A bound volume of four papers by David Riceman on his pioneering research into 'Mineral Deficiency in Plants on the Soils of the Ninety-Mile Plain in South Australia'

Melbourne, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Commonwealth of Australia, 1945 to 1949. Octavo, approximately 150 pages with numerous illustrations and plates. Full dark blue calf lettered and decorated in gilt on the front cover; leather a little rubbed at the extremities; in excellent condition (internally fine). The cover title is 'Mineral Deficiency | Ninety Mile Plain, S. A. | by D.S. Riceman, M. Sc., B. Agr. Sc.'; the contents are Reports 1, 2, 4 and 5, the first and last two being reprints from the Journal of the CSIR, the others being CSIRO Bulletins 234 and 249 respectively. The presentation inscription on the front free endpaper turns a mundane volume on a fairly dry subject into a fascinating artefact: 'To Sir Harold Hartley, with kindest regards and best wishes, Ellerton Becker. Adelaide, South Australia. November, 1964'. Provenance: Sir Harold Brewer Hartley (1878-1972), a British physical chemist who made significant contributions to both academia and industry. After war service, in '1919, Hartley turned the focus of his research to the physical chemistry of electrolyte solutions. Over the following decade he pioneered a technique to study the conductivity of electrolytes in non-aqueous solvents; an achievement that led to his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1926 and earned him a place in scientific history'. The donor was Sir Jack Ellerton Becker (1904-1979), described by the 'Australian Dictionary of Biography' simply as an entrepreneur. He made his first fortune out of music in 1942 (the details are fascinating). 'His earlier diversification into pastoralism had failed, and wartime controls limited his profits when he sold the twenty-four blocks he had bought at Torrens Park in 1941. Thenceforward he speculated primarily in rural land which was ripe for closer settlement or suburban subdivision. Learning the results of David S. Riceman's work on mineral deficiencies in the soil at Robe, in 1943 Becker bought 7000 acres (2833 ha) of the well-watered but barren Ninety Mile Desert (Coonalpyn Downs) in that region and invited Riceman to conduct experiments there. Riceman found that the addition of traces of copper and zinc had significant effects. Becker sold the land for forty times his purchase price. The commissioner of taxation demanded a cut, but the High Court of Australia held that the land had not been bought for profit-making by resale'. How he gained his knighthood is another story.…