7 NOVEMBER 1931, Page 12

So much for applied science, but the matter does not

end here. Science never leaves Well alone, for it seeks the Better, and, if it may be, the Best.. A scientific station cannot do commercial work. As in the case of Adco, that wonderful powder which turns any straw or rtibbish into the best manure, the making of the lucerne culture was allotted to a particular firm, in this case Burroughs and Welcome, who send their tubes of the culture to Rothamsted for regular tests of efficacy. In the course of such tests and in other unrelated experiments it has been found that in these races . of invisible creatures (living by the million to the millimetre) there exists unexpected differences. Some classes of nitrogen-fixing bacteria are more efficient than others ; and these can be isolated, cultivated and multiplied to the great enhancement of the health and weight of the farmer's crop. Science is harnessing biological forces as successfully as water and electricity.

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