405 



Scientific Agriculture. 



Mr. Jamieson dismisses the elementary fact that bacteria are present in 

 Leguminosae by simply saying " bacteria were never proved to be present ! " He 

 stains a hair on the surface of a plant with iodine ; it gives the ordinary reaction of 

 protoplasm and turns yellow, and this is his proof that nitrogen is absorbed ; he 

 attempts no chemical analyses nor anything conclusive. 



Strange though it may seem to the general public, it is the case that all the 

 nitrogen in the woods of fir and pine is absorbed from the soil ; not the slightest 

 vestige of proof has been or can be brought forward to the contrary. 



J. C. WILLIS. 



AGRICULTURE AND THE EMPIRE. 



Perhaps the opinions of our Ceylon experts on the subject of manuring 

 may be profitably supplemented by the opinions of the technical adviser in 

 Botany to the Agriculture and Fisheries Board, Sir W. T. Thistleton-Dyer, 

 as expressed in an article in the current number of Nature — current so far as 

 postal facilities permit of at this distance from home. 



The modest confession of ignorance (characteristic of all our greatest men of 

 science) expressed by Sir John Lawes, is some comfort to those of us who are still 

 groping in the dark, and Professor Frankland's opinion will be interesting to 

 those who have applied nitrate of potash on steep estate lands. 



The description of lands, brought down to a condition of nitrogenous equili- 

 brium, suggests a phase of the subject which has not apparently received much 

 attention in the island. One writes with considerable diffidence on a difficult 

 subject, but the meaning appears to be that lands reduced to such a condition can 

 only return annually in their crops the seven pounds of nitrogen or so per acre 

 which they gain from the atmosphere as ammonia and nitric acid. This is the 

 Rothamsted figure. Tropical rain is, of course, heavier, but is it equally rich in 

 nitrogen? Have any experiments been made in countries subject to frequent 

 thunderstorms ? The Notodden experimenters are introducing a process, long 

 known in the laboratory of Nature. Perhaps some one better qualified to express 

 an opinion may be able to enlighten your readers further on the subject. The 

 leguminous plant theory does not appear to come under review in the article. 



The writer of the article in Nature pays a high and Avell-deserved tribute to 

 the work of our scientific men at Peradeniya. 



(Extracts from the article referred to.) 

 Agriculture is a sort of "noun of multitude." There is undoubtedly only 

 one agricultural science based on physiological principles ; there are many agri- 

 cultural " arts " based on the application of that science, whether empirical or 

 otherwise, to widely different physical conditions. The agriculture of the Lothians 

 differs widely from that of Bengal, and both [differ from that possible on the Gold 

 Coast. This will seem to many an absurdly trite remark. Nevertheless, experience 

 shows that it represents a fact which has often been overlooked, with loss and 

 disappointment as the result. 



It may, I think, be confidently stated that arable cultivation has been 

 brought in the British Isles to a pitch of perfection which is not surpassed 

 anywhere in the world. It is, however, an "intensive" and highly specialised 

 agriculture. This is readily illustrated by the yield of wheat per acre. On land 

 of prairie value, where the nitrogen removed is balanced by that received from 

 the atmosphere, it has been shown at Rothamsted that the yield is roughly 

 some 10 bushels or less. This actually represents the state of things in great wheat- 



