15 



which is so universal in the island mentioned is not harmful but 

 useful ; and that when the parts of the trees upon which it is 

 growing die, their death is due to some other cause, very possibly 

 the harmful effect of the scale insects brought about before the 

 fungus has !iad time to overcome them. Another species, almost 

 certainly belonging to the same genus and having probably the 

 same parasitic habit on scale insects, forms dark-brown sheets 

 also on lime trees and covers colonies of scale insects in the same 

 way as that first mentioned. It has been found in Antigua and 

 Dominica, but has not yet been identified. It seems quite possible 

 that one or two other species of the same kind may exist in the 

 West Indies. — The Ao^ricnltural News. 



THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. 



(By Mark Sullin'an //; Collier's IVcekly.) 



There is no more important snbject now pending before Con- 

 gress and the country than the adoption of a definite and compre- 

 hensive water-power policy. — From the Annual Report of Walter 

 L. Fisher, Secretary of the Interior, issued in December. 



In my opinion, )io question nozv before the Government is more 

 iniportont than the attainment of a proper solution of this ques- 

 tion.- — From the Annual Report of Henry L. Stimson, Secretary 

 of War, issued in December. 



Concerning no subject of legislation is there a more imperative 

 need of a definite and comprehensive policy than in relation to the 

 development and control of water power. — From a speech deliv- 

 ered bv Theodore Burton, Senator from Ohio, on August 14, 

 1912. 



It takes pains, and art in the use of words, to make clear just 

 why a water-power monopoly belongs in a wholly different class 

 from any other kind of monopoly ; and no amount of clearness 

 in the use of words will accomplish it unless the reader has the 

 imagination to see the relation which water power is going to 

 bear to the civilization of the future. The most distinguished 

 electrician in the United States, one of the few men whose unique 

 qualities entitle them, in a literal and exact sense, to be described 

 as geniuses, has said that a time is coming in this country when 

 there will be no such thing as a running stream. He says that 

 every drop of water will be stored in dams and reservoirs, and its 

 fall toward the sea will be permitted to take place only at high 

 dams where power will be generated for every form of labor in 

 every household, not merely for running railroad trains and fac- 

 tories, but for cooking and ironing and the routine duties of 

 homes. The man who has thus pointed out, in an extraordinary 



