John Wrightson

An Italian's View of English Agricultural Education1

IN this brochure, M. Italo Giglioli, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry at Portici, has collected together a large amount of information upon agricultural education and agricultural research as carried out in the United Kingdom. A similar work upon the teaching of agriculture throughout Europe, by the same author, appeared last year. It is, however, noticeable that the volume on English agricultural education is three times the bulk of the earlier effort. M. Giglioli, as a foreigner, has considered our methods worthy of a much more detailed Report than those of the Continent. This can only be regarded as a tribute to the excellence of English agriculture. We have heard a great deal of late upon the small amount of interest taken in agricultural education in England compared with Continental countries. An Italian Professor finds material for a portly volume on our systems of agricultural education and research, while he is able to compress his information upon the German, French, and Hungarian systems into a pamphlet of comparative thinness.

The Best Forage Crops

DR. STEBLERs well-known work, “Die besten Futterpflanzen,” has found a translator into English. A French translation is also before us. so that it is now available to everyone who speaks any one of the three great languages of the civilized world. It may be de scribed as a complete account of the herbage which constitutes permanent pasturage and rotation grasses. The precise technical value of the word Futterpflanzen we do not attempt to give, although forage or fodder crop appears to be the correct English equivalent. An English agriculturist would, however, be somewhat surprised to find in a work dealing with the best forage crops no mention made of what are looked upon in this country as the best fodder crops. We are accustomed to rank such crops as vetches, rape, winter rye, trifolium, kale, and cabbage, as among the forage crops; and even swedes, mangel, carrots, and parsnips, although separately classed as root crops, would not be improperly included in the same des;gnation. By fodder crops we usually mean plants cultivated for their leafy herbage for forage, and “grass” and “hay” would come under the designation. Dr. Steblers work deals exclusively with these last sections of the class fodder crops. We therefore consider the title of this work, as rendered into English, too ambitious, as it is scarcely a “complete account” of the best-known forage plants, but an exhaustive treatise upon some of the less-known ones, most of which are included by English farmers under the term pasture or meadow grasses.The Best Forage Crops.By Drs. Stebler Schröter. Translated by A. N. McAlpine, B.Sc. Lond. (London: David Nutt, 1889.)

Rocks and Soils

CHEMIST to the Hokkaido Cho! It is not the least striking feature of our time that there should be an Imperial College of Agriculture at Sapporo whose Professors publish researches in New York and London. This is not exactly a novel experience, for events crowd upon us thick and fast in these days; but those of us who can look back forty years must be struck when confronted with the Chemist of the Hokkaido Cho. Dr. Stockbridge is not, be it understood, the alchemist to an Eastern potentate, nor yet one of the astrologers, Chaldæans, or soothsayers of a modern Belshazzar, but an agricultural chemist and geologist discoursing upon rocks and soils, nitrates and microbes, and suggesting processes by which atmospheric nitrogen is fixed in the soil by the action of living organisms. The great Mikado, “virtuous man,” has, we know, transplanted full-grown and fully-equipped knowledge from the West to his remote dominions; and so successfully, that it has rooted, and now is become an article for exportation—as witness the volume before us. To some of our readers it may appear unnecessary to dilate upon a fact which springs naturally out of the most recent developments of civilization. We need not now despair of openings for aspiring young chemists under the protection and pay of the King of Dahomey or of Ashantee, or of an Imperial Institute at Khartoum or some other part of the Dark Continent; and truly the missionaries of science are in a fair way to rival those of religion in their ubiquity.Rocks and Soils: their Origin, Composition, and Characteristics.By Horace Edward Stockbridge, Professor of Chemistry and Geology in the Imperial College of Agriculture, Sapporo, Japan; Chemist to the Hokkaido Cho. (New York: John Wiley and Sons. London: Trübner. 1888.)

The New York Agricultural Station 1

THE special report of the Director, Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, extends over the first fifty-seven of a volume of 480 pages, and within their limits are to be found the general conclusions arrived at during the past year. The remainder of the brochure consists of the detailed reports of the horticulturist, the botanist, and the chemist. After an analysis of the rainfall and temperature of 1887, which appear in general climatic conditions to have borne a great resemblance to what we ourselves experienced, the Director calls special attention to the importance of soil moisture, and surface cultivation as a means of conserving it. He shows the vast importance of checking evaporation from the surface by preserving a finely pulverized condition of the top soil. This he calls a “soil mulch,” and states that “it protects the capillary outlets from surface exposure.”

The Farmer's Guide to Manuring

THE low average yield of wheat in Australia, of some 8 bushels per acre, appears to be due in a great measure to defective cultivation. Victoria, however, enjoys a more promising soil, and in the little pamphlet before us, 15 to 18 bushels of barley are given as probable yields of this cereal on unmanured land. It has frequently been observed that the most worn out soils respond with the greatest effect to the application of fertilizers, and in agreement with this principle we find that by the use of artificial manures, the 15 bushels is converted into 50, and the 18 bushels into 47. Such results could not happen upon a well-cultivated English farm. The law of the land with reference to its condition appears to be that the higher it is in degree of fertility the greater is the difficulty of producing further increments of produce. This is really a crux in English farming. Every succeeding bushel is wrung out of the soil at a greater cost than the last, and this constitutes one of the most difficult problems in connection with high cultivation. Now, in a country like Australia, or even like many of the States of America, this difficulty does not as yet exist, and the land is able, according to Mr. Pearson, to answer with extraordinary alacrity to the application of fertilizers. This is the only way in which we can account for the statement made in the pamphlet in question, and for the fact that it is thought worthy of being published by the Government at Melbourne. Profits of 145 and of 215 per cent, from artificial dressings are somewhat startling, but we are not disposed to dispute their possibility. Such results are not entirely beyond our experience, on worn out soils, when the crop is apparently entirely due to applications of dressings. We have seen on such soils a miserable crop on the portion left unmanured and a good crop on the plots liberally treated, and this, of course, is parallel to the cases cited in Victoria.

How to Increase the Produce of the Soil 1

IN this pamphlet Prof. Wagner distinctly asserts the power of leguminous cultivated plants, such as peas, beans, vetches, lupines, and clovers, to use the free nitrogen of the air for purples of nutrition. As this conclusion is distinctly at issue with the opinions of the Rothamsted school, it revives a question of deep interest, the answer to which has varied with our knowledge from time to time. In the earlier days of agricultural chemistry the “mineral theory” of plant nutrition was in the ascendant. According to this theory the mineral, earthy, or ash constituents were taken from the soil, while the gaseous, combustible or organic portions of the plant were derived from the air. As knowledge progressed, this somewhat bold and sweeping generalization required to be modified, and the most usually received view (in this country, at least) for some time past has been that of the absorption of mineral matter and nitrates from the soil, and of carbonaceous matter from the air, and to a limited extent from the soil in the form of carbonic acid gas in solution. It has been urged that proof is entirely wanting of the alleged power of plants to take free or combined nitrogen from the atmosphere, while the intense effect of nitric nitrogen upon growing crops, when added to the soil, has amply proved that the soil is a source of nitrogen, and, according to received views, the chief or only source of nitrogen to growing crops. The results obtained by Sir John Lawes, Dr. Gilbert, and Mr. Warrington at Rothamsted, upon the cultivation of red and Bokhara clover, have been considered as proving that the source of nitrogen in these plants was not the atmosphere, but the soil and the subsoil, the plants having been found to send down their roots some fifty-four inches in depth into sections of the soil which, although out of reach of most cultivated plants, were able to yield sufficient nitrogen for the uses of these nitrogen-loving plants. Collectors of nitrogen these plants are allowed to be by all, but at Rothamsted the collection is considered to be carried on in the deeper layers of the soil, and not to extend above ground. Prof. Paul Wagner declares that cultivated plants may be properly divided into nitrogen collectors and nitrogen consumers, or as we might put it, into nitrogen savers and nitrogen wasters. In the first class are arranged the various members of the Leguminosæ already named. At a certain stage of their development these plants acquire the power of taking all their nitrogen from the air. They thus become a means of securing fertilizing matter from a free source, and are therefore profitable. In the second class are placed the cereals, grains, turnips, flax, &c.. all of which are able to take next to nothing from the store of nitrogen in the air, but which waste the nitrogen of the soil, and must take from it, in the form of nitrates, all the nitrogen they contain. In the pamphlet under notice no proof is adduced for these views, but reference is made to the detailed investigations carried out by the author. Hellriegle, and E. von Wolff. These views must be considered as reactionary and startling, and as diametrically opposed to the current of opinion in this country for some years past.

Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 1

THE most recent number of this Journal well keeps up the credit of its predecessors in spite of the grievous loss the Society sustained a year ago in the death of its talented editor, Mr. H. M. Jenkins. The contributors include the Earl of Coventry, Sir F. Bramwell, F.R.S., Drs. J. Voelcker and P. Vieth, Major Craigie, Principal W. Robertson of the Royal Veterinary College, Mr. Tames Macdonald, of Edinburgh, Messrs. Bernard Dyer, Albert Pell, Charles Whitehead, William C. Little, Charles Clay, Herbert J. Little, and others. Since these remarks were penned, we regret to hear of the sudden death of Principal Robertson, of the Royal Veterinary College.

Tobacco a Farmer's Crop

THIS is a small book of seventy pages. The first half is occupied by pleasant matter relating to the history of tobacco in Europe not strictly or seriously relevant to the title. The latter half redeems the whole from the stigma of being unpractical. An interesting account is given of the despotic regulations of the “Régie des Tabacs,” a Government Department which grants licenses for growing, manufacturing, and selling tobacco throughout France, and whose powers extend to the nomination of the cultivators, the variety of tobacco to be grown, the number of plants per hectare, and even the number of leaves permitted per plant, so that the unfortunate cultivator may and must give a perfectly accurate account of his yield down to a single leaf. The methods of cultivation followed in France are described plainly and apparently practically. The important question as to whether tobacco can be grown profitably in England is answered unhesitatingly in the affirmative, and a sensible scheme is propounded for bringing its culture into harmony with the Excise. The coldness exhibited by our Royal Agricultural Society towards the tobacco movement last April is strongly animadverted upon. As to our climate, Mr. Taylor writes as follows:—“It is stated to be too cold, too damp, too uncertain in England to allow of the introduction of the proposed culture. I cannot conceive or allow that there can exist any sensible difference between the climate of the southern counties of England and that of Picardy and Flanders. I do not take notice of Prussia and even Russia, where tobacco is grown. I believe that the general climate in Southern England is more genial than in the countries across the Channel, and I feel confident that in the said southern counties of England and in Ireland tobacco could be advantageously grown. I recall my former statement that the plant is only on the ground from June to September: cold winters, early frosts, and November fogs have naught to do with the question.” The author does not appear to take into account the comparative coolness of the summer months in England, which has always prevented the successful growth of maize, vines, and probably tobacco also. This very readable little book, with its unstudied side-lights upon French rural life, and its pleasant style, may be recommended without any hesitation to the reading public.Tobacco a Farmers Crop.By Philip Meadows Taylor. (London: Edward Stanford, 1886.)

Chemistry of Wheat, Flour, and Bread

THIS bulky volume professes to treat of its subjects in an exhaustive manner. Wheat, flour, and bread-making are as important as they are universal; and if they are common-place, their study requires deep insight into chemical science. Mr. Jagos book will form a valuable addition to economic science. The composition of wheats from all parts of the world, the minute structure of the grain, the composition of milling products, and the processes of panary fermentation, fall properly within the limits of such a work, and are dealt with in an exceedingly painstaking manner. The various methods of bread-making, the chemistry of the art, and the effects of blending different descriptions of wheat so as to secure the best possible results, are amply and ably discussed. Modern milling and baking appliances are also described carefully and illustrated graphically. There is likewise enough of the authors own thought and research to redeem the work from the stigma of being mere compilation. The book is decidedly useful, and, making due allowance for the progressive state of our knowledge upon many of the topics dealt with, it will probably be received as a standard work. It brings within its ample limits a vast amount of information which has usually, and we think appropriately, been treated of by separate authorities, The book is, in fact, a sort of encyclopædia of bread-making, and this being the case, it is open to the faults o; such works. The design or scope is too large, and the matter introduced to our notice is often too remotely relevant to the immediate wants of the reader. A definition of chemistry, a table of atomic weights, an explanation of chemical equations, atoms and molecules, are scarcely necessary in this connection. Similarly, we cannot approve of lessons upon polarisation of light, the uses of the microscope, and the camera lucida being introduced in extenso into a book specially treating of a technical subject like this. Such knowledge ought to be assumed as already possessed by the reader; and as well might the author have given instruction upon the origin and uses of decimal fractions, or led up to his subject by several preliminary volumes dealing with the whole “circle of the sciences.” Certainly he lays himself open to the charge of instructing either too much or too little. He deals with abstract scientific problems lying at the root of chemistry, and with the vulgar processes of the cook and the baker; and treats with equal facility of the microscope and the flour-mill. We had rather leave the minuter criticism of this voluminous work to the many experts whom it concerns, and who will no doubt be ready to detect any errors into which the indefatigable and talented author may have fallen. If Mr. Jago is ever tempted to bring out a second edition, we may recommend the use of the pruning-knife, which, if judiciously and freely used, will leave a better proportioned but less bulky treatise in our hands.Chemistry of Wheat, Flour, and Bread, and Technology of Bread-making.By William Jago. (Brighton: Published by the Author, 1886.)

The Enormous Loss from Ox-Warble

I HAVE read Mr. John Walkers remarks on “warbles.” This is one of the many important subjects to which Miss Eleanor Ormerod has lately drawn attention. I can readily believe that there is a loss of two to three millions to the country through the ravages of this fly, but such statements, it must be remembered, should be qualified by the thought that it might cost two or three millions to protect all the cattle of this country against such attacks. The labour would be great, the vigilance would entail higher-classed stock-men, in almost all cases with higher wages, for you cannot get our labourers, dairy-men, and bailiffs even, to attend to such matters without great difficulty. The loss does not, I think, fall upon farmers, unless it is from the irritation to the cattle when they hear the buzz of the fly meditating her attack.