AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 85, 5 June 1908, Page 3

AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY.

Wilderness Fruitful for Sixpence an Acre. In the Grand Magazine for January, 1908, appears the following very interesting clipping from a book entitled "Seed and Soil Inoculation/' by Professor Bottom ley : For a few thousand pounds the twenty-one million acres of poor, barren land in Great Britain could be made productive and rendered capable of finding work for and supporting such a population that both the food problem and the unemployed oroblem would be easy of solution.

That this is no wild dream of an enthusiast is shown by recent inoculation results reported from Ireland, on reclamation of waste, cut-away bogland in County Mayo. By December iast there was a thick sole of rich herbage, which has this year produced a fine crop of hay. " The crops have more than paid" for all,'' the farmer reports, " and the land is reclaimed in addition, without a shilling spent in tillage." One gallon of culture solution will inoculate seed for twelve to fifteen acres of land, or, when diluted, if sprayed or watered on the soil suffice for an acre or more. Waste land reclaimed and made fertile for sixpence per acre ! Medium soil when inoculated at a cost of three shillings an acre, yielded three tons more produce per acre than when treated with nitrate of soda, at a cost of twenty-five shillings.

In America, the Agricultural Department is so assured of the national importance of soil inoculation in rendering barren tracts fertile, and adding to the wealth of the community that it distributes the inoculating material free. But the demand for material is so much greater than the Government can supply that the shrewd Yankee business man, seeing the demand, has formed what he calls a " Nitro Culture" Company, and supplies packages of culture material at ios, which find a ready sale with agents in Great Britain also, who supply " quart " packages for /s 6d.

It would be a thousand pities if the manufacture and distribution got into the hands of the company financiers, whose sole object would be to exploit agriculture in the interests of large dividends. Even run on commercial lines, and paying a good percentage on the capital necessary to run the besiness, the " gallon " packages could be sold for about 3s each, whereas the American material now sold in Great Britain costs 30s a "gallon." The Board of Agriculture says that it has neither the machinery nor the money to undertake the work. Is it quite impossible for these to be found ?