THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



223 



standing of the factors which enter into 

 the process, cannot fail to be of much 

 practical importance. A study of the 

 thermal death point of tubercle bacilli 

 in milk confirmed the results of the pre- 

 vious year, showing that by using a 

 closed pasteurizer tubercle bacilli can be 

 destroyed by heating milk for twenty 

 minutes at 140° F., instead of at 150- 

 155°, as formerly. This lowering of the 

 necessary temperature removes the ob- 

 jection formerly made that cream does 

 not rise readily on pasteurized milk and 

 that the consistency or body of pas- 

 teurized cream is much lessened. 



The soil investigations of the Wis- 

 consin Experiment Station have come 

 to be regarded as one of its most prom- 

 inent features. In addition to investi- 

 gations on the soluble salts of culti- 

 vated soils, the influence of potash salts 

 on the black marsh soils of the State, 

 which have been exceedingly difficult to 

 manage, Professor King reports studies 

 of the influence of the right amount 

 and the right distribution of water in 

 crop production — a subject upon which 

 information is quite meager and which 

 points directly to the application of ir- 

 rigation, even in humid climates, to cor- 

 rect insufficient or inadvantageously 

 distributed rainfall. In the horticultu- 

 ral line. Professor Goff has for several 

 years been studying the injury to the 

 buds and roots of fruit trees from cold, 

 and in the present report he gives an il- 

 lustrated account of his investigations 

 on the time of formation and the devel- 

 opment of the flower buds, and also on 

 the resumption of root growth of fruit 

 trees in the spring; and his assistant 

 gives the results of systematic obser- 

 vations on the duration of the growth 

 period in fruit trees. These subjects are 

 closely connected with the management 

 of fruit orchards and will furnish a ra- 

 tional basis for practice. In addition 

 to these lines of investigation, the re- 

 port also contains accounts of feeding 

 experiments with pigs, sheep and dairy 

 cows, to answer more immediately prac- 

 tical questions; studies of various fac- 



tors influencing the Babcock milk test, 

 a rapid method for the estimation of 

 salt in butter, a trial of a new kind of 

 churn, operated by forcing a steady 

 stream of air into the cream, for which 

 great claims liave been made; studies 

 of the effect of the continued use of 

 immature seeds; studies relating to tan- 

 nery refuse and hides as causes of the 

 disease in animals known as anthrax; 

 experience with sugar beet culture in 

 Wisconsin, and several other lines. 



Altogether, the report is one of sur- 

 passing interest, and the results of quite 

 a part of the experiments and investiga- 

 tion will not be confined in their appli- 

 cation within the borders of the State. 

 If any indication is needed of the im- 

 portance of tlie work being done by 

 the agricultural experiment stations of 

 this country and the wisdom of Con- 

 gress in continuing liberal appropria- 

 tions for their work, this report should 

 go a long way in the direction of fur- 

 nishing such indication. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Science in America could have suf- 

 fered no more severe loss than the death 

 of Henry Augustus Rowland, professor 

 of physics in the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity. Dying at the age of fifty-two 

 years, he was one of the world's most 

 eminent men of genius and one of the 

 two great physicists that America has 

 produced. An account of Rowland's life 

 and work, with a portrait, was pub- 

 lished in the Popular Science 

 Monthly for May, 1896, and we repro- 

 duce in the current number an address 

 given by him some years ago befoi'e the 

 American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. 



We note with regret a number of 

 other recent deaths among men of 

 science, including: Thomas Conrad 

 Porter, the botanist, for the past thirty- 

 four years professor at Lafayette Col- 

 lege; John Thomas Duffield, for more 

 than forty years professor of mathe- 

 matics at Princeton University: Rich- 

 ard T. Roth well, editor of the 'Engineer- 



