NOTES. 617 



the implement and tool roomsand stabling for the Htc stock used in the Held experi- 

 ments. The second floor will contain the thrashing and cleaning rooms and storage 

 for seeds. The third floor will be provided with rat-proof cases for the preservation 

 of specimens. Arrangements will be made so that the crops from a large number of 

 plats can be stored and kept under the most favorable conditions until thrashed. 

 This barn is designed especially for the work it is intended to accommodate. 



Irrigation and Dry Farming. — The Office of Experiment Stations has entered into a 

 cooperative experiment with the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Montana Experi- 

 ment Station to study the application of irrigation in a limited way in dry farming, 

 and to determine how far it is possible to extend agriculture in Montana outside of 

 the valleys where ample water for irrigation can be obtained. Experiments will be 

 made with 10 or 12 farmers in testing methods of applying water, the conservation of 

 soil moisture, the benefits of winter irrigation, and the cost and profits of pumping 

 water for irrigation. The irrigation and pumping work will be under the direction 

 of Elwood Mead, of this Office, and the Montana Station will look after the cultural 

 features. 



A similar cooperative undertaking is to be carried on in the vicinity of Cheyenne, 

 Wyoming, the Office cooperating in this case with the Burlington, Union Pacific, and 

 Colorado Southern railroads, and with certain organizations in the State. 



Lectures on Forestry. — Following the sessions of the Forest Congress, the Yale For- 

 est School held a series of lectures in the Assembly Hall of the Bureau of Forestry 

 at Washington, January 7-13. The students of the school had been in attendance 

 upon the Forest Congress, and remained over for these lectures as a part of their 

 regular work. In addition, the delegates to the Forest Congress were invited to 

 attend. Lectures were given by Gifford Pinchot on forest policy, by Capt. George P. 

 Ahern on the Philippine forests, by F. V. Coville and A. F. Potter on the grazing 

 problem, by F. E. Olmsted on forest reserves, by G. B. Sudworth on dendrology, by 

 W. L. Hall on forest extension, by Raphael G. Zon on sylviculture! research, and by 

 F. H. Newell on hydrography. There were also addresses by B. E. Fernow, Filibert 

 Roth, Judson F. Clark, T. H. Sherrard, and others. 



Leucocytes in Milk. — In investigations concerning the occurrence and significance 

 of leucocytes or pus cells in cows' milk, C. F. Doane and S. S. Buckley of the Mary- 

 land Station have adopted the following method: Ten cubic centimeters of milk are 

 centrifuged for 5 minutes in a graduated sedimentation tube at a speed of approxi- 

 mately 2,000 revolutions per minute. The fat is removed by means of absorbent 

 cotton and the milk siphoned to 0.5 cc. Two drops of an alcoholic solution of 

 methylene blue are then added to the sediment and thoroughly mixed by shaking, 

 when the tube is placed in boiling water for 2 minutes. The volume is then made 

 up to 1 cc. by the addition of water, and the actual number of cells in this sample is 

 determined by counting in a Thoma-Zeiss cell using a £ objective. In the method 

 described by Stokes and adopted by D. H. Bergey, the leucocyte content is judged 

 by the number of cells appearing in the field of a y 1 , immersion lens. Some compara- 

 tive counts by the two methods are here given, those by the new method being 

 stated in cells per cubic centimeter, and those by the Stokes method, inclosed in 

 parentheses, in cells per field of the immersion lens: 365,000 (45), 355,000 (18), 

 284,000 (18), 1,000,000 (22), 525,000 (10), 468,000 (30), 1,200,000 (65), 4, 600,000 (75), 

 500,000 (10), and 328,000 (35). 



Although the results by the two methods are not directly comparable, there is 

 evidently an entire lack of harmony which would cause a doubt as to the reliability 

 of one of the methods for this purpose. 



New Centralblatt for Dairying. — The editorship of the Milch Zeitung, one of the 

 leading foreign dairy journals, was transferred on January 1, 1905, from Professor 

 Ramm to Dr. R. Eichloff , director of the dairy institute at Greifswald. This change 

 was necessitated by the professional duties of the former editor. 



