EDITORIAL. 103 



tilizer requirements of Saxon}' soils. Its working- force consists of 

 the director, 11 scientific assistnnts (9 chemists, 1 botanist, and 1 

 agronomist), several clerks, and 4 laborers. 



Until 1879 the station occupied buildings furnished by the Leipzig 

 Economic Societ}^ on its Mockern estate. In that 3'ear it was placed 

 under the control of the State government, and an endowment made 

 by Dr. F. Crusius (son of the founder) was used for a new building. 

 The Government also leased the Mockern (^state for a term of fifty 

 years, so that the station was placed upon a more permanent and 

 independent basis. It is now one of the best supported of the German 

 stations and ranks among the foremost in its work. 



The Mockern Experiment Station is to be congratulated upon its 

 long (relatively speaking) and noteworthy career. It holds a peculiar 

 relation to the experiment station movement, which has gradually 

 spread from country to country. In the early days it was the guiding 

 star. It blazed a path in a new field when few men had faith in its 

 utility and the foundation of agricultural science was hardly laid. It 

 has shown what an experiment station may accomplish for both the 

 science and the practice of agriculture; and l)y the dignity and high 

 character of its work it has commanded the respect of the farmer and 

 the man of science alike. Its example has led directly to the estab- 

 lishment of a large number of other stations, and the sphere of its 

 influence has extended far beyond the confines of its own country. 



It is especially fortunate that the first State station should have been 

 so successful in demonstrating its value to the public. A failure 

 might have delayed indefinitely the spread of the movement whose 

 beginning it marks. The fifty years which have elapsed since it 

 entered upon its work in so meager a way have witnessed the estab- 

 lishment of a system of stations as State or Government institutions 

 in practically ever}^ civilized countr3\ These have steadily grown in 

 strength and in importance until now they ma}^ be ranked as among 

 the permanent institutions of civilized nations, as much as the schools 

 and universities. They are fostered alike under the repu])lic and 

 under the unlimited monarchy, and are recognized by all enlightened 

 peoples as constituting an essential element in national welfare. 

 Rarely indeed has one been abandoned or its maintenance funds per- 

 manently diminished. 



Surely no class of institutions make a better return for the money 

 intrusted to them or reach more directl}' with their influence a larger 

 proportion of the people in whose interest they are laboring. 



We are called upon to record the death of Prof. Arthur Petermann, 

 director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Gembloux, Bel- 

 gium, which occurred August 26. Professor Petermann was widely 

 known as an agricultural chemist and investigator, and was one of the 



