892 EXPERIMENT STATION EECORD. 



and of inlet and outlet holes are greater. It was found that the separator 

 removed from cold milk all but from 0.12 to 0.18 per cent of the fat and also 

 cleaned the milk. Separation was continued for an hour without obstruction. 



List of farm building plans {Mississippi Agr. Col. Ext. Dept. [Circ], l'J16, 

 pp. 11, fig. 1). — A list of farm building plans furnished by the agricultural en- 

 gineering department of the Mississippi College to farmers of Mississippi is 

 given. 



Silos, D. KcoATES (Mississippi Agr. Col. Ext. Dept. Circ, pp. 7). — This circu- 

 lar discusses briefly the essential features of silos, especially the wooden and 

 concrete types. 



Refrigeration and its increasing importance for different purposes, W. 

 Aheens (Naturwusemchaften, 3 (1915), No. 37, pp. .'{77-483, figs. 9). — ^A dis- 

 cussion is given of the applicability and use of refrigeration for different pur- 

 poses, together with a description of refrigerating processes and apparatus 

 and their practical operation. 



Ice on the farm, W. L. Nelson (Missouri Bd. Agr. Mo. Bid., 13 (1915), Xo. 

 9, pp. 2-19, figs. 9). — ^This is a compilation of information regarding ice and 

 farm ice houses, much of which has been drawn from Farmers' Bulletin 623 

 of this Department (E. S. R., 32, p. 591). 



RTJRAL ECONOMICS. 



The settlement of public lajids in the United States, B. H. Hibbabd 

 (Internat. Inst. Agr. [Home], Intcrnot. Rev. Agr. Econ.. 7 (1916), No. 1, pp. 

 97-117). — ^The author treats of the settlement of public lands in the United 

 States beginning with the year 1783. 



He states that " one sorry effect of the great liberality of the land policies 

 by which settlement was encotiraged, and almost never restrained, was the 

 almost unbelievable rapidity of settlement of the western country. Population 

 and grain production doubled throughout the great grain States in periods of 

 about 20 years, and this at a time in the development when it meant the addi- 

 tion to the farm area of 50,000,000 or 60,000,000 acres of farm land and 

 6,000,000 or 8,000,000 of people per decade. The result was ruinously low 

 prices and a discouraged and restless farm people. . . . 



"At present what is needed is a plan by which the Government may admin- 

 ister the affairs of the land yet in its hands in such a manner as to result in 

 putting it into the hands of people who will use it for production instead of 

 exploitation. Likewise the state governments need land policies both with 

 respect to land which they still possess and laud which in private hands is 

 being used with a view to speculative gains to the present owner, resulting 

 in hardship to the man who actually imdertakes to turn a portion of it into a 

 farm." 



The nature of demand for agricultural products and some important con- 

 sequences, J. G. Thomi'son {Jdur. J'olit. F.ion.. J^ (/.''/<»). .Vo. ^, pp. 158-1S2). — 

 The author has divided commodities into two classes — elastic and inelastic. 

 He considers that the demand for a commodity is elastic when that commodity 

 is of such a nature that the demand is sensitive to price change or to a change 

 in the purchasing power of the prospective buyer. He has placed agricultural 

 products in the inelastic class, and states that with reference to food supplies 

 as a whole it is very evident that the demand is relatively inelastic. 



" With reference to any particular article of food In the consumption of 

 which there is no fixed custom or habit there may be a considerable measure 

 of elasticity of domand because of the i)(>ssibility of the substitution of one 

 article of food for another. But the consumption of one article of food in place 



