August 30, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



269 



biology are sciences that also supply funda- 

 mentals, but all must agree that of these 

 three, chemistry takes the first place, 

 furnishing, as it does, the very foundation 

 and framework of modern agriculture. It 

 seems to be the science which above all 

 others we fall back upon for an explana- 

 tion of all agricultural operations, whether 

 performed by nature or by man. We have 

 not tried to make our farmers chemists, but 

 in the presentation of chemical informa- 

 tion relating to farm work (put as far as 

 possible into language understandable to 

 the layman) we have endeavored to make it 

 clear that profitable agriculture to-day 

 means putting into practise the teachings 

 of the laboratory and the experimental 

 plot; and I am happy to say that in this 

 our labors have not altogether been in 

 vain. Looking over the country as a whole 

 and comparing the sentiment of our farm- 

 ing community of twenty years ago with 

 that of to-day, I am well satisfied that good 

 progress has been made in establishing a 

 confidence in, and in awakening an appre- 

 ciative attitude towards, scientific research 

 and teaching. 



Since among the factors that conduce to 

 profitable farming, a productive soil is per- 

 haps the one of greatest importance, it was 

 only natural that from the outset we should 

 have made the matter of the economic 

 maintenance and increase of soil fertility 

 our special study. As I have already told 

 you, we have in certain parts of the older 

 districts of the Dominion soils which have 

 been partially exhausted by irrational and 

 wasteful methods ; and again, as you know, 

 we have vast areas in the west, as yet prac- 

 tically untouched, of virgin soil of the finest 

 quality, capable of producing magnificent 

 crops. For the former we have en- 

 deavored to devise practical methods that 

 would restore fertility— and this in a large 

 measure without recourse to commercial 



fertilizers; for the latter we are trying to 

 construct a plan or system of farming that 

 would materially lessen the deterioration 

 consequent upon exclusive grain farming. 

 In the course of this work during the 

 past twenty years we have examined chem- 

 ically several hundreds of surface soils 

 representative of cultivated and virgin 

 areas, and collected in every province of 

 the Dominion. Many of these have been 

 submitted to what we might term complete 

 soil analysis, including the determination 

 of available plant food by the Dyer 

 method. Physical determinations, in a 

 large number of instances, have been ob- 

 tained to supplement the chemical data. 

 With these results at hand and with con- 

 clusions we have been able to draw during 

 this period from personal observation and 

 inspection of soils in various parts of 

 Canada, it might naturally be expected 

 that we should be in a position to make 

 some pronouncement regarding funda- 

 mental differences that might exist between 

 fertile virgin soils and unproductive, worn 

 soils, respecting the factors that go to make 

 up what we might term fertility, and their 

 relative importance. With regard to these 

 factors, we may say that our work, in ac- 

 cordance with that of many others, has 

 shown that, apart from climatic conditions 

 (temperatures, rainfall, sunshine, etc.) soil- 

 productiveness results from a happy as- 

 sembling of the chemical constituents of 

 plant food in more or less assimilable 

 forms, of physical properties allowing of 

 soil aeration, the retention of moisture, and 

 the providing of freedom for root exten- 

 sion, and, lastly, the presence of an abun- 

 dance of those microorganisms which, liv- 

 ing on the organic matter of the soil, pre- 

 pare the nourishment of our farm crops. 

 It is thus seen that, according to our pres- 

 ent views, the three sciences, chemistry, 

 physics and biology, must all contribute 



