Abstract

                                It has been the lot of the present writer during the Inst few years, and with greater emphasis, perhaps, during the last few months, to draw attention to the importance of humus in the agricultural cycle. If, in so doing, he may appear to have strayed from the relatively restricted field of sugarcane cultiva- ion into the wider field of gene griculture, apology for such errantry will hardly be needed. The reasons are two in the first place, the problem of the maintenance of soil fertility here involved is itself a general one, common to all crops; in the second, the tendency. if there be such in the sugar industry, is away from the humus and in the direction of a growing use of artificials. It has been necessary, therefore, to derive examples mainly from the experience obtained in the cultivation of other crops.

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