620 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



England, France, and Austria. He was an accomplished linguist and his knowledge 

 of languages was of great service to him in the prosecution of his scientific studies 

 and inquiries. He made valuable contributions to agricultural science, his first pub- 

 lished work of importance in this respect being a study of the manufacture and use 

 of phosphate of lime in England, which appeared in 1864. His reputation, however, 

 rests mainly on his contributions to irrigation and sewage disposal as embodied in 

 his exhaustive treatises on these subjects (1874 and 1888-89). He was also the 

 author of important publications on agricultural industries (1869), the agricultural 

 investigations of Rothamsted (1877) and Woburn (1886-1888), the wheat industry in 

 the United States (1880), and numerous smaller articles on agricultural subjects. 



The death is announced of N. Sibirtzev, one of the foremost of the soil investigators 

 in Russia and professor of "pedology" or the science of soils in the Agricultural and 

 Forestry Institute of Novo-Alexandria. He was the most prominent pupil and 

 collaborator of Prof. V. V. Dokouchayev, who organized the soil work in Russia and 

 founded a new school of soil investigation. Professor Sibirtzev' s most notable con- 

 tribution to the subject was a genetic or natural classification of soils, which, in the 

 study of soil formations, differentiates between the parent rock species and the culti- 

 vated horizon. An account of Sibirtzev's soil investigations and his classification, 

 taken from his memoirs, appeared in volume 12 of this journal. 



Dr. G. Thoms, professor of agricultural chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute of 

 Riga and director of the experiment station at that place, died November 2, 1902, 

 at the age of sixty years. Professor Thoms was made director of the Riga station, 

 the oldest station in Russia, in 1877. He reorganized and developed the station and 

 under his direction it became an important factor in the development of the agricul- 

 ture of the Baltic region. One of his chief lines of work was his extensive soil inves- 

 tigations and these led him to studies in plant nutrition and the use of fertilizers on 

 a practical scale. He was very active and energetic and enjoyed the confidence of 

 progressive agriculturists and managers of estates to an unusual degree. Professor 

 Thoms visited this country on two different occasions. In 1868, with several other 

 chemists, he established a factory for making beef extract in western Texas. The 

 factory was subsequently burned and the enterprise abandoned. In 1893 Professor 

 Thoms returned to America and visited a number of our agricultural institutions. 

 He was a great admirer of America, and had followed the work of our agricultural 

 experiment stations unusually closely. 



]Mif5CELLANEOus. — At the recent meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Agti- 

 cultural Science, William Frear was elected president and F. M. "Webster secretary^ 

 treasurer for the succeeding year. 



The officers elected by the Association of Econouuc Entomologists are as follows: 

 President, M. V. Slingerland; first vice-president, C. M. Weed; second vice-president, 

 H. Skinner; secretary and treasurer, A. F. Burgess. 



During the International Live Stock Exposition in Chicago a life-size oil painting 

 of Prof. W. A. Henry was hung in the so-called Hall of Fame in the new Live Stock 

 Record Building. The portrait is an excellent likeness of Professor Henry, and is a 

 present from the many students who have jirofited by his teachings in Wisconsin. 

 It is the first contribution to a proposed gallery of men conspicuous for their labors 

 in behalf of the live-stock industry in the United States. 



The announcement has been received of the Columbia School of Poultry Culture 

 at Waterville, N. Y. This is a correspondence school carried on under the direction 

 of Dr. A. A. Brigham, formerly of the Rhode Island College and Station, assisted by 

 4 other experts in poultry. The course of instruction is planned to cover a year and 

 includes plans for poultry buildings and practical advice. 



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