The Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants

Abstract

MATTHEW ARNOLD has somewhere a finely ironical passage in which he comments upon the British habit of labelling its institutions with a great name without considering whether they possess any great thing to correspond, and certainly the name of “Research” has rarely been more taken in vain than in the present publication. The Agricultural Research Association appears to be a body of gentlemen in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen who maintain certain experimental plots under the direction of Mr. T. Jamieson. It is further assisted by grants from the County Council and from the Board of Agriculture, and it has issued the above report for 1905, heralded by some startling preliminary trumpets in the Scottish Press. Briefly speaking, Mr. Jamieson claims to have “discovered” “that plants generally absorb free nitrogen directly from the air, and transform it into albumen.” He roposes to wipe out agricultural science between the dates of De Saussure and himself, writing, indeed, with a curious resemblance to the amateur speculations of sixty years ago.

The Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants.

By T. Jamieson. Pp. 82 + 18. (Aberdeen: The Agricultural Research Association, 1905.)