NEW BOTANICAL DISCOVERY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144854, 4 December 1915, Page 7

NEW BOTANICAL DISCOVERY.

MAKES GARDENING A PLEASURE. Remarkable botanical ' experiments, which promise enormously increased produotivitv ol the soil, were described bv Professor W. -G. Bottomlcy, -of King’s College, in the first of a series of lectures delivered at the Royal Botanic Society of London recently.. The professor stated that by utilising the bacteria of tho soil, a substance could bo produced 50 times as valuable as ordiuarv stable reluso. Iho new substance had been discovered in peat, which was treated with bacteria, and ono part in three million of the auximonos, or accessory food power, had, it was demonstrated, doubled the growth of plants. With treated moss and the bacteria extract, there could be grown in seven weeks, even in a drawing-room, a boxlul of potatoes without soil or any attendant trouble. Botanical research had shown that half a thimbleful of soil contained 30 to 50 million miciobos engaged in manufacturing ideal food material tijion which plants could grow, and tho, latest discovery of all was that these microbes wore manufacturing tho essential substance which promoted tho growth to enable other substances to be built upon living tissue. Soil fertility depended entirely upon soil bacteria. Professor Bottomley produced results of his exporiments in tho shapo of varieties of onions, those grown in the treated moss being more than double the size of ordinary onions brought up under tho best conditions. Ho said that ho was prepared to give to tho country his interests, patents, and rights in the manufacture of baotensed peat it a national committee, or some other representative authoritative body, could bo fcw.nd to carry out the experiments on a largo scale.