434 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Ft rtilizt r legislation. — The chairman of the committee, H. W. Wiley, 

 reported that considerable progress whs made during the year in the 

 duties assigned to the committee, and that the committee had agreed 

 upon the principles which it was believed should underlie interstate 

 traffic, but was not read} 7 to recommend legislation. The committee 

 was continued with instructions to consult various organizations 

 interested in the matter and to report at the next meeting. 



In this connection a paper, by R. E. Rose, was submitted in which 

 the following" question was discussed: What Variations from Maximum 

 Guaranteed Analysis and Fertilizers shall be Considered Adulterations 

 or Deficiencies? 



Testing chemical reagents. — The committee on testing chemical 

 reagents, L. F. Kebler, chairman, considered that the amount of infor- 

 mation at present available to the committee was insufficient to recom- 

 mend any action relative to the adoption of standards for the chemicals 

 so far investigated. Upon the recommendation of the committee the 

 work was ordered to be continued and extended to include 10 additional 

 chemicals which in the opinion of the committee may be considered 

 most important. The chairman exhibited a number of samples of 

 impure chemicals. 



Unification of terms for reporting analytical results. — R. J. Davidson, 

 chairman of the committee, reported that a statement had been pre- 

 pared on this subject by the committee and published and distributed 

 in pamphlet form by the Bureau of Chemistry, but that the committee 

 was not yet ready to make a final report. The committee w 7 as con- 

 tinued. 



Unification of soil methods. — L. L. Van Slyke, chairman of the 

 committee, reported that the only feasible plan for accomplishing the 

 desired results, in the opinion of the committee, was in the line of the 

 traditions established by the association, namely, .studying all proposed 

 methods by referees supplemented by individual work in laboratories, 

 the methods examined to stand or fall by the results reached. The 

 committee requested that it be discharged from further action, which 

 was done. 



Definition of "plant food." — H. W. Wiley, chairman of the com- 

 mittee, reported that during the year extensive correspondence had 

 been carried on with a similar committee representing the botanists of 

 the United States. No agreement was obtained between the two 

 committees. The committee of the association was of the opinion that 

 "plant food is a term which should be applied to bodies entering the 

 organism of the plant from without and taking part in its metabolic 

 activity, whether these bodies be organic or inorganic in character." 

 The committee recommended that further conference be had with the 

 botanists, and if no common ground for a definition be found that the 

 committee prepare a definition of plant food to be reported at the 

 next meeting. 



