400 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



partment in regard to such matters as the collectiou of agricultural statistics, 

 the dissemination of agricultural information, the control of noxious weeds, 

 the prevention of stocli diseases, the fostering of fruit growing and forestry, 

 recommendations from agricultural conferences, rural education, better means 

 of communication, and other measures intended to make rural industry more 

 efficient and rural life more desirable. 



Necrology. — Dr. John Nisbet, forestry advisor to the Scottish Board of Agri- 

 culture, died recently, aged 02 years. Dr. Nisbet was educated at the Edin- 

 burgh University and Munich and for 25 years was connected with the Indian 

 Forest Service, retiring in 1900 with the grade of conservator of forests. He 

 also made extensive studies of British and continental forests and did much 

 to arouse interest in forestry in the British Isles. He was the author of many 

 works on forestry, notably British Forest Trees, 1893; Protection of Woodlands, 

 1893; Essays on Silviculture, 1893; Studies in Forestry, 1894; The Forester, 

 1905 ; Our Forests and Woodlands, 1908 ; and The Elements of British Forestry, 

 1911. 



Sir Walter Gilbey, a horse breeder, who founded the Sliire Horse Society 

 and was active in the establishment of the Hackney Horse Society, died No- 

 vember 12, 1914, at the age of 83 years. He had a wide, practical knowledge 

 of horses and horse breeding and had written several books on the Hackney 

 and Shire breeds. 



August Weismann, the eminent zoologist and biologist, died November 6, 

 1914, aged 80 years. He had been professor of zoology at Freiburg University 

 since 18G7. 



Miscellaneous. — Harrison E. Smith has been appointed entomologist at the 

 entomological laboratory at West Springfield, Mass. A 4-room laboratory build- 

 ing is being erected on land owned by the Eastern States Agricultural and In- 

 dustrial Exposition. The laboratory will be under the direction of the Bureau 

 of Entomology of this Department and devoted largely to research with forage 

 and cereal crop pests. 



The Southeastern Agricultural College, Wye, has completed its new buildings 

 at a cost of $62,500, of which over half was contributed by the Board of Agri- 

 culture and Fisheries. A vacuum drying plant for experimenting on fruit and 

 vegetable drying has been installed under an additional grant from the same 

 source. 



James Muri*ay, from 1906 to 1911 superintendent of the Dominion Elxperi- 

 mental Farm at Brandon, Manitoba, and subsequently manager of a large 

 farm at Suffield, Albei'ta, has been appointed to the chair of cereal husbandry in 

 Macdonald College, vice L. S. Klinck whose appointment as dean of the college 

 of agriculture of the University of British Columbia has been previously noted. 



The American Society of Agricultural Engineers held its eighth annual meet- 

 ing at Madison, Wisconsin, December 28-30, 1914. Officers were elected as fol- 

 lows : President, H. H. Musselman, of Michigan ; vice-presidents, J. E. Wagner, 

 of Illinois, and L. W. Ellis, of California ; and secretary-treasurer, F. M. White, 

 of Wisconsin. 



A tract of 919 aci'es at Trinidad, Luzon, Philippine Islands, has been reserved 

 from the public domain for the use of the Bureau of Agriculture as an experi- 

 ment station and stock farm. 



o 



