Krilium
There is a laudable air of restraint about the announcement put out by the Monsanto Chemical Company of the United States about a substance called Krilium, which, by improving the structure of barren and exhausted soils, may improve crop yields and help to control rain erosion of soil. A world which has in recent years become more acutely aware than ever before of the pressure of a growing population on limited agricultural resources can quite possibly be relied upon to see the enormous potential importance of this latest discovery in the field of plastics. What Dr. C. A. Hochwalt, the research chief of the Monsanto Company, had to tell the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Philadelphia last Saturday was that Krilium had been tested over three years by the company and by scientists in Universities and State Departments of Agriculture in the United States and found effective in improv- ing soil structure. The soil treated was found to retain moisture longer and make fuller use of it than had been possible before. Krilium did the job which would otherwise have to be done by compost, manures or peat moss, and did it much more quickly, cheaply, thoroughly and enduringly. It already seems likely that it can be widely applied in home gardens, market gardens and greenhouses. And such vast areas, in Asia in particular, are organised in small-scale agricultural units and suffer from exhaustion after many years of continuous cropping that the effect of Krilium, if it turns, out to be as good as it looks and if a first breach can be made in the wall of poverty and ignorance in these areas, might be revolutionary. Trials will soon start in Britain, and every gardener and nurseryman will readily realise how very important the results will be for him person- ally.
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