SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



103 



to an important position. They now 

 include upon their staffs nearly seven 

 hundred persons, who constitute a body 

 of organized scientific workers such as 

 is hardly to be found in any other field 

 of investigation. While they are labor- 

 ing primarily for the advancement of 

 applied science, they have made a quite 

 large number of important contributions 

 to the sciences, and their investigations 

 are followed with interest by workers in 

 similar lines the world over. 



The past history of the stations gives 

 every assurance of increasing strength 

 and efficiency in the future. They have 

 passed through the formative period of 

 their existence, and year by year have 

 secured a better equipment and more 

 thoroughly trained officers. "The peo- 

 ple generally have come to regard the 

 stations as permanent institutions, and 

 are convinced of the usefulness of their 

 work. They will, therefore, enter upon 

 the twentieth century with bright pros- 

 pects for the development of their re- 

 searches in scientific thoroughness and 

 accuracy and for the securing of larger 

 practical results." 



The lastest addition to the list of ex- 

 periment stations is the Alaska Station, 

 which was established last year, with 

 headquarters at Sitka. Some prelimi- 

 nary work to determine the practicabil- 

 ity of conducting station work there 

 was carried on the year previous. The 

 report of the operations of the Alaska 

 Station for 1899 has recently been is- 

 sued by the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. 



It is only recently that Alaska has 

 been regarded as possessing agricultural 

 possibilities. Potatoes and a few other 

 vegetables were grown in a small way 

 by some of the settlers and at a few 

 missions, but for more than a quarter 

 of a century after Alaska became a part 

 of the United States no effort was made 

 to encourage agriculture. It was not 

 until the discovery of gold in Alaska 

 attracted a large number of people there 

 and created a demand for foodstuffs 

 that any interest was manifested in the 



study of its agricultural capabilities, or 

 in the attempt to establish there at 

 least sufficient agriculture to meet a 

 considerable proportion of the needs of 

 its population. The results of the ex- 

 periments carried on by the Alaska 

 Station have been a surprise to those 

 who have regarded the country as 

 suited only to the fisheries, the fur trade 

 and mining. Professor Georgeson's re- 

 port shows that vegetable growing in 

 Alaska is no longer a matter of experi- 

 ment. "It has been abundantly proved 

 that all the common, hardy vegetables 

 which are grown in the gardens of the 

 States, such as potatoes, cabbage, cauli- 

 flower, kale, peas, onions, carrots, pars- 

 nips, parsley, lettuce, celery, radishes, 

 turnips, beets and the like, in their nu- 

 merous varieties, can be grown in Alas- 

 ka to a high degree of perfection and 

 attain a crispness and delicacy of flavor 

 which is rarely equaled in the best 

 farming regions of the States, because 

 they are there very frequently dwarfed 

 and toughened by drought and heat." 

 He has also shown that in Southeastern 

 Alaska and in Cook Inlet oats, barley, 

 buckwheat and spring wheat will ma- 

 ture with careful culture. Flax has 

 been grown for two years with marked 

 success, indicating that the climate is 

 particularly favorable for flax growing. 

 In addition to the native grasses, which 

 grow luxuriantly, a long list of forage 

 plants have been successfully grown, 

 and Professor Georgeson asserts that it 

 is safe to depend on growing an abun- 

 dance of feed for live stock every year, 

 which leads him to believe that dairy- 

 ing, beef, mutton and wool production 

 are assured of success. Thus far the ex- 

 periments have been confined to the 

 southern coast of Alaska, but the pres- 

 ent season work will be undertaken in 

 the Yukon district and at other places 

 in the interior. 



PHILOSOPHY. 



The appearance of a book by the 

 veteran Dr. Hutchinson Sterling, from 

 whose 'Secret of Hegel,' published in 

 1865, the rise of the neo-rationalist 



