Mafel, 1904. 
Qardeninq World 
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This week we present a Half-tone 
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ARUNDINARIA JAPONICA. 
I The prite last week in the Headers’ 
; -mpetition was awarded to “H. W.” 
r his article on “ Vases for Pleasure 
> rounds,” page 404. Some of the best 
{ ’tides were too long. 
Soils, Germs, and Worms. 
Some time ago Dr. Persifor Frazer, profes¬ 
sor of horticultural chemistry to the Pennsyl¬ 
vania Horticultural Society, prepared and 
read an essay on this subject before the 
society. Recently be revised it, re-writing 
part of it, and it now appears in “ The 
Journal of the Franklin Institute.” Much of 
what he has to sa.y is not new to us, as he 
has derived a good deal of his information, 
from this country and from Continental 
Europe, as well as from the experiments and 
studies which ha.ve been carried out. in. the 
United States. At. the commencement lie 
reviews the explanation of what soils consist 
of, and how they are classified. Going a 
little deeper he shows that this soil is not so 
important to plant life as at one time sup¬ 
posed. It is possible to make plants grow 
without the medium of soil. He shows that 
Mistleto grows without any attachment to 
soil, and that plants, if fed with the proper 
ingredients, could also be made to grow in¬ 
dependently of contact, with the soil. 
Amongst the plants mentioned he enume¬ 
rates Hyacinths, cuttings of Roses, Trades- 
cantia, and any of the cereals which can be 
made to grow and bear seeds in glasses of 
water into which mineral elements are placed 
in small quantities, together with a, little 
ammonia.. Under ordinary conditions, soil 
is merely an anchor or holdfast for the plant, 
and a sort of sponge from which it can ex¬ 
tract. the food necessary for its sustenance. 
All this, of course, is very important to plant 
life, and even to gardeners and other culti¬ 
vators who cannot possibly grow all their 
plants and feed them •without the interven¬ 
tion of soil. 
Speaking of tubers, he says that they may 
be grown more perfectly in pure silica sand 
if perfectly nourished than they would in 
the less yielding, natural mould. This will 
be evident to those who* have grown Potato® 
in sandy soil, as well as those who grow 
Potato®, Carrots, Parsnips, and Beet for ex¬ 
hibition purposes. Some cultivators go to 
the trouble of sifting the whole of the soil 
to a certain depth, in which these tubers or 
roots for exhibition are to be grown. Others 
make deep holes in the soil at certain dis¬ 
tances apart, and fill them with prepared soil 
Ordinary soils, and we presume fertile 
ones, contain large quantities of nitrogen in 
a stored-up condition. It is interesting to 
know that the ordinary soil, according to ex¬ 
periments carried out in Scotland, contains 
more nitrogen in proportion to the mass of 
organic matter than the manure which was 
laid on for the pin-pose of enriching it. This 
nitrogen is stored up in leaf-mould, peat, and 
other forms of decayed vegetable or animal 
life. 
Turning to germs, he speaks of that con¬ 
nection between bacteria and the roots of 
plants which is known as symbiosis. This 
latter term might be described as germ life 
living in connection with higher plants to the 
mutual benefit of both. One of the most ob¬ 
vious connections of this kind is to be found 
in the little nodules or tubercles upon the 
roots of possibly every member of the Pea 
family. The bacteria living in these nodules 
derive their nourishment from the plants in 
whose roots they secrete themselves. These 
germs also serve to fix the free nitrogen of 
the atmosphere, an operation which the 
plants themselves are unable to accomplish. 
Whatever the object of the bacteria, it is 
certain that the higher plants derive a great 
advantage from the additional nitrogen thus 
brought in. The plants themselves on 
dying, or when cut down as a crop by man, 
leave the "round richer in nitrogen than it. 
was before. The ground is therefore suit¬ 
able for crops of plants which usually have 
a difficulty in obtaining a sufficiency of nitro¬ 
gen to enable them to produce what would 
be considered a. profitable crop. 
This fact establishes or explains the utility 
of a rotation of crops, a fact which has been 
recognised for many centuries past, and, 
indeed, was probably discovered in the early 
days of husbandry, even although the culti¬ 
vators were unable to explain it until science 
came to their aid quite recently. We have 
evidence that the Romans knew this fact 
since Virgil in his “ Georgies ” states that 
Lupins were grown as an alternative crop in 
order to enrich the soil for some other a.nd 
more important crop which the farmers of 
those days wished to grow. 
Dr. Frazer mentions a fact that should 
prove an additional incentive to gardeners to 
practise a rotation of crops. He shows how 
one organism often succeeds another, not 
always to the benefit, of the higher plant®. A 
continuous succession of Peas on the same 
soil gives rise to nodules containing nema¬ 
tode worms instead of bacteria, and these 
worms are transferred to the next, crop put 
upon the ground, and practically destroy two 
crops in succession, or greatly impair them 
according to the number of the nematode 
worms present, which will he left, in the soil 
