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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of products which are at present im- 

 ported. One half of this now comes 

 from such climates as prevail in Ha- 

 waii, Porto Rico and the Philippine 

 Islands, and the secretaiy declares that 

 'it is the privilege and duty of the de- 

 partment of agriculture to teach the 

 people of those islands to produce what 

 we now buy from tropical countries.' 

 The establishment of experiment sta- 

 tions in Hawaii and Porto Rico dur- 

 ing the year was an important step in 

 that direction. Both these stations 

 have been placed in charge of men sent 

 out from the department, which has 

 also furnished the chief of the new 

 Bureau of Agriculture for the Philip- 

 pines, established under the War De- 

 partment in October. An experiment 

 station for the Philippines, to work 

 in cooperation with the new bureau, is 

 strongly recommended. The efficient 

 and valuable work of the experiment 

 stations all over the counti-y is becom- 

 ing more apparent every year, and a 

 broader, deeper foundation of scientific 

 inquiry is being laid. Cooperation be- 

 tween the department and the stations 

 has greatly increased, so as to meet 

 the varied national and local needs of 

 agriculture and extend the benefits of 

 agricultural investigation to every 

 part of the Union. This cooperation is 

 taking a variety of forms, such as 

 experiments to find grasses, forage 

 crops and cereal grains better adapted 

 to particular localities; experiments in 

 range renovation and management, 

 which are sorely needed in some sec- 

 tions of the West; studies of the water 

 requirements of crops in the irrigated 

 region and of the problems of water 

 conservation and management; soil 

 studies; sugar-beet production; plant- 

 breeding experiments, and studies on 

 the food of man, its preparation and 

 use. In the recent development of the 

 department's work, forestry, soil 

 studies and irrigation have assumed 

 places of prominence. The forestry 

 work, besides the investigations in that 

 subject, deals with the preparation of 



working plans for the management of 

 forests. Applications for such plans 

 covering over 52 million acres are now 

 on file, a number being from large lum- 

 bering companies. The soil survey is 

 being carried on in different parts of 

 the country, and numerous funda- 

 mental problems are studied in the 

 laboratories. A new feature of this 

 work will be in the field of soil clima- 

 tology, a field which is practically new 

 to science. The irrigation studies 

 have not been confined to the arid 

 western states, but have been con- 

 tinued on a more extensive plan in the 

 humid climates, such as Louisiana, 

 Missouri, Wisconsin and New Jersey, 

 indicating that 'irrigation is to have 

 a wide field of usefulness in many sec- 

 tions where it is not a necessity.' The 

 secretary expresses himself at length 

 on the subject of national aid for irri- 

 gation, holding that public aid will be 

 necessary in the construction of certain 

 irrigation works, and that reservoirs 

 located in the channels of running 

 streams should be public works, but he 

 holds that the first step toward na- 

 tional aid should be the passage of en- 

 lightened codes of water laws by the 

 states to be benefited. In the various 

 other lines of research — in studies of 

 plant diseases and insect pests, the 

 origination or discovery of plants 

 more resistant to disease or cli- 

 mate, the fermentation of tobacco, and 

 the preparation and application of 

 serums and toxins for combating ani- 

 mal diseases — the same spirit of pro- 

 gress has characterized the work as in 

 previous years, and results of much 

 practical as well as scientific impor- 

 tance are announced. 



THE NEW STAR IN PERSEUS. 

 No more striking astronomical dis- 

 covery has been made in recent years 

 than that of the moving nebulous 

 masses around Nova Persei. That re- 

 markable star, now apparently a 

 gaseous nebula, is still of about the 

 sixth magnitude. Flammarion, An- 



