216 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



the Officeof Vegetable Pathological and Physiological [investigation, of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, to make a thorough study of diseases of crops caused by nematodes. 



Thomas II. Kearney, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, has gone to North Africa 

 and other Mediterranean coast regions for the purpose of securing new seeds and 

 plants adapted to the southwest. He will make a special study of the date palm and 

 plan for new introductions of this fruit. Alkali-resistant forage crops will also be 

 studied, and seeds of new and promising kinds will be collected for testing in this 

 country. 



W. P. Corsa, assistant pomologist in the Division of Pomology for the past 14 years, 

 died September 3. 



At the International Engineering Congress at St. Louis October 3 to 8, Elwood 

 Mead, of this Office, was selected to present one of the four papers on irrigation, the 

 other three papers being presented by foreign representatives. The subject of Mr. 

 Mead's paper was Irrigation in the Unite' 1 States, and dealt with the development 

 and present scope of irrigation, the engineering aspects, cheapening of construction, 

 the reform of State laws, National legislation, and National and State investigation 

 relating to irrigation. 



County Experiment Stations. — In the September issue of the Iowa Agriculturist an 

 account is given of the movement in that State toward the establishment of county 

 experiment stations at the county poor farms. The purpose of these experiment 

 stations is to answer some of the local county problems. The work undertaken at 

 the station first established was to grow side by side 30 varieties of corn obtained 

 from farmers in different parts of the county. The yields of these varieties varied 

 from 15 to 55 bu. of grain per acre, thus bringing the fact home to farmers that there 

 is a great difference in the value of the seed corn grown by different farmers in the 

 same locality. This result opens up a vast number of similar problems with other 

 crops. The first of these stations was established in Sioux County two years ago, the 

 board of supervisors granting the money necessary to carry on the experiments. Since 

 then Story, Marshall, Adams, and Pocahontas counties have established similar sta- 

 tions. The writer points out that there are five or six distinct soil types in Iowa, and 

 that therefore tests of varieties of roots, grains, and grasses at the station on one type 

 of soils may not be applicable in many other portions of the State. This is where 

 the county experiment stations will come in investigating these local problems. 



Wallace's Farmer, discussing the same subject, states that "the agricultural college 

 cooperates with these various counties to the extent of sending a man to the farm to 

 direct the method of preparation, to lay out the ground, and to teach the man in 

 charge how to keep the correct data and thus furnish exact information that will be 

 of value . . . Incidentally, the poor farm in counties where this method has been 

 adopted becomes a center of great public interest. It is a favorite place for picnics 

 during the growing season, where the farmers can see for themselves just how these 

 experiments are coming on." 



School of Forestry in Wales. — A conference of delegates appointed by the Welsh 

 county councils to discuss the question of afforestation in the principality was held 

 at Swansea on September 7. According to a brief account of this in Nature, Sir 

 Charles Philipps, who presided, remarked that there was in Wales an enormous 

 area which could be profitably afforested. It was necessary that professors of the 

 subject should be appointed at the universities and that practical demonstration 

 areas should be set apart. The view was expressed, in course of discussion, that the 

 establishment of a central school of forestry for Wales was of the utmost importance, 

 and that such a school would become self-supporting after a few years. It was at 

 length resolved that the members should urge on their respective councils the great 

 importance of the study and practical application of forestry by providing lectures 

 to be given at suitable centers and bursaries, enabling students to attend these lec- 

 tures; also that a central school of forestry be established with example plants of 



