NOTES. i'^o 



City, Ames (Iowa), Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake, and San Francisco. Several of the 

 experiment stations will be visited en route, together with stock farms, stock j-ards, 

 and packing houses, breweries and distilleries, sugar-beet farms, irrigation works 

 about Greeley, Colo., and other features of agricultural interest. Six days will 

 be devoted to visiting different points of agricultural and horticultural interest in 

 California, and from four to five days to a similar itinerary in Oi'egon and Washing- 

 ton. En route east stops will be made at some typical Montana ranches, and iu 

 North Dakota a day will be spent at the experiment station and on some of the 

 large wheat farms in that locality. The milling interests at Minneapolis will be 

 inspected, and visits made to the Minnesota and Wisconsin experiment stations. 

 The dairy interests will be studied in southern Wisconsin, visits to typical dairy 

 farms, creameries, and cheese factories being contemplated. Arriving at Chicago 

 via Milwaukee, the party will spend several days in looking over the live-stock and 

 packing interests, the manufacture of agricultural machinery, and other industries. 

 The route east Avill be through Michigan and New York, to look over the fruit 

 industry and other agricultural features of these States and spend a day at Cornell 

 University. At Boston the truck gardening carried on hi the vicinity, the park 

 system of the city, and a horse farm in a neighboring town will be viewed, and on 

 the way back to New York there •will be opportunity to see the culture of tobacco 

 in the Connecticut Valley, and especially the method of growing this crop under 

 shade. The party will sail for Germany June 30. 



Prize Competition. — The Association of Thomas Phosphate Works ( Yerein der 

 Thouiasplio^pJtat fabrikot) , of Berlin, has offered a series of prizes for investigations on 

 the increase of fertility in soils by the action of bacteria and other micro-organisms, 

 under the influence of mineral fertilizers, with special reference to manuring with 

 basic slag. The announcement refers to the progress which has been made in study- 

 ing the relation of bacteria to the assimilation of nitrogen, nitrification, etc., and sug- 

 gests that bacteria have an important influence on the chemical-physical condition 

 of the soil by transforming the fertilizing ingredients of the soil into assimilable form, 

 by improving the physical properties of the soil, etc. To encourage investigations on 

 this subject, which are thought to be of great practical importance to agriculture, the 

 association offers prizes amounting to 40,000 marks (nearly ^10,000) , as follows: First 

 prize, 15,000 marks (about $3,600) ; second prize, 10,000 marks (about $2,400) ; third, 

 6,000 marks (about $1,450) ; fourth, 4,000 marks (about $960) . The remaining 5,000 

 marks are at the disposal of the judges, to be awarded for valuable scientific and 

 practical results in the same direction. The competition is open to all, without 

 regard to nationality. The papers, written in German, are to be sent to the associa- 

 tion (Hafenplatz 4, Berlin S. W.) not later than February 1, 1906. The board of 

 judges consists of Dr. L. Hiltner, of Munich; Prof. Alfred Koch, of Gottingen; 

 Professor Eemy, of Berlin; Prof. A. Stutzer, of Konigsberg, and Director H. Wilfarth, 

 of Bernburg. 



Miscellaneous. — A brief review of the proceedings of the international weather- 

 shooting congress, held at Gratz in July, 1902, is given in a recent number of Nature. 

 The director of the Vienna Central Bureau of Meteorology and Terrestrial Magnetism, 

 Professor Pernter, was the general reporter of the congress, and the proceedings 

 appear as a publication of his bureau. In summarizing the results he states that the 

 effect of weather shooting, based on expert evidence, appears not only doubtful but 

 indeed improbable, when all circumstances and different weights of opinions are 

 considered. The opinion seemed to prevail, however, that the firing should not be 

 given up, but continued until it is proved that it has not the desired effect. 



The government of German East Africa has recently established a biological agri- 

 cultural institute at Amani, with Prof. A. Zinimermann as director and botanist. 

 The staff includes in addition to the director a chemist, zoologist, secretary, and three 



18909— No. 7—03 8 



