NOTES. 



Alabama Canebrake Station. — Tlie station has leased for five years a tract 

 of 240 acres of adjoining land, wliicli it is planned to put into alfalfa as soon 

 as possible. Move work with hogs and dairy cattle is also contemplated. 



Illinois University and Station. — Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins, professor of agron- 

 omy, chief agronomist and chemist, and vice director of the station, died at 

 Gibraltar, October 6. He was returning to his country from a year's study 

 of means of restoring the exhausted soils of Greece, where his work and recom- 

 mendations are said to have made a profound impression. He had completed 

 ills report, and had been decorated by the King in grateful recognition of his 

 services. 



Dr. Hopkins was born in Minnesota July 22, 1866, and graduated from 

 the South Dakota College in 1890. He received the M. S. and Ph. D. de- 

 grees from Cornell University in 1894 and 1898, respectively, and had also 

 studied at Goettingen University. After short periods of service as assistant 

 chemist in South Dakota and New York, he went to the Illinois Station in 1894 

 as chemist. He was made professor of agronomy in 1900 and vice director of 

 the station in 1903. 



Dr. Hopkins' death marks the passing of an outstanding constructive force 

 in the application of science to the betterment of agricultural practice. He 

 translated the results of scientihc investigation into terms of agricultural 

 practice, and taught that permanent agriculture is the foundation of national 

 welfare with convincing power and profoimd and far-reaching effect. He 

 rendered an invaluable service in awakening the farmers of the Middle West 

 and elsewhere to the danger of continued overdraft on soil fertility. He looked 

 upon the soil as a legacy which, after supplying our present needs, should be 

 transmitted unimpaired, if not enhanced, in fertility and productiveness. To 

 this end he taught that the farmer should take frequent inventory of the soil 

 constituents and see to it that no one of these runs short of the amount re- 

 quired for nfaximum crops. He maintained that every farmer should be able 

 to answer affirmatively the question — Am I returning to the soil as much phos- 

 phorus or potassium as my crops remove, and am I abstracting from the at- 

 mosphere by my rotations enough nitrogen to restore the draft upon the land? 



The essential features of the system which he advocated for permanently 

 restoring and maintaining the fertility of ordinary Illinois soils were the full 

 use of the manure produced on the farm", the return of crop residues to the 

 land, the growing of leguminous crops in the rotation with sufficient frequency 

 to maintain the nitrogen supply of the soil, and the application of ground 

 limestone and raw rock phosphate. The direct application of potash was not 

 recommended except in special cases because in his judgment most Illinois 

 soils contain sufficient potash to supply maximum crops for many years. 



Dr. Hopkins was a fellow of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science and the recipient of other honors. He was the author of many 

 bulletins and articles, as well as several books, the most important of which 

 is Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture, published in 1910. 



Minnesota University and Station. — The total enrollment in the university 

 is over 7,000, with about 6.50 in the college of agriculture, forestry, and home 

 economics. The school of agriculture has registered fully 700, as compared 

 with 250 a year ago. 



599 



