NOTES. 905 



munity lor the maintenance of the station anotlier year, as aiiprDpriation was made 

 by the lej^islature for only one year. V. H. Alvord, assistant in ajrrieulture in the 

 college, will withdrawal the close of this session, as will also E. A. White, assistant 

 horticulturist, who has been elected botanist at the Connecticut Agricultural College. 



Vermont St.\tiox. — Extensive alterations are being maile in the station Iniilding, 

 which will provide the director and the horticulturist with more conveniently located 

 and spai'ious quarters. 



Wisconsin St.\tion. — Prof. E. S. Goff, horticulturist in the college and station, 

 died June ti, after a short illness. 



Si-MMEK f^CHOOL OF A(;KiCfLTL-RE.— Interest in this school, to be held at Columbus, 

 Ohio, beginning July 7, is very widespread, and students from different sections of 

 the country have announced their intention of attending. Over 70 students have 

 already registered, and its success from point of numljers seems already assured. A 

 programme of the school is now in preparation and will be issued shortly. 



U. S. Department of Agricultvre. — The University of Missouri recent 1_\- con- 

 ferred the honorary degree of doctor of laws upon Secretary James Wilson and B. 

 T. Galloway, of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



W. H. Evans, of this office, has returned from Porto Rico, where he has l^een in 

 conference with F. D. Gardner, in charge of the Porto Rico Station, with reference 

 to the selection of a permanent site and the development of the station there. 



O. F. Cook, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, has returned fnim a three months' 

 trip to Guatemala and southern ^Mexico, where he was engage<l in stu<lying the 

 methods and the problems of coffee and rubber culture. 



B. ^I. Duggar, botanical physiologist, has been elected to the chair of l)otany in 

 the University of Missouri and will enter upon his new duties in Septemljer. He 

 will continue to carry on some of his present lines of investigation as collaborator of 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



p]rnst A. Bessey, in charge of seed and plant introduction, will start early in July 

 on a trip to Russia and Turkestan for the purpose of securing seeds of certain forage 

 and cereal plants, especially the Turkestan alfalfa. He will then proceed to Ger- 

 many, where he will spend a number of years in botanical study. He will be ^1c- 

 ceede<l in charge of the seed and pjlant introduction by A. J. Pieters of the seed 

 laboratory, who in turn will be succeeded by Edgar Brown. 



MiscELL.\XEors. — The New York Horticultural Society has complete<I arrange- 

 ments for holding an international conference on plant breeding and hyln-idization 

 September 30, October 1 and 2, of the present year. The meeting will be held in 

 New York City. Papters will be read 1)V prominent men from this country, Canada, 

 England, Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere. In connection with the conference an 

 exhibition of hyljrid plants and their products will be made, to which every one 

 is invited to contriliute. Awards of the society in the form of medals, diplomas, and 

 certificates will be made for plants and plant j^roducts of hybrid origin, illustrating 

 some i^articular phase of this work. Thirty papers have already been promised. 



The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announces a new summer school for 

 nature study, known as the Sharon Summer School, named for the town of Sharon, 

 where most of the field work will be carried on. Its object is to furnish teachers 

 and lovers of nature with thorough training in the principles of natural science and 

 a jiractical knowleilge of the more common forms of living things. The curricuium 

 provides for elementary work in physiography and general bi(.ilogy, with elective 

 courses on trees, wild flowers, birds, insects, mammals, ami seashore life. Tlie lab- 

 oratory facilities of the institute will be utilized, and ojiportunity for out-door study 

 and experimentation will be afforded by the control of oOO acres of natural country 

 in the town of Sharon. The school will open July 9 and will contimie for 4 weeks. 



An interesting i^amphlet has been issued by Prof. F. B. Mumford, of the L'niversity 

 of Mi-ssoiiri, entitled Some Lessons from Eurojiean Agriculture. The article is a 



