to town or city high schools where agriculture is entirely neglected. They should be provided with schools similar to the manual training high schools maintained in many of our cities, in which, along with culture and scientific studies, the theory and practice of agriculture shall be systematically taught.

It may, perhaps, be said that this is a large and expensive program. But agriculture is making no unreasonable demands. She is asking only the same treatment which is already accorded other arts and professions. The clergymen, lawyers and doctors receive their education very largely at public expense. Schools of technology and courses of manual training are being rapidly multiplied as parts of our public school system. The city schools in ever-increasing measure directly prepare their pupils for the pursuits of urban communities. The farmer is not to be deprived of similar privileges along the lines of his art. The republic can not afford to maintain the great fundamental industry of agriculture on the basis of ignorance and conservatism. Reckoned at their lowest value, the public funds spent in technical education, whether in engineering, trades or agriculture, are a most profitable financial investment. But they pay vastly richer returns in the broader mental outlook and higher morality of the educated

masses.

While acknowledging all this as regards the agriculture of the United States as a whole, some people have had the idea that the agriculture of New England is gradually disappearing and will ultimately be extinct. A most absurd idea! The agriculture of New England has undergone great changes in the past half century. It has passed through a period of depression while the great Mississippi Valley was being occupied and its vast prairies were almost as free as air to the settler. But

that day is gone, for the lands of the Mississippi Valley are filled with farmers. Irrigation will ultimately put under the plow millions of acres west of the great river, but this development will necessarily be slow and expensive even with national aid. The natural increase of population, the great tide of immigration, the growing demands of the old world for food to stop the hunger of its teeming millions-all these things are to make our agriculture more remunerative and to bring into more profitable use the lands of New England, as well as of the rest of the country. cording to the United States census, in the period between 1890 and 1900 the annual value of the farm products of New Hampshire increased from less than thirteen to nearly twenty-two millions of dollars.

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And even now, and in the days to come in far greater measure, it is the trained farmer who will make the best living out of New England soils. For here will flourish an intensive and highly specialized agriculture. The forests are to be reconstructed and profitably utilized as a permanent source of wealth. Horticulture, dairying and poultry raising-pursuits which call for a rare combination of scientific knowledge and practical skill for their most profitable development-are to make the restricted fields of New England far more productive than many broader areas beyond the Alleghenies. But these highly specialized and developed agricultural industries must rest on a basis of scientific and technical education if they are to have great and enduring success. To bring this about is the mission of the agricultural college. It is a great task and a tremendous responsibility. In the older lines of education the college has a quite restricted duty and the methods of its work are relatively fixed, so that its managers and faculty have a comparatively easy burden to bear. But the managers and faculty of an

agricultural college of the present day must not only teach the students whom they can draw into their class-room, but they must also gather out of the realms of the unknown the materials to complete the new science of agriculture on which the scheme of education rests; they must organize and bring into successful operation a whole system of education from the common schools to the university department of research; they must overcome the prejudices and traditions of a most conservative constituency; they must create and develop into active and permanent life a public sentiment which shall result in the adequate equipment and maintenance of a comprehensive system of agricultural education. It is, indeed, a great burden which rests upon the shoulders of this board of trustees, this youthful president and this learned faculty.

But the encouragements to strenuous activity in this cause are also great, for already mighty forces are allied to push on this enterprise. The United States government has pledged itself to the permanent financial support of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and is giving them besides the active aid of its great Department of Agriculture. The state of New Hampshire is backing this work with. its public revenues, and this building testifies that the state regards the agricultural college as one of its permanent institutions. The workers in the cause of agricultural education here have also those incitements to high endeavor which come from the consciousness of belonging to a great system of institutions, that throughout the length and breadth of the union, and in all the civilized countries of the globe, are competing in generous rivalry for the advancement of fundamental interests of mankind. And what is most significant and stimulating is the sympathetic and active aid of rapidly increasing hosts of intelligent farmers and other public-spirited citizens who

individually and through their organizations are helping to make the agricultural college what it should be, and develop a system of agricultural education which shall erelong reach every man, woman and child on the 5,000,000 farms of the United States.

A. C. TRUE.

U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. The American Naturalist for October opens with the first of a series of papers on 'Adaptation to Aquatic, Arboreal, Fossorial and Cursorial Habits in Mammals,' the present one being on 'Aquatic Adaptations,' by Raymond C. Osburn. Edwin G. Conklin has a paper on 'Amitosis in the Egg Follicle Cells of the Cricket,' concluding that it is an accompaniment of cellular senescence. Edward W. Berry describes New Species of Plants from the Matawan Formation' and O. P. Hay has Some Remarks on the Fossil Fishes of Mount Lebanon, Syria.' The concluding paper, by R. W. Shufeldt, is 'On the Osteology and Systematic Position of the Kingfishers.' The number contains the Quarterly Record of gifts, appointments, retirements and deaths.

The Popular Science Monthly for November has articles on 'The Renaissance of Science,' by Edward S. Holden; 'Life in Other Worlds,' by F. J. Allen; 'The New West Point,' by William J. Roe, and a plea for 'A Laboratory for the Study of Marine Zoology in the Tropical Atlantic,' by Alfred G. Mayer, the Tortugas being the locality suggested with Jamaica as a possible alternative. David Starr Jordan discusses The Parent Stream Theory of the Return of Salmon,' showing that the evidence is not in favor of it, and J. A. Fleming contributes the sixth of his papers on Hertzian Wave Wireless Telegraphy.' Allan McLaughlin shows The Bright Side of Russian Immigration,' and Norman Lockyer treats of 'The Influence of Brainpower on History,' presenting arguments for the national support of universities.

The Museums Journal of Great Britain for October contains articles on 'The British Association' and 'The Mannheim Conference on Museums as Places of Popular Culture,' and the concluding portion of the address of the president, which is illustrated by a number of plates. E. M. Holmes has an article on 'The Preservation of Natural Colours in Dried Plants.' There is the customary number of important notes concerning various museums and museum matters.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

THE academy held its autumn meeting at Chicago on November 17, 18 and 19. The event was of special importance owing to the fact that the academy has not hitherto met west of the Atlantic seaboard. Chicago has recently become one of the chief scientific and educational centers of the country, and, apart from the program of papers, there was much to interest the visiting members. The members of the academy were very generously entertained by the president and other officers of the University of Chicago and by the director of the Yerkes Observatory. Mr. Alexander Agassiz presided, and the following program was presented:

T. C. CHAMBERLIN: 'Preliminary Report on the Agassiz Data relative to Underground Temperatures at the Calumet and Hecla Mine.' C. E. DUTTON: The Velocities of Earthquake Vibrations and their Significance.'

the University of North Carolina' (by title). Introduced by Ira Remsen.

E. E. BARNARD: Some Peculiarities of Comets' Tails, and their Probable Explanation.' Introduced by George E. Hale.

EDWIN B. FROST: Stars of the Orion Class.' Introduced by George E. Hale.

GEORGE E. HALE: On the Nature of the Solar Flocculi.'

GEO. C. COMSTOCK: The Relation of Stellar Magnitude to Stellar Distances.'

A. A. MICHELSON: Spectra of Imperfect Gratings.'

STEPHEN MOULTON BABCOCK: The Relations of Weight and Energy.' Introduced by Charles R. Van Hise.

C. S. SLICHTER: The Propagation of Ground Water Waves.' Introduced by Geo. C. Comstock. WILLIAM H. BREWER: 'Biographical Memoir of Sereno Watson.'

CHARLES R. VAN HISE: The International Geographical Congress and a Geophysical Laboratory.'

THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.

AT the meeting of October 19, 1903, when, for the first time, the academy met in its new building, Professor Nipher gave a verbal abstract of the results of his paper on the 'Law of Nebular Contraction,' which has just been published in the Transactions. He also remarked that the molecular conditions in nebulæ of different gases were being examined, and some very interesting results are at once evident. If a series of nebulæ of various gases have the same mass internal to the same radius, the average molecular velocities would be the same for all gases. The velocity which would enable a molecule to escape from the nebula is 2.71 times the average molecular velocity, and this ratio is constant for all parts of the nebula. If the entire solar system formed the core of such a nebula, and the mass of the solar system extended to Neptune's orbit, the density at that distance from the center of the nucleus would be less than that in a Crookes tube. This opens up some very interesting questions concerning the history of such a mass. It would appear that such a gravitating mass would lose some heat by the escape of the more rapidly moving molecules, as well as by radiation.

Professor Keiser read a paper on a method of determining the amount of free lime in cements. He finds that this can be done by determining the amount of water absorbed. By measuring this absorption in samples containing known amounts, the precautions to be taken in manipulation have been found. The determination only requires about twenty minutes.

Professor Nipher presented a diagram on which was drawn the curve of speed of the trotting horse. This curve represents the equation published by him twenty years ago. On the same diagram was shown a belt of observed values representing the performance of every horse who has broken the speed record since 1845. In some cases a single horse has broken the record several times in the same year. All such observations were included. The points representing these observations formed a belt within which was the curve of predicted speed. The agreement was considered very satisfactory.

Ar the meeting of November 2, 1903, Dr.. J. A. Harris presented for publication a paper on 'Polygamy in Solanum' and a paper on 'The Germination of Pachira,' and Mr. B. F. Bush presented a paper entitled 'A New Genus of Grasses.'

The secretary addressed the academy on its past history and prospects, in connection with the occupancy of its new home.

WILLIAM TRELEASE, Recording Secretary.

THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.

THE 374th meeting, the first of the fall, was held Saturday, October 17.

Under the head of 'Notes' L. O. Howard stated that attention having been drawn to the great variance in the statements regarding the length of the thread of a silk worm's cocoon, he had had the threads of four specimens measured. They were found to be from 880 to 1,102 yards in length, the published figures referred to varying from 1,100 yards to 11 miles.

T. S. Palmer spoke on 'Indexing Scientific Names, with special reference to the Genera

of Mammals.' After mentioning the recent appearance of Sherborne's ' Index Animalium,' and the volume of Waterhouse supplementing theNomenclator Zoologicus' of Scudder, he said that for nearly fourteen years past he had been engaged in the preparation of a list of the genera of mammals, living and extinct. This work was to give the date and place of publication, the character and location of the specimen, etymology, and indicate whether or not it was preoccupied. The list, which contained about 5,000 names, was to be arranged both alphabetically and zoologically, so that it would be possible not merely to ascertain whether or not a given name had been used, but to see readily what genera were comprised in any given group. Mr. Palmer then spoke of some of the difficulties that had been encountered in tracing some of the names and their derivation, and said that it was hoped that the list would be issued in December.

O. F. Cook presented a paper on 'Central American Mutations of Coffee,' saying that some of the varieties of coffee were well marked and known by special names. He said that a study of these variations had led to conclusions directly opposed to those of de Vries drawn from observations on primroses; that instead of these variations being natural steps in the evolution of species, they were the result of close inbreeding and indications of degeneration.

W. P. Hay described Terrapin Culture in the United States,' giving the results of his observations on the diamond back terrapins in the region of Chesapeake Bay. He gave

a résumé of the laws relating to terrapins, intimating that they were the most stringent where least needed and practically not enforced anywhere. The turtles were impounded in large numbers and the eggs were deposited freely and many hatched, but owing to the prevailing conditions and lack of care the larger proportion of young were destroyed. The young grew about an inch during the first year, but attained maturity slowly, probably agreeing in this respect with Chrysemys picta. Like this species, four distinct sizes of eggs could be distinguished in the diamond back terrapin aside from the general mass of small,

unfertilized ova. In order to supply the demand for terrapin many were imported from the southern states, including representatives of two distinct and, as yet, undescribed species. It had been thought that these might be crossed with the Chesapeake terrapin, but as none were kept a sufficient length of time, four years, after importation no results had been obtained. Owing to close hunting and disregard of the laws, the Chesapeake terrapin was threatened with extermination, and the simplest remedy suggested was to forbid the sale of the larger terrapins, since these were invariably breeding females.

F. A. LUCAS.

THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB.

AT a meeting of the club held at the Botanical Garden on October 28 the following scientific notes and papers were presented:

Dr. MacDougal called attention to the abnormal fall blooming of certain plants. In one case mentioned the spring flowering of certain plants was retarded till fall, owing to the presence of a mass of ice, this being a case of retarded development. He exhibited plants with flowers now open that should not normally open till next spring, this being accelerated development caused by the prevailing climatic conditions.

Dr. Britton exhibited two forms of the common marsh mallow, one with pink flowers, the other with white flowers with a crimson center. The first is the well-known Hibiscus Moscheutos L. The second form is not uncommon in various localities, but has been considered merely a color variation. Recently

it has been observed that the fruits of the two forms are very different, showing that they should be considered distinct species. Drawings of the fruits were exhibited. No name has as yet been proposed for the white-flowered form.

Dr. Livingston spoke on the Influence of Osmotic Pressure on the Cell.' One of the widely accepted theories of the action of osmotic pressure is that it is comparable to gas pressure. It can only act, however, in the presence of water. Soluble salts tend to dif

fuse throughout a given volume of water just as gases do in a confined space. In cellular tissues there is no break in the water connec tion, since the cell wall is permeable by water and by the salts dissolved in it. The protoplasmic lining of the cell is, however, only semi-permeable, since it allows the passage of some substances while preventing that of others. When living cells are transferred from a thin dilute medium to a denser one the tendency is for them to lose part of the water they contain. The cell contents thus become more or less shriveled. Conversely, when a cell is transferred to a more dilute medium it swells and becomes more turgid. Strong solutions tend to check vital activity. Removal to a dense medium often materially alters the form of growth of an organism, the tendency being to assume short thick forms in the dense medium and longer and more slender forms in the dilute ones. With different substances that are not poisonous the cell seems to give the same response when a strength of each is used that would exert the same osmotic pressure, showing that it is the pressure and not the character of the substance that produces the effect. The extraction of water from the cell means the concentration of the solution of all the various salts and other dissolved substances that are contained in it. Varying strengths of the same salt are known to affect the growth of plants very diversely, and this suggests an interesting field for further investigation.

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The paper brought out an interesting discussion as to the probable effect on aquatic vegetation of a gradual change from

fresh to salt-water conditions.

Mr. Earle discussed Generic Limits among the Agaricaceae.' He called attention to the artificial character of the genera that are now recognized and the unnatural grouping of species that resulted from the use of only two or three characters as the basis of genera. more natural grouping would require that the sum total of all the characters should be considered in defining genera.

F. S. EARLE, Secretary.

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