. I have quoted these experiments as an example of a case where the co- 

 operation of the botanist and the practical man might lead to useful results, and 

 at the same time afford work of much interest to the botanist. 



As an introduction to such work, University Professors might encourage their 

 advanced students to spend their long vacation in a large nursery or botanic 

 garden where experimental work is done. 



As regards the worker in agriculture and horticulture, how can the botanist 

 help ? Apart from well-staffed and well-equipped schools of agriculture and 

 horticulture, which require the botanist's assistance, a wider dissemination of 

 the botanist would be advantageous. Properly trained botanists distributed 

 through the country with their eyes open might be a valuable asset in the 

 improvement of production ; botanist and cultivator might be mutually helpful ; 

 the former would meet problems at first hand, and the latter should be en- 

 couraged by the co-operation. A kind of first-aid class suggests itself, run by 

 a teacher with a good elementary knowledge of botany, upon which has been 

 erected a general knowledge of horticultural operations. This would afford a 

 vocation for students of scientific bent who cannot spare the time for a long 

 University course. Some of us may remember the courses arranged by various 

 County Councils thirty years or so ago, financed by the whisky money, out of 



