Abstract
THE work under notice is a text-book dealing with the application of scientific facts and principles to the practical management of the soil, and is written for the use of students in agricultural colleges who have already taken courses in chemistry, botany, geology, and physics. The requirements of crops and the properties of soils are discussed in the first ten chapters, which are followed by four chapters on the utilisation of the resources of the soil by cultivation operations, crop rotations, etc. The remainder of the book is concerned chiefly with the economic use of fertilisers and of lime. The nitrogen problem is treated with the thoroughness that would be expected from Prof. Bear, who has devoted much time to this question. It is a very common practice in the United States to purchase only phosphatic fertilisers and to depend on the air for nitrogen; on soils which have been cultivated for many years, such a system necessitates the well-managed introduction into the rotation of frequent leguminous crops for green-manuring, and the author is rightly insistent that every effort should be made to utilise such natural nitrogen-fixing agencies to the fullest possible extent for the maintenance of soil fertility.
Soil Management.
By Prof. Firman E. Bear. (Wiley Agricultural Series.) Pp. vi + 268. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1924.) 10s. net.
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G., C. Soil Management . Nature 115, 152 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115152b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115152b0