Abstract
“THE Soil and the Microbe” is a difficult book to review, for, knowing how much soil microbiology owes to the researches of the two authors, one is led to expect a high standard of excellence in a book from their pens; and this, unfortunately, is not the case. Though apparently written for the elementary student or inquiring farmer, yet there is a doubt as to whether such readers would find the way smooth for a real understanding of the principles of soil biology. To illustrate the unevenness of planning, the carbon dioxide cycle is first discussed in the foreword, then the nitrogen needs of the plants are mentioned on p. 14, where it is stated that these needs are furnished by the addition of inorganic substance or organic forms of nitrogen such as urea or guano; but it is not until much later in the book that there is any mention of the reason for supplying nitrogen in the form of urea or guano, or precisely what role microbes play in the transformation of such substances.
The Soil and the Microbe: an Introduction to the Study of the Microscopic Population of the Soil and its Rôle in Soil Processes and Plant Growth.
By Prof. S. A. Waksman Prof. R. L. Starkey. (The Wiley Agricultural Series.) Pp. xi + 260. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1931.) 17s. 6d. net.
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The Soil and the Microbe: an Introduction to the Study of the Microscopic Population of the Soil and its Rôle in Soil Processes and Plant Growth . Nature 129, 600 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129600b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129600b0