664 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The Department has also issued a second edition of the Report on the Sources 

 and Production of Iron and other Metalliferous Ores used in the Iron and Steel 

 Industry (H.M. Stationery Office, Imperial House, Kingsway, W.C.2., price 2S. 

 net), prepared by Mr. G. C. Lloyd, Secretary of the Iron and Steel Institute 

 The report contains a most comprehensive survey of the history, composition, and 

 statistics of ores from all known sources. The data concerning the Briey mines 

 are of particular interest. In 1913 they produced over 15,000,000 tons of ore ; the 

 total from the whole of France being 21,750,000, and from Germany 36,000,000. 

 In the same year Germany imported 14,000,000 tons — so that if she retained the 

 Briey basin (and it is now entirely in enemy possession) she would just be inde- 

 pendent of imports (on the 1913 basis), and would reduce the French supply to 

 one-third of its original amount. Fortunately, however, the supplies of tungsten 

 ore available for the Central Powers are very small, and, apart from Russia, their 

 position with regard to manganese and chromium is almost equally bad. In 

 pre-war days Russia was the main source of manganese ; but her ore output fell 

 from 1,171,000 tons in 1913 to 9,770 in 1916 ! 



The Statistics Bureau of the International Institute of Agriculture (Villa 

 Umberto, Rome) has issued a pamphlet descriptive of their publication entitled 

 International Year Book of Agricultural Statistics, 1907- 19 16, which contains 

 some interesting information. It appears that the ascertainable annual yield of 

 wheat throughout the world exceeds 1,000,000,000 quintals (10 quintals are 

 approximately equivalent to 1 ton), and represents at present value more than 

 ^2,000,000,000, while the aggregate value of the six chief cereals (wheat, rye, 

 barley, oats, maize, and rice) is not less than ^6,000,000,000. The yield of 

 potatoes is over 1,500,000,000 quintals, and of sugar beet 500,000,000 quintals. 

 Every year the world has at its disposal 150,000,000 quintals of beet and cane 

 sugar, nearly 150,000,000 hectolitres of wine (1 hectolitre is equivalent to 22 

 gallons), 10,000,000 of coffee, 8,000,000 of leaf tobacco, and 1,000,000 quintals of 

 hops. Textile industries account annually for nearly 50,000,000 quintals of cotton, 

 8,000,000 of flax, and 7,000,000 of hemp, while silkworm breeders in Europe and 

 Asia deliver to the trade more than 200,000,000 in cocoons. Turning to livestock, 

 there are in Uruguay eight head of cattle to each inhabitant, in Argentina more 

 than four head, in Australia more than two, in the United States and Canada about 

 one, and in Europe only one to two persons. 



In these notes last quarter some doubts were expressed as to the optimistic 

 views of the Australian Council of Science and Industry on the future of research 

 workers in that country. Apparently they were only too well founded, for in the 

 Australian Manufacturer (November 3, 1917) it is stated that the Department 

 of Agriculture for New South Wales was advertising for " an assistant experi- 

 mentalist with sufficient training to enable him to assist in planning and carrying 

 out scientific experiments— salary £7$ per ann." — less than that of a grocer's 

 assistant. Coming from a Government department of a semi-scientific character 

 such an advertisement is shameful in the extreme, though it is, of course, only too 

 characteristic of present-day conditions in the British Empire. It is almost 

 matched by another advertisement inserted in Nature (January 24, 191 8) by the 

 L.C.C. Education Officer desiring applications for a visiting teacher of science at 

 a trade school, the remuneration being no less than js. 6d. for an afternoon's 

 attendance. The proposed Union of Scientific Workers is, indeed, long overdue, 

 and it is to be hoped most earnestly that the organisers of the Union will be able 

 to guide it to complete success. 



