THE PBOGBESS OF SCIENCE 



5i9 



Part of the Hall of Geology. 



tology, zoology, botany and archeology. 

 The principal room is 570 feet in 

 length and 50 feet in width, and is 

 lighted from above. The offices of the 

 director of the museum, Dr. J. W. 

 Clarke, and his assistants are placed 

 on a mezzanine, adjacent to the ex- 

 hibition rooms. 



The building should have been com- 

 pleted on January 1, 1911, in which 

 case the collections of the education 

 department and the state library would 

 have escaped the serious injury caused 

 by the fire which destroyed the west 

 half of the capitol on March 29, 1911. 

 The legislature has, however, appropri- 

 ated a million and a quarter dollars to | 

 reestablish and enlarge the state li- 

 brary, which in size ranks fourth 

 among the libraries of the country. 

 The state museum has admirable col- 

 lections due to the long line of distin- 

 guished men who have been connected 

 with it. New York state spends an- 

 nually about seventy-five million dol- 

 lars for education, and it is becoming 

 that it should now have a building 

 which suitably represents the magni- 



tude and importance of its educational 

 work. 



AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF 

 THE UNITED STATES 

 The value of the farm products of 

 the United States has been increasing 

 year by year. If their value in 1899 

 is represented by 100, the increase for 

 each of the following six years was 

 about six points; for 1906 the increase 

 was 10, for 1907 it was 15 and for 

 1909 it was 16. There was a lowering 

 in 1910 of the rate of increase to less 

 than two, the point then reached being 



184.3, or nearly double the value 

 twelve years before. In 1911, the de- 

 cline shown in 1910 became empha- 

 sized, and the index number fell to 



178.4. The total value of farm prod- 

 ucts was $277,000,000 under the total 

 for 1910. 



In the report of the secretary of 

 agriculture, from which these figures 

 are taken, the decline is attributed to 

 conditions of climate, there having been 

 a combination of hot weather and a 

 deficiency of rainfall in the early part 



