702 EXPEKIMENT STATION RECORD. 



canned, dried, or otherwise jireserved); W. H. Ellis, Toronto, Ontario (tea and 

 coffee); F. T. Harrison, London, Ontario (cocoa) ; A. L. Winton, New Haven, Conn, 

 (spices and condiments, baking powders and baking-powder chemicals); AVilliam 

 Frear, State College, Paf. (vinegar); A. S. Mitchell, ^Milwaukee, Wis. (flavoring 

 extracts); L. M. Tolman and L. S. Munson, Washington, D. C. (fruit products); 

 W. M. Allen, Raleigh, X. C. (preservatives). — Tann'm: Referee, William H. Teas, 

 Ridgway, Pa.; associate, George A. Kerr, Damascus, Va. — Insecticides: Referee, J. K. 

 Haywood, Washington, D. C. ; associate, James Emory, Washington, D. C. — Sugar: 

 Referee, G. L. Spencer, Washington, D. C. ; associates, L. ^I. Tolman, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. (optical methods); L. S. Munson, Wasliington, D. C. (chemical meth- 

 ods); D. S. Davol, Caro, Mich, (special analytical methods used in sugar industry). — 

 Ash: Referee, G. S. Traps, Raleigh, N. C. ; associate, F. T. Shutt, Ottawa, Canada. 



Rice Experiment Station for Louisiana. — According to a note in The Tradesman, 

 the rice convention recently held at Crowley, La., took preliminary steps looking to 

 the establishment of a rice experiment station for southwestern Louisiana. Resolu- 

 tions were adopted calling attention to the fact that when the experiment stations' in 

 Louisiana were established the rice industry was confine<l to planting along the banks 

 of the Mississippi River, and that the three stations in the State each have their 

 special fields of work and are "none of them favorably located for experiments on 

 rice, especially for prairie rice growing, the development of which has taken gigantic 

 proportions since the establishment of these stations." The present importance of 

 the rice industry is held to make it imperative that scientific research be brought to 

 bear on the many unsolved problems that confront the rice planter — such as irriga- 

 tion, fertilizing, cultivation, and marketing of the crop, the merits of varieties, accli- 

 mation of varieties and improvement by breeding and selection, the diseases and 

 insects affecting the crop, rice weeds and means of exterminating them, rotation of 

 crops, etc. A committee of five persons was appointed to appeal to the next legisla- 

 ture for funds with which to establish and maintain a rice experiment station at 

 some point in the rice belt in southwestern Louisiana. 



Personal jSIention. — Elwood Mead, irrigation expert in this Office, has gone to 

 California, where he will deliver a course of lectures on irrigation laws and practice. 

 On his return he will visit a number of places along the route to make final arrange- 

 ments for the field work of the coming season. 



C. T. Johnston, assistant in irrigation, has returned from a trip to Egypt, where 

 he has made a study of the irrigation works and management in that country. His 

 trip was a most profita]>le one, and in addition to securing extensive information on 

 irrigation management and practice he obtained many excellent photographs of irri- 

 gation works and typical scenes. Incidentally he visited the Twfikieh School of 

 Agriculture at Gizeh, near Cairo. The school has about 60 pupils, who are natives 

 of the higher classes, and is conducted on a very practical basis. Each pupil has 

 allotted to him a plat of about one-quarter of an acre of land which he carries on 

 himself under supervision, receiving his share of the profit. The instruction is 

 entirely in English. There is a great demand for the graduates of this school as 

 managers of large sugar and cotton plantations, and difficulty is experienced in hold- 

 ing the pupils long enough to complete their course on account of this inducement. 

 The school is maintained by the Egyptian Government, which is now erecting a fine 

 large building and several smaller ones. It is now using an annex to one of Ishmael 

 Pasha's palaces. The school has a farm of about 160 acres which is rented land. 

 A rental of £12 an acre annually, or about $60, is paid for this land, but as it is sup- 

 plied with water the year round and 3 crops are raised a profit is realized even at 

 this high rental. The water used is all pumped from the Nile by steam and distrib- 

 uted in canals. In addition to the experimental work which the school is carrying 

 on in various phases of cotton and sugar-cane culture, a large number of new fruits, 

 mostly tropical and semitropical, are being tried and considerable work done with 

 forage plants. 



