EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XV. January, 1904. No. 5. 



The meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science brought together at St. Louis, during the closing week of the 

 year, nearly five hundred persons interested in various lines of scien- 

 tific inquiry. Although the attendance was smaller than last year, it 

 was a typical gathering of representatives of pure and applied science 

 as related to the heavens above and the earth beneath and, it should 

 be added, upon the earth, for agriculture was there, not in a single 

 section or afiiliated society, but in so man}- of the meetings as to be 

 much in evidence. It had the unusual distinction, for it, of a promi- 

 nent place in the presidential address, which was upon the subject of 

 Scientific Investigation and Progress. 



In considering what the world gains bj" scientific investigation, Dr. 

 Remsen emphasized the importance of investigations relating to the 

 problem of food suppl3\ Referring to Berthelot's dream of the syn- 

 thetic preparation of food from water and the carbonic acid of the 

 air, he concluded that *' although science is not likelj', within periods 

 that we may venture to think of, to do away with the necessity of cul- 

 tivating the soil, it is likely to teach us how to get more out of the soil 

 than we now do, and thus put us in a position to provide for the gen- 

 erations that are to follow us. And this carries with it the thought 

 that unless scientific investigation is kept up these coming generations 

 will not be provided for." 



That there is to be no abatement of this investigation was indicated 

 ^y the inauguration of two new societies whose fields are distinctly 

 agricultural, and by the programmes of the Society for the Promotion 

 of Agricultural Science and the Association of Economic Entomol- 

 ogists, as well as several sections of the association proper. The 

 American Breeders' Association, as it was finally decided to call the 

 new organization for plant and animal breeders, eft'ected an organiza- 

 tion of which the Honorable Secretary of Agriculture was chosen 

 president, which provides for two sections, for plant breeding and 

 animal breeding, respectivel3^ An interesting programme of papers 

 and discussions, relating for the most part to plant breeding, was 



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