Field Experiments on the Fixation of Free Nitrogen. 651 
away as useless. Nor is the common mode of disposal of them 
a healthy one. The fragments are generally thrown upon the 
kitchen midden or ashpit, or into a swill-tub for the use of the 
pig. The swill-tub is often kept in a corner of the kitchen, is 
rarely washed out, and forms a fruitful soil for the growth of 
various putrefactive and disease germs. The tub should be 
kept in the open air, away from the house, and should be well 
washed from time to time. A galvanised iron pail is easier to 
keep clean than a wooden bucket. 
Conclusion. 
It may be pointed out with reference to almost all the fore- 
going sanitary defects, that they not only tell against the health 
of the individual, but are violations of the law of the land. 
The remedies can be enforced by the Sanitary Authorities. But 
at a time like the present the arm of the law is not long enough, 
nor are its processes speedy enough, for our purpose ; and it is 
necessary that every one should help if a good result is to be 
attained in the short time at our disposal. 
Hector McLean Wilson. 
FIELD EXPERIMENTS ON 
THE FIXATION OF FREE NITROGEN. 
The four plots, the experiments upon which are the subject of 
this paper, belong to a series of plots that were marked off' upon 
my land at Eynsham Hall, near Witney, Oxfordshire, in the 
year 1887, for the purpose of agricultural experiment. The 
plan formulated was not of a very definite character, except in 
one particular, which was that I had resolved to make a varied 
use of the then new phosphatic manure, Basic Slag ; as far as 
phosphoric acid was concerned, basic slag was to be the only 
form in which it was to be used on the plots. In the year 
1886 I had used it in large dressings on farm land, and with 
notable success. A great deal of the work which I proposed to 
do, and have since done, was for my own particular instruction 
on several points bearing on the rotation of crops, on tillages, 
on close and wide drilling, on thick and thin seeding, on the 
action of subsoils when mixed with surface soils, and other 
allied problems. I may add that the experiments have fully 
answered my purpose. 
