924 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



of more advanced students of meteorology. The more important results of meteor- 

 ological investigations up to the end of the nineteenth century are included. The 

 book contains an introduction and 5 chapters, as follows: Temperature conditions of 

 the air and the solid and liquid surface of the earth, atmospheric pressure, humidity 

 of the air, movement of the air, and atmospheric disturbances. 



WATER— SOILS. 



Artesian water {Agr. Jour. Cape Good Hope, 20 {190£), No. 1, p. 35). — A brief 

 note on a paper on artesian waters of Australia, read by J. P. Thomson before the 

 Royal Geographical Society of Australia. It is stated that the greatest development 

 of artesian water has been made in Queensland, where a very large and apparently 

 inexhaustible supply has been discovered. While the water so developed has proved 

 valuable for drinking purposes, it has not proved an important factor in irrigation. 



The artesian wells of South Dakota, J. E. Todd {Irrig. Age, 17 {1902), No. 1, 

 pp. l--15,jigs.2). 



Field operations of the Division of Soils, 1900 (second report), M. Whit- 

 ney ET AL. [U. S. Dept. Agr., Fidd Opiratlons uf tlw Division of Soils, 1900, pp. 473, 

 pis. 51, figs. 47, maps 24) . — This report contains a general review of the field and 

 laboratory work of the Division of Soils during 1900, by the chief of division; 12 

 detailed reports of soil surveys of districts located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, 

 North Carolina, Utah, Arizona, and California; reports of laboratory investigations 

 supplemental to the field operations; and the results of experiments with tobacco 

 conducted in various parts of the United States. 



General review of the work, M. Whitney (pji. 19-60). — The purpose of the survey 

 work and its organization and progress is reviewed. The total area mapped during 

 1900 was 4,465 square miles, which was surveyed at an average cost of $1.97 per square 

 mile. The average rate of mapping was 4.4 square miles jjer day. The topography, 

 geology, climate, agricultural conditions, etc., as well as the characteristics of the soil 

 types, of the different areas are presented in the several reports. In all, 397 mechan- 

 ical analyses of soils and subsoils are reported in tabular form, as well as numerous 

 analyses of alkali and of irrigation waters. ' ' Undouljtedly the most pressing demands 

 for a soil survey arise from a consideration of special problem ■. It may be for the 

 consideration of industries which could be introduced into a section of the country 

 where, from the increased competition and the opening up of new areas, the special- 

 ization of crops at present grown in the area, or from various social problems, the 

 industries have languished and new industries or new methods are desired to buil<l up 

 the locality. A very important consideration, however, lies in the introduction and 

 spread of new industries, in the improvement and development of the different types 

 of tobacco, of fruit productic^n, of truck growing, of sugar beets, and of other special 

 crops; also in the improvement of certain^soil areas by the use of fertilizers, by the 

 introduction of underdrainage, and in the West by the protection of soils against 

 seepage waters and alkali and the reclamation of lands already injured by these 

 causes. ' ' 



A soil survey around Lancaster, Pa., C. W. Dorsey (pp. 61-84). — The district surveyed 

 covers about 270 square miles, and was selected as being one of the most important 

 tobacco-producing districts in the State and one of the most fertile regions in the 

 country. Eleven types of soil are described, of which the Hagerstown loam and 

 the Conestoga loam are the most important, each occupying about one-third of the 

 area. ' ' They are both derived from limestone rocks, the former from hard massive 

 limestone and the latter from a softer schistose limestone, locally called a sandy lime- 



