126 proceedings: philosophical society 



Alaskan redtop, Calamagrostis langsdorfii, have come up abundantly. 

 In some instances where the deposit fell in the edge of marshes it sunk 

 in such a way that the grass came through and is growing luxuriantly. 

 On the hills and steeper slopes the rains have washed the ash to- the 

 bottoms along the creeks or into the sea. 



At the experiment station, in order to furnish pasture and forage for 

 the live stock, experiments in revegetating the more level tracts have 

 been begun. Soon after the eruption had ceased manure was spread 

 on the land, which was then disked and seeded to rye. This gave some 

 winter pasture and a light crop the following year. In the spring of 

 1913 experiments were undertaken on an extensive scale. Land was 

 manured and commercial fertilizers were applied and a large amount 

 of grass and leguminous seed was sown with oats as a nurse crop. Wher- 

 ever nitrogen either in manure or as nitrate of lime was applied, good 

 growth was secured. Less growth followed where only Phosphoric 

 Acid and Potash were used and where no fertilizer was applied the 

 seed germinated, grew slowly, and finally died unless the roots were 

 able to penetrate the layer of ash and reach the soil below. 



In gardens and wherever an especial effort was made to mix the 

 deposit with the underlying soil, better growth was reported than nor- 

 mal, the ash appearing to have been of benefit, probably by reason of 

 the improved physical condition of the soil. 



P. L. RiCKER, Corresponding Secretary. 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



The 730th meeting was held on November 22, 1913, at the Cosmos 

 Club, Vice President Fischer in the chair; 55 persons present. The 

 minutes of the 729th meeting were read and approved. 



Mr. W. W. CoBLENTZ made an Exhibition of extrerne forms of ther- 

 mopiles, showing four forms. They are of bismuth-silver giving an 

 e.m.f. of 80 microvolts per degree and of bismuth-bismuth tin alloy 

 having a thermal e.m.f. of 127 microvolts. The novelty in these ther- 

 mopiles is the receiver, which is a completely opaque curtain which can 

 be adapted to many forms. The forms shown were: point receiver or 

 stellar thermopile, surface receiver to be used in place of the single 



o ^ ... 



thermal element in an Angstrom pyrheliometer, receivers m series 

 parallel reducing resistance one fourth, and the receivers in a U-shaped 

 trough for physiological work. 



Mr. L. A. Bauer then spoke on Results of a first analysis of the Sun's 

 general magnetic field. The chief results are: (1) The magnetic axis 

 determined from the published data between parallells 60° N. and 60° S. 

 January, 1912, to February, 1913, is found to be inclined for the sun, 9° 

 to 12° to the axis of rotation, practically the same as that of the Earth; 

 (2) the Sun's magnetic field is asymmetrical about the equator in much 

 the same manner and direction as is that of the Earth; (3) the analysis 

 determined four instants distributed over a year w^hen north end of 

 Sun's magnetic axis was on the central meridian; since a whole number 



