200 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



County Council of $1,500 for endowment, and from the Essex County Council of 

 $250 per annum for maintenance. 



A tract of several acres in Hertfordshire at Turner's Hill, Chestnut, Waltham 

 Cross, has been purchased, and an office, botanical and chemical laboratories, 

 and an extensive range of experimental greenhouses completed in the fall of 

 1914. Station work was begun January 11, 1915, special prominence being given 

 to studies of truck diseases and the use of bacterized peat and the effect of 

 greenhouse temperatures on tomatoes, as well as the standardization of soil for 

 proposed manurial tests. It is also expected to appoint a chemist for studies of 

 the physical factors of the house and soil atmosphere and its effect on vegeta- 

 tion, and to take up physiological studies of factors influencing growth, trans- 

 piration, respiration, assimilation, etc., under greenhouse conditions. 



Necrology. — Prof. Francis M. Webster, chief of cereal and forage crop investi- 

 gations of the Bureau of Entomology of this Department, died January 3 at 

 Columbus, Ohio, where he had been attending the recent meetings of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science. 



Professor Webster was born at Lebanon, N. H., August 8, 1849, and began his 

 entomological work in 1882 as assistant state entomologist of Illinois. From 

 1885 to 1888 he was professor of economic entomology- at Purdue University and 

 consulting entomologist to the station from 1888 to 1891, as well as special agent 

 of this Department from 1884-1892, and entomologist of the Ohio Station from 

 1891-1902. He had also served as assistant in the biological survey of Illinois, 

 and had made entomological trips to Australia and neighboring countries. 



Professor Webster was a fellow of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science and ex-president of the Association of Economic Ento- 

 mologists, and a member of numerous other entomological and scientific organiza- 

 tions. He was one of the pioneers in investigations in entomology as applitnl to 

 agriculture in this country, and was widely recognized as an authority on 

 insects affecting cereals and truck crops. 



Miscellaneous. — The Plant ^Vorld announces two prizes of $.50 each for the 

 best papers embodying original woi*k in soil physics. The right is reserved to 

 withhold both prizes if no worthy papers are submiltetl, or to combine the 

 prizes for the rewarding of a paper of exceptional merit. The conditions gov- 

 erning the award will be similar to those employed in connection with the 

 prizes offered in 1915 for papers on the water relations of plants. The contest 

 terminates December 1 and the announcement of the award will be made not 

 later than March 1, 1917. 



A tract of about 29.000 acres of land in eastern Idaho, near Spencer and ad- 

 joining the Targhee National Forest, was set aside by President Wilson. Octo- 

 ber 30, 1915, to be utiliztnl by the liureau of Animal Industry as the Uniteti 

 States Sheep Experiment Station, with general range studies in sheep raising on 

 a large scale. 



Dr. Hugo Fischer has been appointed acting head of the chemical and bac- 

 teriological department of the Kaiser Wilhelm Department for Agriculture at 

 Bromberg. 



Dr. Albert Stutzer, professor of agricultural chemistry at Konigsberg, is to 

 retire from active service with the present semester. 



Beginning with the present academic yearVassar College is offering courses 

 in horticulture and landscape gardening. 



