Sept. 1, 1894.] Supplement to the " 
Ti np ica I Agriculturist.'''' 
207 
This method is certainly the more acceptable 
of the two mentioned in the bulletin under notice. 
While the surroundings of the cattle will be 
preserved in a sanitary condition, excellent and 
well-rotted manure (for both systems aim at 
bringing the manure into this state) will lie 
obtained. We are afraid that the first system, 
if sanctioned, will merely mean a licence to the 
average native cattle owner to attain to the 
supreme degree of felicity which will be his if 
he be permitted to be at rest while filth accu- 
mulates around him and his animals. 
RAINFALL AT THE SCHOOL OF AGRICUL- 
TURE DURING JULY. 
1 . 
Nil 
13 . . 
Nil 
25 . . 
Nil 
2 . 
Nil 
14 . . 
Nil 
26 . 
Nil 
3 . 
Nil 
15 . . 
•03 
27 . . 
•27 
4 . 
Nil 
16 . . 
•Ki 
28 . . 
•01 
5 . 
Nil 
17 . . 
•73 
29 . . 
Nil 
6 . 
Nil 
18 . . 
•27 
30 . 
Nil 
7 . 
Nil 
19 . . 
•11 
31 . . 
Nil 
8 . 
•04 
20 . . 
•31 
9 . 
•1-5 
21 . . 
•03 
Total . 
239 
10 . 
•24 
22 . . 
•01 
1L . 
•01 
23 . . 
•01 
Mean . 
•077 
12 . 
Nil 
24 . . 
■01 
Greatest amount of rainfall in any 24 hours on 
the 17th - 73 inches. 
Recorded by P. Van De Bona. 

THIS FIXATION OF NITROGEN. 
Dr. Andrew Wilson contributes to the " Science 
Jottings" column in the Illustrated- London News 
an interesting article on the fixation of nitrogen 
by the vegetable world. Where and how i:i the 
plant is this free breakfast table utilized ? Where 
and how is the free nitrogen actually fixed and 
made useful for the purposes of the plant's life? 
Professor Marshall Ward tells us that the view 
that it was the leaves of the plants which ab- 
sorbed it, and that the living protoplasm of the 
leaf cells was the agent which effected the oper- 
ation, will not bear criticism. Then comes a 
second possibility. The bacteria, it was held, 
lived naturally on the soil, as many microbes do. 
They acted the part of underground cooks and 
caterers, and produced in the soil itself the nitro- 
genous food elements, who were duly absorbed 
by the plant's own roots. Even the bacteria in 
the root swellings, it was contended, might per- 
form this work, which really enriched the soil, of 
course, and through it gave to the plant its nitro- 
gen. This view of thingsremains for further eluci- 
dation. It may, therefore, be left for the present. 
The third possibility maintains that the fixation 
and utilization of the air-nitrogen could be con- 
ceived to result from the action of the plantper se. 
regarded as stimulated to an excessive degree of 
energy by the bacterial swellings on its roots. 
Here the matter is viewed as if tin? bacteria on 
the roots acted the part of instigators of an action 
which, but for their encouragement and assistance, 
the leguminous plant would not be abb' to under- 
take. It is clear that the 'difficulties of the pro- 
blem increase when this view is considered. With- 
out the bacteria the plants can not avail them- 
selves of the live nitrogen. What, then, is the 
gltact relation ot the microbes to the plant's work f 
Professor Marshall Ward, who inclines to this 
view of things, reminds us that there is an inti- 
mate connection between the root swellings and 
the roots themselves. These swellings are the 
seats of great activity. They are really chemical 
laboratories wherein business is always very brisk; 
so that it may well be that the living machinery 
of the plant is really stimulated in a direct degree 
by the efforts of the microbes on the roots, and that 
the plant is supplied from the root swellings with 
materials on which its own living cells can abun- 
dantly operate. My remarks that the plant gets 
its food materials cooked for it in this way, by 
the microbes, serves to explain the gist of this 
third view. It may be able to assimilate cooked 
food when it could not fix that which is raw. 
Then comes the fourth and last suggestion. 
It is that the root swellings are merely so many 
accumulators of the nitrogen food, and that the 
plant simply absorbs what its microbe lodgers and 
boarders have prepared. This opinion regards the 
microbes as mere parasites, and unless the bacteria 
are capable of absorbing the free nitrogen from the 
air itself, as Prof. Marshall Ward observes, it is 
difficult to account for the gains by the plant on 
this theory. This, then, is the end of this story 
of plant feeding. That its real outcome — -when- 
ever shall be settled — is of immense importance to 
agriculture cannot be doubted. Once again we 
see how the so-called " unpractical " work of 
science in its laboratory and with its microscope, 
has bearings of the most intimate kind on com- 
mercial prosperity and human interests.— Sugar 
Jour ml. 
TOMATO DISEASES. 
Growers of tomatoes, especially in the low- 
country, must often have experienced much diffi- 
culty iu raising the plants owing to disease affect- 
ing them ; and to most growers the attack known 
as " drooping disease'' must be the most familiar t 
It is particularly disheartening to see healthy 
plants all of a sudden begin to show signs of 
withering— often only iu certain regions at first— 
and finally dying out altogether. This and other 
diseases of the tomato-plant have been the subject 
of enquiry iu the pages of the Journal of Horti- 
culture, and the information elicited through the 
agency of that excellent periodical is of a most 
useful character, and will we are sure be wel- 
comed by our readers. As regards " drooping 
disease," which is so familiar, we first give the 
opinions of two correspondents who write as 
follows on the subject :— 
"Your readers may, some of them, be glad to 
know that a prompt earthing-up round the stem 
of a drooping plant will usually save it. I use 
light soil and a few loose bricks or boards. Plants 
treated thus promptly will often equal in crop the 
best in a house. For black spot iu the fruit I 
find the best thing is to sprinkle sulphur on very 
hot lime whilst slaking in a bucket, then walk up 
and down the house, shaking the bucket violently, 
and the sulphur and fresh lime will fly all over 
the house. This makes the fruit a little dusty, 
but that is better than losing it. Cladosporium 
also does not seem to make headway where the 
lime and sulphur bucket is used. 1 attribute a 
comparative freedom from both clubbing and 
drooping in my Tomatoes to tuj use of clieuiic4 
