PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1085, 25 March 1911, Page 8

PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION.

' SCIENCE AND IMPORTED FOODS. In a recen.t lecture at Birmingham, Sir Oliver Lodge, lecturing on "The Electrification of Crops," touched: upon many of the problems of production,; and hinted at the .Dig developments looming in the future.. The discoveries of Pasteur, he said, with regard to the action of micro-organ-isms, had a bearing not only upon medical practice and the theory of disease, but likewise upon agricultural practice and. the theory of manuring. A multitude, of facts were now coming to the front which explained old practices and suggested new ones, fx> that the farm became a laboratory of great importance, and life ill tho country, so far from being dull, was full of absorbing interest. Of the problems which were receiving and yet waiting attention, the absorption of nitrogen by plant life was surely one of the chief, said Sir Oliver. The action of nitrifying bacteria in tho soil, the influence and-function of leguminous plants in the rotation of crops, tho whole -proCess of absorption,-elaboration, and assimilation of sap, the chemical changes going on in the laboratories of tho leaf under the influence of sunshine, and the discharge of electricity from, plant surfaces under the action of ultra violet light— alj these had-been recognised. for'a few •■years,-, though as yet they, were imperfectly,..studied. .. . .. But others of perhaps equal importance 'were'coming to the front, and in combination .with those he had mentioned they would powerfully affect the power of the British nation to feed itself and to lessen the extremely large amount of imported food. In time of war this power to feed ourselves might become crucial and essential to our, existence. In time of peace it would mean a-great economy-ana a great liberation of for other purposes, since what was grown out of the soil 'was clear profit, and.'tho larger area we got under cultivation the wealthier in every wholesome respect the nation would become. .- Discoveries lay before us.in the-direction of the- reclamation of barren soils, the influence of strong sunshine, and of heat upon soil in preparing it for seed, and in the curious effect not only of burning, but of poisoning or disinfecting the soil, and thereby increasing its fertility. This last process had coruo to be understood now as having the effeet of destroying opponents of devourers of the useful and co-operating bacteria. These opponents were more easily' sluin than the useful bacteria, and when .they wiere killed the bacteria increased nnd multiplied, to a prodigious extent,"-ind the soil became far more fertile than-before. In addition to. \vas tho problem of the electrification of the air-above the growing plant. • ... Such electrification always existed, and the pointed character of.the leaves showid that it was made use of; but by artificial means it could be intensified, the plant stimulated, and the action of feeble sunshine accelerated and assisted by. hightension electripitv, purposely conveyed to the atmosphere, above the plant. But the means available for electrification were imperfect aiid feeble. Only recently had they been able to supply'electricity of tlio aifiount desired in a fairly."easy and permanent, manner. .....* .