2o8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



wheat, hay and cotton at more than 

 one third and the smaller crops at 

 nearly one third. The annual value of 

 animal products is approximating three 

 billion dollars. 



The work of the Department of Agri- 

 culture is commensurate with this vast 

 production of the farms. W hen secre- 

 tary \Yilson assumed charge eleven 

 years ago, there were less than 2,500 

 persons employed. There are now more 

 than 10,000, and of these more than 

 2,600 may be classified as scientific 

 men. The bureau that has had the 

 most remarkable growth is the Forest 

 Service, which has increased from 14 

 persons to 3,753. It administers an 

 area of national forests amounting to 

 168,000,000 acres, Avhich paid laf?t year 

 into the national treasury $1,800,003 in 

 receipts. The income of the agricul- 

 tural colleges was five million dollars 

 in 1897 and fifteen million dollars in 

 1908. There was one agricultural high 

 school in the former year and no nor- 

 mal school taught agriculture. There 

 are now fifty-five agricultural high 

 schools and one hundred and fifteen 

 normal schools at which agriculture is 

 taught. The Department of Agricul- 

 ture distributed last year nearly seven- 

 teen million publications. The more 

 these are read the better it is, not only 

 for the farmers of the country, but for 

 all the people. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 

 We record with regret the deaths of 

 George Washington Hough, professor 



of astronomy at Northwestern Univer- 

 sity and director of the Dearborn Ob- 

 servatory, and of Thomas Gray, pro- 

 fessor of engineering at the Rose Poly- - 

 technic Institute. 



Presiding officers of societies meet- 

 ing at Baltimore were elected as fol- 

 lows: The American Society of Nat- 

 uralists, Professor T. H. Morgan, of 

 Columbia University; The Geological 

 Society of America, Mr. G. K. Gilbert, 

 of the U. S. Geological Survey, for the 

 second time, he having held this office 

 in 1892; The American Chemical So- 

 ciety, Dr. W. R. Whitney, director of 

 the Research Laboratories of the Gen- 

 eral Electric Company, at Schenectady^ 

 The American Zoological Society, Pro- 

 fessor Herbert E. Jennings, of the 

 Johns Hopkins University; The Amer- 

 ican Anthropological Association, Dr. 

 W. H. Holmes, chief of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology; The American 

 Psychological Association, Professor 

 Charles H. Judd, professor of psychol- 

 ogy at Yale University and director- 

 elect of the School of Education in the 

 University of Chicago; The American 

 Philosophical Association, Professor J. 

 G. Hibben, of Princeton University. 



Professor T. C. Chambeelin, after 

 presiding at the Baltimore meeting of 

 the American Association, left for San 

 Francisco on his way to China, where 

 he will study the geology of the coun- 

 try with special reference to its influ- 

 ence on social and educational condi- 

 tions, as a member of a commission 

 sent by the University of Chicago. 



