294 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



practical results there. C. B. Smith concludea the program with a summary of 

 What This Meeting Teaches in Farm Management Extension. 



Officers were elected as follows : Tresident, A. Boss, of Minnesota ; vice 

 president, J. A. Foord, of Massachusetts; and secretary-treasurer, G. A. 

 Billings, of Washington, D. C. The 1915 meeting will probably be held at 

 Berkeley, California, August 9 and 10, a number of joint sessions with other 

 organizations meeting at that time being contemplated. 



Association of Official Agricultural Chemists. — The thirty-first annual conven- 

 tion was held November 16 to 18, 1914, at Washington, D. C, with the largest 

 registration in the history of the association. 



The address of the president, E. F. Ladd, dealt with the increased demands 

 placed on the agricultural chemists by the enactment of the inspection laws 

 of recent years, and emphasized the need for calling into the service other 

 specialists, such as physiologists. The work of the association was also dis- 

 cussed, and the necessity of devising a means of publishing the proceedings and 

 methods of the association was dwelt upon, as well as the desirability of a 

 journal of agricultural chemistry. Dr. H. W. Wiley also addressed the asso- 

 ciation on some problems raised by the war. 



C. L. Alsberg, secretary of the association, presented a digest of what had 

 been done in the way of gaining information relative to methods and costs 

 for publishing the proceedings of the association, and of a journal of agricul- 

 tural chemistry. C. H. Jones, on behalf of the executive committee, recom- 

 mended (1) that the proceedings be published in the form of a quarterly; 

 (2) that a one-half day session be given to section meetings to be arranged by 

 the executive committee; and (3) that the matter of the revision of the con- 

 stitution and by-laws relating to annual dues be left until the 1915 meeting. 

 This report was adopted by the association. 



The association admitted municipal chemists to associate membership. Reso- 

 lutions were adopted in memory of the late Professor Francis H. Storer, of the 

 Bussey Institution of Harvard University. The committee on food standards, 

 on the motion of its chairman, W. Frear, was discharged. 



A. J. Patten, referee on phosphoric acid, reviewed the work of the past two 

 years. The opinion was expressed that the variations for total phosphoric 

 acid reported by cooperating analysts were probably due to iron, and possibly 

 manganese, being carried down with the yellow precipitate. The determination 

 of total phosphoric acid was studied in this year's cooperative work by the offi- 

 cial gravimetric, the optional volumetric, and the von Lorenz (E. S. R., 13, p. 14) 

 methods; and the available phosphoric acid by the molybdate, optional volu- 

 metric, von Lorenz, and iron citrate (E. S. R.. 29. p. 410) methods. Four slags 

 and a synthetic solution corresponding as nearly as possible to a citric acid 

 solution of an average basic slag were used, and the results obtained were very 

 satisfactory, especially with the iron citrate and von Lorenz methods. Further 

 work is to be done on the methods for basic slag, with special attention to 

 standardizing the alkali solution used in the volumetric method. 



The associate referee on phosphoric acid. L. S. Walker, presented results of 

 studies on neutral ammonium citrate solution with the titration (E, S. R.. 29, 

 p. 71S) and litmus methods. The work for the coming year is to ascertain 

 whether neutral ammonium citrate, sodium citrate, or citric acid solution 

 should be employed as a solvent in the determination of reverted phosphoric 

 acid in fertilizers. Suggestions were made by P. Rudnick as to obtaining a 

 substitute for neutral ammonium citrate, and in this connection a paper on 

 ammonium tricitrate. by R. A. Hall, was presented (see p. 205). 



R. N. Brackett. referee, and II. D. Ilaskins. associate referee, for the deter- 

 mination of nitrogen, reported on work which had for its chief object the 



