606 EXPERIMENT STAllON EECORD. [Vol.35 



with systematic agricultural education and the various forms of 

 instruction and advice given upon farming, it has enabled effective 

 resistance and decreased suffering. 



The forces of many of the experiment stations have been consider- 

 ably depleted by the v^ar, through drafts for field service and death, 

 and through the diversion of their activities in other directions. A 

 station in Austria reports that it has been turned into a hospital; 

 others have been largely diverted to making the necessities of life, 

 serum, war munitions, etc. ; a prominent investigator in Russia writes 

 that he is now occupied in making preserved foods for the army on 

 a commercial scale. In general the investigation is taking more prac- 

 tical forms, even among men whose previous work has been especially 

 along theoretical lines. 



The director of the Rothamsted Station, writing at the close of last 

 year, said: "The war is of course affecting us, though less than we 

 thought it would. My young men have now practically all gone or 

 are on the point of going, but their places are being filled by women 

 so that the work continues. Naturally, of course, the objective has 

 altered and the more academic problems are put on one side in order 

 that more urgent matters can be dealt with. Much of our work now 

 is advisory and some very interesting problems are turning up." 



This advisory work and the making of tests and trials of various 

 kinds are being participated in generally by the agricultural institu- 

 tions in England and other countries. Nearly every number of the 

 Journal of the Board of Agriculture contains notes on feeding stuffs, 

 with suggested rations, prices per food unit, and similar information, 

 supplied by the Animal Nutrition Institute of Cambridge University ; 

 advice as to sources and values of commercial fertilizers occupies a 

 prominent place, and there are reports of numerous simple practical 

 trials of fertilizers and feeds for immediate application. In some 

 countries rules for the practical farmer are being worked out, and 

 elsewhere tests made of new materials to serve as substitutes in 

 agriculture or to replace the necessities of life in time of scarcity and 

 high prices. 



The maintenance of the industry on an efficient basis, with many 

 of the ordinary supplies of fertilizers, feed, spraying materials, etc., 

 diminished or cut off, has taxed the fund of knowledge and the 

 resources of agricultural science. The high price and scarcity of 

 copper has led to experiments to secure substitutes for copper salts 

 in fimgicides. The hot water method is being reverted to in treating 

 seed for smut, and lime-sulphur is being given wider use. In 

 France, unusually heavy losses were sustained from black rot in the 

 vineyards, because of the inability to spray as much as usual. 



Everywhere special stress is laid on the control of diseases and 

 otiier injuries of standard crops like cereals, potatoes, beets, and 



