HEALTH AND SOIL FERTILITY
SIR,—The problems of physical and chemical changes in the soil are being solved with rapidity and certainty. Biological activities in the soil are another matter. The formation, breakdown and constitution of humus, growth substances, the life cycles and interactions of the micro- flora and micro-fauna are but a few aspects of soil ecology. Soil ecology is a difficult unsolved research problem.
When this research, and it is being actively undertaken, has produced results, backed by adequate statistical experimentation, which can be correlated with agriculture on a scale to permit no doubt as to the accuracy of any conclusions made, then is the time to think about connexions between healthy soil, healthy crops, healthy stock and healthy citizens.
Chemo-therapy has enabled a striking cure of a certain form of cancer to be developed, but to permit adequate testing of the results, five years elapsed before the recent announcement of the cure.
Rigorous standards of judgement are just as necessary elsewhere.—Yours
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