JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. XLI. 1915. 

 Part II. 



RECENT INVESTIGATIONS ON THE PRODUCTION OF 

 PLANT FOOD IN THE SOIL.— I. 



By E. J. Russell, D.Sc. 



[Being the Thirteenth Masters Lecture, read June 8, 1915 ; 

 Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., D.Sc, in the Chair.] 



From time immemorial the soil has been recognized as the source 

 from which plants draw their sustenance, and therefore on which we 

 ourselves, in common with the animals, depend for our food. 



" It is the Earth," wrote Pliny * some 2000 years ago, " that, like 

 a kind mother, receives us at our birth and sustains us when born. 

 It is this alone, of all the elements around us, that is never found an 

 enemy to man. The body of waters deluges him with rains, oppresses 

 him with hail, and drowns him with inundations ; the air rushes in 

 storms, prepares the tempest, or lights up the volcano ; but the 

 Earth, gentle and indulgent, ever subservient to the wants of man, 

 spreads his walks with flowers and his table with plenty ; returns 

 with interest every good committed to her care ; and though she 

 produces the poison she still supplies the antidote ; though constantly 

 teased more to furnish the luxuries of man than his necessities, yet 

 even at the last she continues her kind indulgence, and when life 

 is over she piously hides his remains in her bosom." 



Most of the philosophers of ancient times, and up to the end of the 

 eighteenth century, have something interesting to say about the 

 soil, and in 1675 the famous John Evelyn delivered his " Philosophical 

 Discourse of Earth " to the Royal Society, wherein he summarizes 



VOL. XLI. 



* Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. 2. 



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