A Promising Discovery A scientific discovery, continuously pursued since 1914,
is at last within sight. It consists in the conversion of material now dropped into the sea, or burned or piled in unlovely dumps in else lovely country places, into an effective fertiliser for the land. If war can do any good, it is in the direction of discovering value in what was waste before. This discovery should add much to the national wealth if it fulfils expecta- tion. How much fertility exists in dumped refuse is plain to the eyes on some of the most barren dumps. On one of them I have found tomatoes, in quantity enough to attract a large number of pheasants (which adore this food), apple-trees, sun- flowers, hollyhocks, virginia creeper, marigold, alongside the noxious weeds, such as nettles, biennial thistles, teazel and elder which seem to have a special affinity with urban refuse. As to the denizens of such places, pheasant, partridge, gull and plover are as much at home as rats and rabbits and foxes.
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