722 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



has designated D. E. t^almoiT, B. T. Galloway, and A. C. True to act as a building 

 committee. 



John Hamilton, secretary of agriculture of Pennsylvania, has been appointed 

 farmers' institute specialist in the Othce of Experiment Stations, and will enter upon 

 his duties April 1. 



Agricultukal College and Experiment Station Exhibit. — An appropriation of 

 $100,000 has been made by Congress to enable the United States Government Board 

 of the Lousiana Purchase Exposition to arrange with the colleges of agriculture and 

 mechanic arts and the agricultural experiment stations "for an exhibit of the progress 

 of education and experimentation in agriculture, the mechanic arts, and animal 

 husbandry." 



Department of Agriculture in the Transvaal. — The first number of the Trans- 

 vaal Agricultural Journal has recently been received by this Office. The Journal is 

 the organ of the newly established agricultural department at Pretoria, and this 

 initial number tells us something of the organization, aims, and purposes of the new 

 department. Its director is Prof. F. B. Smith, formerly of the Southeastern Agricul- 

 tural College at Wye, England, who will be pleasantly remembered at a number of 

 the experiment stations in this country, which he visited in the summer of 1900. 

 Director Smith characterizes the .department as " an administrative and advisory 

 department that shall exercise all the functions necessary for the support, encourage- 

 ment, and advancement of the rural industries of the country." Its scope will 

 include studies and investigations upon various problems connected with agriculture, 

 such as animal and plant diseases, injurious insects, soils, the use of fertilizers, irri- 

 gation, lireeding, poultry farming, dairying, etc. A chemical laboratory and a 

 botanical department are contemplated, and the services of veterinary surgeons, 

 entomologists, and fruit and dairy experts are to be provided. Dr. Joseph Burtt 

 Davy, recently connected with the California University and Station, has been 

 elected agrostologist and botanist in the new department, and will take up his duties 

 there about the 1st of May. It is the intention of the government to e.stablish 

 meteorological stations throughout the country as soon as the necessary instruments 

 are available. The department has issued a handbook for the guidance of settlers, 

 and will publish from time to time pamphlets and circulars upon topics of impor- 

 tance to the farming community. The Agricultural Journal will be issued quarterly 

 at the outset, and is planned to be a popular journal for disseminating practical 

 information and recording the results of the work of the department, as well as of 

 work in other countries which is of local interest. It will evidently be conducted 

 on a plan similar to that of the agricultural journals in other English colonies, which 

 have fulfilled a most useful mission. 



Bureau of Agriculture of the Philippine Islands. — The organization of this 

 bureau, as shown by its first annual report, is as follows: F. Lamson-Scribner, chief; 

 E. D. Merrill, botanist and assistant agrostologist; C. W. Dorsey, soil expert; W. S. 

 Lyon, expert in tropical agriculture; Thomas Hanley, expert in plant culture and 

 breeding; James H. Shipley, expert in farm machinery and farm management; John 

 W. Gilinore, expert in fibers (resigned), and G. M. Havice, superintendent of San 

 Ramon farm, island of Mindanao. A brief account of the organization and work of 

 the bureau is given elsewhere (p. 621). 



American Tour of German Agriculturists. — A party of 46 German agriculturists, 

 landowners, and students, including representatives of the German Agricultural 

 Society, will make a tour of this country during 'Slay and June for the purpose of 

 studying American agriculture. The details of the tour have been largely in the 

 hands of J. I. Schulte, of this Office, who has been designated by Secretary Wilson 

 to act as conductor of the party. Arriving at New York about April 29, the party 

 will proceed west via W^ashington, Cincinnati, Lexington (Ky. ), St. Louis, Kansas 



