Abstract
AGRICULTURE is the oldest of the chemical industries. The business of feeding man and his friends has, fortunately, been able to jog along for a very long time without entering into any close relationship with synthetic chemica1 industries other than that carried on so universally and so successfully by certain of the lower organisms of the soil. There has, more-Over been a disinclination to apply some of the new knowledge that has been placed at the service of the farmer, it being dismissed as being of little consequence when compared with the accumulated practical experience of generations on the land. Doubtless, too, the lack of consideration has not all been cvi- (fenced on one side. However this may be, it is a fact that we cannot continue indefinitely to live on the reserve fertility of the virgin plains of the earth, Sir Alfred LVIond, in an address read before the ddegates to the Imperial Agricultural Research Conference at Billingham on Oct. 18, based his remarks on this truism, and on the part which synthetic chemical industry must play in the future development of agriculture. So far as the British Empire is concerned, the economic aspect of the situation is no less considerable than the scientific, As was pointed out in the address, for many years Europe has paid to South America millions upon millions of pounds for nitrogen in the form of guano or of sodium nitrate. Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., has set itself the ambitious task not only of supplying the whole Empire with fertilisers, but also of acquiring and disseminating information concerning their application to soils of varying qualities and varying needs.
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News and Views. Nature 120, 628–631 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/120628a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/120628a0