NOTES. 699 



There was also a confei-ence on Education for Better Living in the Country 

 Home, wliich was led by Mrs. W. X. Hutt. of Nortli Carolina. Among other 

 topics of importance thai were discussed either at conferences or at meetings 

 of affiliated societies were the rural school and sanitation, the church and 

 country life, the high school and its relation to life, the school and civic im- 

 provement, and the education of the negro. 



Agriculture in the Common Schools of Ohio. — The General Assembly of Ohio 

 has passed a bill requiring that agriculture be taught in all the common schools 

 of that State except those in city school districts. This bill also provides for 

 dividing the State into four agricultural districts and the appointment by the 

 state commissioner of common schools of a superintendent of agricultural 

 education for each district. 



Agricultural School in Honduras. — Consul A. T. Haeberle, of Tegucigalpa, 

 announces that an agricultural school has been established in the Episcopal 

 Palace at Siguatepeque, under the direction of H. A. Owen, an American. The 

 municipality gave 130 acres, and 50 acres and buildings have been leased, mak- 

 ing altogether ISO acres at the disposal of the school. 



There will be on the farm a sufficient number of cattle and horses and the 

 boys will be taught to handle modern farm implements. Food stuffs will be 

 raised for the consumption of the school and experiments will be made with 

 different grasses and wheat. It is stated that a number of people in the United 

 States are interested in the school, and that several men of practical experience 

 have offered their services, among others a wealthy cattleman who intends to 

 send cattle for breeding purposes. 



A Special Agricultural Train in Mexico. — The Mexican Daily Herald announces 

 that Zeferiuo Dominguez, a well-known agricultural expert, is preparing a series 

 of lectures on the selection of seed corn, use of modern agricultural implements, 

 care of the soil, and best methods to use in dry farming, to be delivered this 

 spring and to extend over a period of six or seven weeks. A special agricul- 

 tural train will take him around the Republic and practically every city in the 

 country will be visited. 



Grenada Agricultural Department. — The Agricultural Islcws of Barbados states 

 that an agricultural board has been organized to direct the work of the local 

 department of agriculture in consultation with the Imperial Department of 

 Agriculture. G. G. Auchinleck has been appointed superintendent of agricul- 

 ture to succeed R. V. Anstead, who has resigned to take up agricultural woi'k 

 under the United Planters' Association of Southern India. The gardens have 

 been placed under the care of the agricultural instructor. 



Necrology. — Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff, professor of physical chemistry in 

 the University of Berlin, and member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 

 died March 1, 1911, at Steglitz, near Berlin, at the age of 58 years. 



Prof, van't Hoff made valuable contributions to science in various fields, but 

 especially in the field of physical chemistry. The crowning work of his career 

 was his studies on the formation of oceanic salt deposits, especially as exempli- 

 fied in the German potash deposits at Stassfurt. This work fully illustrated the 

 principles underlying the formation of these and similar deposits which are of 

 such vast industrial and agricultural importance. As stated by a writer in 

 Nature, the successful accomplishment of the researches formed " a fitting close 

 to a life of strenuous work and extraordinary scientific fertility." 



Xoel Bernard, professor of the faculty of science of Poitiers, died recently at 

 the age of 36 years. He is noted for his investigations relating to the germina- 

 tion of orchids and the symbiotic relation of fungi with the development of the 

 plants. Some of his papers have been noted previously (E. S. R., 14, p. 635; 

 22, p. 133). 



