436 
Supplement to the ' Tropical AgricuUv/riHt." 
[Dec. 1 1899, 
RAINFALL TAKEN AT THE SCHOOL OF 
AGRICULTURE DUEING THE MONTH OF 
OCTOBER, 1899. 
Sunday , . 
iMl 
1 7 
Tuesday • 
1 'fi^ 
• 1 uo 
o 
Monday 
JNll 
J.O 
Wednesday 
uo 
Q 
O 
Tuesday . . 
JMl 
1 Q 
Thursday . 
■NTil 
4 
Wednesday. . . 
"Mil 
9n 
/u 
Friday • 
^•77 
• O M 
O 
Thursday ... 
i>( 11 
Saturday • 
• oo 
D 
Friday 
i\ 11 
Sunday • 
1 .(19 
rr 
/ 
Saturday ... 
"Mil 
Zo 
Monday • 
. . DO 
s 
Siindnv 
•85 
24 
Tuesday 
. •OQ 
9 
Monday 
Nil 
25 
Wednesday 
•28 
10 
Tuesday 
1-28 
26 
Thursday . 
. -06 
11 
Wednesday 
•41 
27 
Friday 
. Nil 
12 
Thursday . . 
28 
Saturday . 
. Nil 
13 
Friday 
•51 
29 
Sunday 
. •IG 
14 
Saturday , . 
•19 
30 
Monday 
. Nil 
15 
Sunday 
2^65 
31 
Tuesday 
. Nil 
16 
Monday 
•5 
Total.. .16-40 
Greatest amount of rainfall in any 24 hours 
on the 20th inst. was 3-77 inches. 
Mean rainfall for the month ^52 in. 
Recorded by Mr. J. A. G. Rodbigo. 
♦ 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
Before the present number of the Agricultural 
Magazine is out, the office of Director of Public 
Instruction for Ceylon will have changed hands, 
Mr. Harward, the present holder of the office 
giving over charge to Mr. S. M. Burrows, c.c.3. 
We cannot let this opportunity pass without 
recording our high appreciation of Mr. Harward's 
regim6 as the head of the Department of Public 
Instruction and of the liberal spirit which he 
shewed in all his relations with the School of 
Agriculture and its kindred institutions. 
The new Director comes with a reputation 
not only as an administrative officer, but also as 
nn enthusiastic educationalist. What is, however, 
of more importance to us, Mr. Burrows has been 
known to evince the greatest interest in agri- 
cultural improvement, whether as regards land 
cultivation or stock-breeding ; and for this reason 
we accord him a specially hearty welcome in his 
dual capacity of Director of Public Instruction 
and Agriculture. 
It is currently reported that the Agricultural 
Commission appointed by H.E. the Governor have 
decided to recommend that a department of 
Agriculture and Irrigation be established for 
Ceylon, and that scientific experts in the persons 
of the Director Royal Botanic Gardens, the Ento- 
mologist and Veterinary Surgeon (officers already 
holding appointments) as well as an Agricultural 
Chemist and Cryptogamist (to be appointed) are 
to be " attached" to the Agricultural Department. 
We take over from Farm and Dairy an 
interesting case of milk-prosecution, the details of 
which should be of special interest to dairymen. 
It is said that the defendant will appeal, and 
we shall be interested to know the final issue 
of the case. 
ORIGIN OF THE NITROGEN OF NON- 
LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 
It has been shown by numerous analyses that 
soils abandoned for centuries to natural vegetation 
in which grasses predominate are quite rich in 
nitrogen. There are mountain meadows in France 
which during the open season are grazed by milch 
cows, and although this involves the removal of 
a considerable amount of nitrogen, and no fertili- 
sers are used, these soils constantly increase in 
nitrogen content. While soils which are con- 
tinously cultivated frequently contain not more 
than 1| to 2 parts per thousand of combined 
nitrogen, permanent meadows contain 5, 7, 9, and 
even 10 parts per thousand. The prairies of 
Western America are also well stocked with 
nitrogen. It is interesting to trace the origin of 
this nitrogen. Although the investigations of 
Ville and Atwater and those at Rothamsted and 
Grignon had proved that free nitrogen intervenes 
in the phenomena of vegetation, the process of 
fixation of nitrogen in the soil was not under- 
stood until explained by Berthelot, who showed 
that nitrogen is fixed in the soil by bacteria. 
Winogradsky cultivated certain of these bacteria 
in sugar solution, and found that they decom- 
posed the solution, forming butyric and acetic 
acids and evolving carbon dioxide and hydrogen. 
They are therefore very similar to, if not identical 
with the organisms studied by Maquenne and De- 
herain in 1882, and which decomposed sugar as 
explained above. The latter investigators, how- 
ever, had no idea at that time that the ferments 
were able to fix the nitrogen of the air, and the 
investigation is mentioned simply to call attention 
to the fact that these ferments are very widely 
diffused, since they were found in all the soils 
studied. These organisms are all anaerobic, and 
it would seem surprising that they should grow 
in a medium so thoroughly aerated as arable soil ; 
but this has been explained by Winogradsky as 
follows : — The organisms which fix nitrogen are 
capable of action only when associated with 
certain common species of organisms which are 
capable of oxidising orgainc matter, and which 
thus surround the anaerobic forms with an at- 
r^ospbere changed with carbon dioxide and 
deprived of oxygen. Winogradsky further sug- 
gests that the hydrogen set free in the decompo- 
sition of the carbo-hydrates furnishes ammonia 
which is assimilated by the micro-organisms and 
used in the formation of tissue. It is not, there- 
fore, simply the nitrogen which has recently been 
drawn from the air which is utilised by plants. 
They assimilate also the nitrogen derived from 
vegetable and animal remains. The work of 
Pasteur has shown that the action of micro- 
organisms is necessary to the transformation of 
the complex organic substances of the tissues of 
living plants into the simple forms which may 
be assimilated by plants. Without these organisms 
life would be impossible, as Pasteur himself has 
said, because the work of death would be incom- 
plete. By their intervention the complex sub- 
stances are burned, the carbon pussing into the 
form of carbon dioxide, the hydrogen into water 
and the nitrogen into ammonia ; and in these 
different forms the matter is again carried into 
