Nov. I, 1893,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
303 
dock oranges, sapodillas, avocado pears, star apples, 
&c., &c., are making fine trees, from which I hope 
in a short time to obtain fruits, A Loquat tree 
planted before my arrival has fruited during the 
present season, and some of the citrons and oranges 
are showing signs of blossom. 
40. Beefwood (CasiKiiiiia ugaisetifolia). — A large 
number of these plants are nov,- raised at Aburi. 
This tree is stated to possess 'every property that 
.is usually attributed to the Eucalypti family, and 
the e.\tensive planting of it would undoubtedly be 
most beneficial to the colony. 
The following plants have been sold from the Bot- 
anical Station, viz. ; — 
£ 
5. 
d. 
Coffee, 12,000 at Id. each . . 
.. 50 
0 
0 
Coffee, 110 at Ud. „ 
. . 0 
13 
9 
Oranges, 32 at lid. ., 
. . 0 
4 
0 
Lemons, 3 at 'dd. ,. 
.. 0 
0 
9 
Cocoa, 40 at 3d. „ 
. . 0 
10 
0 
.£,51 
8 
6 
42. Cacao plants were also exchanged for 300 
plants of Arabian coffee, and several plants have 
also been distributed free. 
43. The following plants and seeds have been 
received during the half year. [Here follows lists, 
not reproduced, of 40 plants and nine lots of seeds 
received from the Botanical Gardens, Trinidad ; of 
vine cuttings and numerous seeds received from the 
Royal Gardens, Kew ; and seeds received from his 
Excellency the Governor. J 
40. Vegetables.— The growing of European vege- 
tables has not been so successful during the present 
season as it was la<t year. 'I he weather has not 
been suitable, and furtlier I find that the seeds 
obtained this year were not so good as formerly, 
many of them not germinating at all. Potatoes, 
peas, and French beans have grown the best. 
Potatoes grown from sets obtained from j\Ies.srs. 
Sutton cfe Sons, Reading, did very well indeed. 
The varieties grown were Magnum Bonum, Beauty 
of Hebron and Sutton's Abundance. The latter 
variety produced the finest crop of potatoes. 
Many new vegetables are being tried, as for 
instance, Globe artichokes. Asparagus, Seakale, &c., 
itc, and so far they are growing satisfactorily. 
I have, &c. 
(Signed) W. Crowtiieb. Cum for. 
Tlie Hon. the Colonial Secretary. Victoriaborg. 
— Ken- BuUcliii. 
♦ 
LIFK IN THE SOIL. 
We now know three things at least about the soil 
we cultivate, viz., that it is of mineral origiu, formed 
primarily of rock-dust, and so inorganic. Then it 
has added to it from time to time the organic matter 
afforde 1 by the decomposition of plants and animals, 
such as dead and decaying vegetation, and the various 
animal manures. But thirdly, and in this case lastly, 
there is actually life in the soil, microscopic it is 
true, but vegetable life, active and potential, as all life 
is anywhere and everywhere, for where there is life 
there is no absolute rest, something is ever and 
always being done. In a word, vegetable life as we 
k ow it to-.'ay is ever and always pjtential, and it is 
always operating on and altering the chemistry ofother 
inatier around it either living or dead, liui much 
is especially true of the living vegetable organisms 
which are found more or less abundantly in all soils. 
- These soil-organisms are really minute members of 
the fungus faojily, very low organisms it may be 
from a biological standpoint, even although it is part 
of a biolngist's faith to call nothing, however low or 
minute, in the scale of life, " conmion or unclean;" 
aud so even the low fungoid forms of life, now so 
lamiliar under the general name of bacteria, deserve 
the gardener's attention, seeing that they work for 
hini unceasingly, even if, like the work of the good 
fairies of old, tlieir operations be unseen. 
Bacteria are then simply extremely minute re- 
presentatives of tlio Musliroom and Toadstool family 
of plants, full of energetic potentialitii-s for evil or lor 
Kood, as the case may be, just as the higher fungi 
may either feed us or poison us, according to natural 
laws, not as yet well " understande i of the people." 
Someone once said to an American humorist, I 
think it was Mark Twain, " Yes ! you see the bota- 
nists are very clever people, but they even can't say 
how we should distinguish Mushrooms from Toad- 
stools." ' Oh ! that is easy enough," said the humorist, 
" you should eat the darned things right away ; then 
if you live, it's a Mushroom, and if you die, it's 
a Toadstool !" 
This is a strong appeal in favour of actual ex-peri- 
ence, as opposed to mere theory, and as a fact we 
know and learn much more of the bacteria by experi- 
ence, i.e., by the results of their labours than we at 
present can do of the organisms themselves, and so 
the working results of soil bacteria are evident, for 
it is their office to reduce the organic matter deposi- 
ted in the soil to the elements of the rock dust, and 
of the atmospheric carbon and nitrogen whence it 
was originally derived. 
Now, bacteria generally agree, so far, with the great 
fungus family of plants, that the activity of some is 
malignant, and that of others, is benevolent and life- 
giving. Bacteria, in a work, may be bacteria, but 
they are divisable into two distinct sections or groups. 
There is, in fact, a notable difference between the 
" bad fairies — the imps of darkness, " that cause 
pathological disorders, such as anthrax, typhoid fever 
and small-pox, or hydrophobia and tetanus — and the 
" good little-people," that really act as the benevo- 
lent scavengers of Nature, and dilfuse new life, and 
health, and beauty all around them, in garden and 
field ; and to the latter group of division belong the 
soil-organisms, to which we desire to draw the especial 
attention of all interested in soil or earth-culture 
to-day. The bacteria of cultivated soils belong to the 
micrococci, rounded or egg-shaped bodies, not unlike 
frog-spawn when highly magnified, which carry on 
great chemical changes in the soil. There are presum- 
ably different species of bacteria that do this, some of 
which are spoken of as the "nitrous" and others 
as "nitric" organi-ms of the soil, and each organ- 
ism has its own special work or function to fulfil. 
The general work of both 'hese organisms is to 
carry out or lo cause what is called " nitrification " 
in the soil, a process of oxidation or decomposition 
by which organic and inorganic matter is rendered 
soluble or immediately available for growing crop'. 
You can sow or plant a crop in the soil, but that 
does not mean that soil-food is at once fit to be 
taken up in watery solutions by the rootlets of the 
crop. Planting or sowing the land is, in fact, analo- 
gous to taking a horse to the water — you can " take 
him there, but you can't make him drink. " So you 
can plant 5'onr fruit trees, or sow your vegetable 
seeds in the earth, but unless the soil organisms have 
rendered the plant-food soluble, i.e., unless it has 
become " nitrified," the plants will not, because they 
cannot, take it up and send to their leaves for fur- 
ther development, and thence to be returned or at- 
trioted to flowers, fruits, or stems, for man's service 
and delight. We have said that there are two groups 
of bacteria that act in the nitrifying process continu- 
ally going on in the soil, and from the latest evidence 
it appears that the function of the ''nitrous" organ- 
ism is to attack the ammonia in the soil, and lorin 
from it what are called nitrites, and after the ani- 
monii (nitrogen) is thus changed, the "nitric" or- 
ganism begins its work upon the nitrite, and reduces 
their composition into nitrates, i.e., nitrogen in a 
soluble state available for the rootlets of living vege- 
tation. Thus we here see a most beneficent kind 
of "symbiosis," a potent co-operation ever going on 
between the higher and the lower races in the vege- 
table world; and after this, need we wonder at the 
folk-liU'e which tells us of the " good fairies " that 
carried on the farmwork at night unseen and unheard? 
Tliat bacteria did this in all the farmhouse opera- 
tions of brewing and baking, and cheese-making, as 
well as on the farm itself, is a well-known fact to- 
day, and one with which we cannot become too fami- 
liar in the garden. 
ft mav interest some readers to know that micros- 
copic sides of the " nitrous" organism or bacterium, 
luepaved by Prof. Winogradsky, can be obtained of 
